Grading Arizona football’s performance in Holiday Bowl

In a surprising season, Arizona finished out the season with an appearance in the Holiday Bowl. Well, maybe appearance is not the word because the Wildcats did not show up in the first half. However, a major fight gave the Wildcats a chance in the second half. 

In a 24-19  loss to SMU, Arizona finished the season at 9-4. It was a season that exceeded expectations, but ended in a nightmare.

Here are the grades for the offense, defense, special teams, and coaching from the Holiday Bowl loss:

Offense: D –

The first drive did not produce any points. Ismail Mahdi did have a 16 yard run and that was about it for the drive.

Mahdi had another long run for 19 yards on the second drive, but the offense stalled out.

It was not a good first quarter for the offense, punting three times it put a goose egg on the board to start the game.

While it seemed like the offense was finally finding its rhythm, the drive once again stalled out and the scoreless half from Arizona continued.

The poor first half dripped into the second half with the Wildcats still unable to find any offense.

It took almost until the fourth quarter, but the offense finally found the scoreboard. Noah Fifita threw a perfect lob pass to Javin Whatley who was streaking down the middle of the field for a 28 yard touchdown. The two point conversion was no good.

After the defense got its second turnover, the offense seemed to be in prime position to cut into the deficit. However, they were unsuccessful and turned it over on downs.

Fifita threw his second touchdown to Tre Spivey from 10 yards out on fourth down. A second two point conversion attempt failed.

When it needed to score the most, Fifita’s pass was tipped and taken away which took the air out of the comeback hopes.

With one final opportunity to try and win it, the offense scored one last time when Fifita found Cameron Barmore for a 15 yard touchdown.

Fifita finished 28-43 for 265 passing yards and three touchdowns. He also finished as the leading rusher with 73 yards on 13 carries. Barmore finished as the leading receiver with 61 yards on five catches.

Overall, the offense had 441 total yards with 265 through the air and 176 on the ground. The Wildcats were 8-16 on third down and 2-5 on fourth down.

Defense: D

It only took three plays for Arizona to let up the first touchdown of the game. After an 80 yard flea flicker, SMU ran it in from one yard out to put the first points on the scoreboard.

The defense forced a punt on the second drive. Riley Wilson and Gavin Hunter both had tackles for loss on the drive.

After more chunk plays of 31 and 21, SMU marched right back down into Arizona territory. With the help of a pass interference call on Devin Dunn, SMU ran it in for another rushing touchdown.

The horrendous start continued for the defense. SMU’s offense took complete command of the game with another rushing touchdown to go up 21-0.

To no one’s surprise, SMU continued its dominant half and marched right down the field. However, the defense held the Mustangs to just a field goal.

Michael Dansby had the first positive play for the defense when he secured an interception for the first turnover of the game.

The second turnover came off of a tipped ball and Riley Wilson was able to come down with it. Keeping Arizona in the game, the defense was able to force SMU into a three and out on the following drive. 

Wilson came up big again when he dropped back into coverage and picked the ball off for the third turnover of the night.

Another punt was forced to give the offense one last chance to score, but ultimately it was not enough to win.

Arizona gave up 392 yards, which mostly came in the first half. It did hold SMU to just 3-10 on third down, and forced three turnovers. 

Taye Brown and Ayden Garnes led with nine tackles each.

Special Teams: C

There was no real opportunity for the special teams unit to either help or hurt the Wildcats tonight.

Coaching: D

I’m not even sure where to begin. I guess we could start with the fact that Arizona had nearly a month to prepare for this game, and it seemed like it was playing its first game of the season for a majority of the game.

I get that there were key players that opted out, and they were a big part as to why the Arizona defense was so successful this season. However, there was no fight shown until it was too late.

Missed tackles, an inability to get to the quarterback, and just being pushed around almost the entire game. Credit to SMU, it went out and made the plays it needed to.

For the offense, it just seemed confused for most of the game. The biggest issue was the offensive line.

Once Ty Buchanan went down with an injury, the line had no chance against SMU. It was not able to protect Fifita long enough for him to make plays. That basically led to a one dimensional offense.

The playcalling did not make sense at points. It felt like many times it was just the wrong play for a certain situation, or it had the wrong personnel for the down and distance.

However, with all this being said. I do have to give credit where credit is due. I think it speaks volumes of where the program is at when down 24-0, the Wildcats did not just give up and start to look at next season.

They had 30 minutes to lay it all out there and Arizona did. Yes, it was still not enough, but it could’ve looked a lot uglier. 

Credit to the inexperienced players to not give up, and those who came in for injury. A big reason for the fight is due to who is wearing the headsets and are on the sidelines.

Brent Brennan, Seth Doege, and Danny Gonzales will have a lot of work to do this offseason to prove that this season was not a fluke, but a sign of where Arizona football is heading.