It had been more than two months since Arizona had won a football game on its home field and nearly seven weeks since it had won anywhere. But the team hadn’t forgot how to celebrate in the locker room, as evidenced by Brent Brennan coming into his postgame press conference after Friday’s 27-3 victory over Houston with a water-soaked hoodie.
“The locker room is just electric,” Brennan said. “This thing is never about me. It’s about those kids, and it’s about seeing them smile and hug each other and dance and jump around and throw water. I’m just happy for them, just to see that excitement again on their faces, that hope on their faces, is just really special.”
Arizona snapped a 5-game losing streak and remained alive to make a bowl game, needing to win its final three games to get to 6-6. Now it’s the last two contests, starting with the road finale Nov. 23 at TCU.
“We were super focused on just getting one, like we had to get one,” Brennan said. “And now we get to enjoy this for 24 hours then it’s on to the next.”
Our game recap can be found here. Below is what Brennan, running back Quali Conley, kicker Tyler Loop and defensive back Genesis Smith said afterward:
Brennan on Arizona’s defense: “I thought our defense was lights out. You hold a team to three points, force multiple turnovers, you force multiple 4-and-outs, turnover on downs. That was just outstanding.”
On the offense: “It was good to see us find some rhythm and move the football consistently. I thought that was encouraging. Joey Capra stepped in there at right tackle, did a great job. And obviously there’s going to be stuff that he can fix. But he was a player that joined us August 5th, and so I thought that was awesome, how he just played such a prominent role in this game tonight.”
On if the win takes a weight of his shoulders: “I think anytime you go through a hard time like that, it’s just how quickly can you get to the next opportunity to have a chance to prove yourself. And I thought our players responded great tonight, after the challenge of just how frustrated we were coming out of the UCF game and just the way the team responded in practice. I think that just gets lost. Everybody says we have to practice hard, and blah blah blah, and you guys get sick of me saying that, and I get that, but the reality is, the only way to get better is by practicing harm and doing the things that matter in the practice environment, and bringing the right energy and the intention to practice environment. And that’s what they did all the last two weeks.”
On Genesis Smith: “I think we all just continue to see Genesis grow and develop as a really good player. Obviously, some of that is he’s kind of thrust in some action by some of the injuries that we had early on. All of a sudden he’s playing more and more and more and more, but he continues to find the football. He continues to make plays behind the line of scrimmage. He’s a guy that we absolutely depend on. He is one of the most engaging and like energetic young people I’ve ever been around on the football field. Like, just watching him in practice, or watching him on game today, his energy is contagious. It’s awesome.”
On Quali Conley: “Quali is a player that we’ve we’ve handed the ball to a lot of times in the last two years, and he had never fumbled before the first one, and then he fumbled the next game. For him to be detailed about the ball security, obviously that’s something that we hammered a lot of the fundamental work we did during the bye week. But it was great to see it pay off tonight. It’s great to see that counter play pop and see him house it was, was really exciting, because we haven’t got out in the run game like that.”
On having so many defenders up near the line of scrimmage: “The pressure of it, and being able to get to the quarterback, just trying to change up the rhythm and the timing of the pass game was obviously effective. It’s all good when it works. We spend, 16 to 20 hours a day drawing up plays and ideas that we think will give us a chance to play good football or attack our opponent. And when it doesn’t work, you’re like, I thought that was a good idea. But tonight, we had good gap integrity. And then I thought our guys just played incredibly hard. And that was, like, the one thing I said coming out of this game, it needs to look like on tape that we’re playing harder than them That’s it. That was the only standard I gave the team, that we need to play harder for our opponent.”
On going 10 of 17 on 3rd down: “I think Coach Adkins and the staff had some really good calls. And then I thought, when we had to run the ball some of these 3rd and shorts, we found a way. We had some hard runs in there. A couple times, Noah (Fifita) was able to get a scramble, get us a first down when the protection broke down, or when nobody was open, or they called a good defense for what we called and then Noah found his way to the first down. I think obviously when Noah gets off schedule, he can do some stuff, it’s really exciting.”
On being motivated by the blowout loss to UCF: “I think the UCF thing, they just got after us. And I think anytime you get a beat like that, it’s an opportunity for you to really look at yourself—the bye week obviously helped—and for the players to all look at themselves and go, what can I do better? As coaches, what can we do better? It gives us a chance to not have the scoreboard look that way. Lots of times when there’s a number like that in the game, people want to blame the defense. But as a coach, to me that’s a whole team score, because when that happens, that means the offense isn’t moving the ball effectively enough to offset some of that.”
On capitalizing on turnovers: “The turnovers and takeaways is something that we put such an emphasis on as a program. And in those previous six quarters, to not get any of those (opportunities), like all of those are just momentum plays, they just change the game. They might just change it temporarily, but it’s a huge moment in the game. I think the conversation all last two weeks, even our conversations today, pregame, before we left the hotel, was a lot about protecting the football and taking it away. Huge emphasis on that. It’s great to see that one of the things that you emphasize show up in the game.”
On Tyler Loop’s school-record 62-yard field goal: “Not of it is surprising to anybody that’s ever around Tyler. He’s an incredibly hard-working young man. We were talking pregame, probably 20 minutes before kickoff, I felt the wind in there, and I said, how are you hitting the ball? He’s like, I’m hitting it really straight. I gotta work really hard on trying to eliminate that draw and be able to pound it down Main Street. And I said, well, multiple times you told me that you don’t have to be a great kicker, you have to be a great adjuster. I think when you have that kind of attention to detail, and you have that mindset that like, no I can fix this, if I’m making the proper adjustments as I’m going, then you end up with an incredibly high-caliber player.”
Conley on bouncing back from back-to-back games with fumbles: “Fumbles are part of the game. Although I had two, in back-to-back games, I just felt like ball security was the main focus in this game to get my confidence back.”
On staying alive for a bowl game: “We’ll focus on TCU, then ASU. Right now our focus is on TCU.”
Loop on changing his approach: “That’s something this past week that I’ve been working on, just wanting to hit it straighter, a more clean, rotating ball, cuts the wind well. That’s something I’ve worked on for years. I’ve talked about it a lot, like kicking is about being, not being a perfect kicker, but being a perfect adjuster, being a good adjuster. I don’t think my confidence changed going in the game. Like, still felt good. Still was hitting a good ball. It’s pretty much the same ball just doesn’t draw as much, but it was fun this week, we drilled a lot just with our operation, and had some good team ups. And funny enough, the last field goal that I hit before game day was a 62-yarder in practice. So going out I was like, heck, yeah. Just did this two days ago.”
On dealing with a losing streak: “So I was here through the 2020 and 2021 season. And obviously it’s a completely, like it’s a different situation. But when you’re going on that, it’s very easy to let outside noise and that kind of doubt creep in. And something that this team has harped on and been really hammering down on the past couple weeks, even through the losses, was we talk about our brotherhood. That’s something that is really special about this team, how the guys love each other, they’re here for each other. And so to come out and see the fruits of that, especially coming off the bye week, we worked really hard. We got after it in the weight room, got after it on practice field, and spent a lot of time together, seeing the fruits of that is really special. It helps you kind of readjust your target to go after the next game. We talked about it. It’s one game at a time. We have our first plan is Houston, now it’s on to TCU.”
Smith on his fumble recovery: “All week, Coach Akina was saying the ball is gonna start bouncing our way. So I felt like it did at that drive. Great job by the D-line, just getting on the ball and hitting it out.”
On his interception: “I was on the quarterback’s eyes, so I was just looking to where he was throwing.”
On the heavy blitz package: “It was just something new that we added in. It was a new look that we added this week.”