Arizona Football Talk: Standouts from Week 3 Victory
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Welcome! To another edition of the Arizona Wildcats Insiders Podcast featuring your host Troy Hutchison, who will be delivering a daily podcast discussing everything happening surrounding Arizona athletics, giving you an inside look at all the programs on campus.
Hutchison has been covering Arizona for the last seven years with his coverage spanning all-across UA’s campus from football and men’s basketball to Title IX sports. Plus, with so many former Wildcats playing at the next level in their prospective sports there will be moments where he will take a deep dive into the Cats excelling outside of Tucson.
Friday night in Tucson was a Wildcats brawl as Arizona (3-0, 1-0) faced off against Kansas State in the final non-conference game of the regular season. UA started off hot jumping out to an impressive 17-3 lead over KSU but a few missed field goals and holding calls caused the team some points right before half.
Despite the great first half, Arizona saw its lead vanish fast with KSU (1-3, 0-2) breaking off a 75-yard touchdown run and then scoring another touchdown after a blocked punt. From that point on, it was a defensive grinder with UA prevailing 23-17 over Kansas State.
One of the most important drives of the game came in the fourth quarter with just over 12 minutes when UA marched 58 yards downfield, eating up 7:30 of the clock on 14 plays, but had to settle for a 41-yard field goal by Michael Salgado-Medina to put the team up by six points.
Although it wasn’t pretty, Arizona controlled the line of scrimmage by racking up 235 yards rushing on 43 carries. Leading the charge for the Wildcats was running back Ismail Mahdi, who totaled 189 yards while averaging 8.6 yards per rushing attempt.
Although it was Mahdi who put up all the rushing yards, it was quarterback Noah Fifita who was able to find the end zone twice with his legs. Fifita managed to rush for 48 yards on 15 rushing attempts.
Arizona could’ve had a more productive day on the offensive side of the ball, but penalties hurt the Wildcats’ offense, with the team collecting 7 flags for 56 yards, with most of the issues coming on the offensive line with holding calls.
Not only did Fifita put up 48 yards on the ground, but he was able to go 16 of 33, totaling 178 passing yards. Again, holding calls caused that number to be lower than it was and took a touchdown pass off the board for the team.
Outside of the 75-yard rushing touchdown by KSU, Arizona’s defense controlled the line of scrimmage and had a dominating performance, holding Kansas State to 105 yards on 24 carries.
Meanwhile, the secondary was lights out for Arizona and held quarterback Avery Johnson to 88 yards while going 12 of 29 on his passing attempts. Plus, Johnson wasn’t able to get his wheels going and was forced into (-16) yards rushing.
It was a 180-degree turnaround for the defense that struggled last season against Johnson, who rushed for 110 yards and passed for 156 while scoring two touchdowns.
The change at defensive coordinator, with Danny Gonzales taking over, seems to be paying off for Arizona. Gonzales was able to mix things up all game long against KSU and put the opponent into situations where you knew exactly what they were going to do.
The final score of a 6-point win doesn’t show how much Arizona dominated this game.
When you take a deep dive into the stats, UA had 219 more yards of total offense, had 13 more first downs, ran 26 more plays and over 13 more minutes of time of possession.
It was the little things with penalties, a blocked punt and two missed field goals that managed to keep Kansas State in the game til the end.
So, has Arizona improved as a football team?
Yes, but Arizona will have room to grow by cleaning up the small details of the game if the Wildcats want to improve as a unit.
There were a lot of standout performances from the game but we at Arizona Wildcats On SI have put together out three helmet stickers of the game:
Helmet Stickers
Ismail Mahdi
Arizona was able to control the offensive line of scrimmage all night long against Kansas State and leading the offensive charge was running back Ismail Mahdi, who set the tone for UA.
Mahdi was able to get 22 carries, where he went off for 189 yards, averaging 8.6 yards per rushing attempt. Plus, he was able to get involved in the passing game by collecting two catches for 32yards and managed 27 yards after the catch.
Noah Fifita
Coming into the season, Fifita stated several times that he wanted to improve his ground game and start to use his legs more as an offensive threat. Against Kansas State, he was able to put up a career-high 48 yards on 15 rushes and found the end zone twice.
Defensive Front
This helmet sticker goes the the whole defensive front and the job they did against Kansas State QB AVery Johnson by forcing him into (-16) rushing yards, which set the tone for the game.
Arizona held KSU to 193 total offensive yards and held Kansas State to 105 rushing yards with 75 yards coming on one play to open up the second half.
Please be sure to share with us your thoughts on our three helmet sticker performances from the game. To do so, follow us on our X account by clicking on the link.
Troy Hutchison grew up attending Arizona athletic events, which gave him a unique perspective and knowledge of the athletic department's rich history. He attended UA and began covering the Wildcats in 2018. As the Arizona Wildcats Beat Writer on SI, he is set to deliver wall-to-wall coverage to give fans an in-depth perspective.
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