Wildcats at midseason: Does the offense have a prayer?

The Arizona Wildcats are at the halfway point of the season, and it’s already time to start thinking of a Hail Mary.

You can rationalize a 3-3 start — playing on a Friday night at Kansas State is rough; just squandered so many chances against Texas Tech (it happens!), BYU is undefeated and better than expected — but if your eyes are telling you something isn’t quite right with these Wildcats, it’s hard to argue.

But what, exactly? And what the hell? Why us? Why now? This was supposed to be our year!

That’s where things get a little more tangled — because the ever-ready social media mob, pitchforks in hand, is primed to aim their fury at first-year coach Brent Brennan or anyone brave enough to steer the offense.

In a 41-19 loss Saturday at BYU, the Wildcats definitely didn’t play well enough to win, although it’s easy enough to point to four turnovers as the primary cause of death.

“I think coming in here, we knew that the turnover thing was going to be a big deal,” Brennan said.

“And, you know, that was something that we didn’t handle great. I think the turnover thing was a big deal. Especially coming out of halftime, to go back-to-back possessions with turnovers. I think that there were spurts where we played good football, but just not enough. You’re not going to come in here and beat a team like that when you don’t play as a team and you don’t protect the football.”

Turn the volume on the desperation up to 11 this Saturday night when Colorado comes to town for a Saturday afternoon homecoming game. There’s still time to connect on that Hail Mary and hit the afterburners in the back half of the schedule, not quite as daunting as the first half.

And yet that feels overly optimistic.

As I wrote last week, other than kicking field goals, what is Arizona good at?

The defense has been good enough, especially considering the Wildcats have been put in bad positions by all the turnovers by the offense and are without standout defensive backs Treydan Stukes and Gunner Maldonado for the rest of the season, had to go most of Saturday’s game without leader Jacob Manu (targeting) and lost cornerback Tacario Davis to an undisclosed injury late in the game.

Seems like everybody has an opinion on what is wrong with the offense.

Did the Wildcats, with new offensive coordinator Dino Babers, set up a bad offseason plan? Is the play-calling, first with Babers and then with passing game coordinator Matt Adkins for the past three games, just unimaginative and, well, bad? Why are receivers, halfway through the season, still running so many wrong routes, as Brennan keeps saying they are?

Coming off a 10-3 season in which Arizona averaged 34.6 points per game, the offense is just “not connected” as coaches like to say. The Wildcats haven’t scored more than 23 points in a game since hanging 61 on New Mexico in the opener. Gross.

That’s coaching, right?

What the Wildcats lost

I’m also coming around on the idea that the 2024 expectations were out of whack, too. This can be ineffective coaching AND personnel at the same time.

The Wildcats still have a wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (a potential top 10 pick in the NFL draft), a potential first-round right tackle in Jonah Savaiinaea and quarterback Noah Fifita, coming off a brilliant redshirt freshman season. But …

• The wide receiver room isn’t as good as last year because Jacob Cowing, the perfect complement to T-Mac who kept defenses honest, is now playing in the NFL. Tight end Tanner McLachlan is also in the NFL, but it’s Cowing’s loss that can’t be underestimated.
• The offensive line group isn’t as good after losing its anchor, left tackle Jordan Morgan, a first-round pick of the Green Bay Packers. And depth has been challenged with Raymond Pulido not playing this season and Leif Magnuson out while dealing with concussion symptoms.
• The running back room isn’t as good after losing two players to the NFL (Michael Wiley and D.J. Williams are on practice squads). And then leading back Jonah Coleman followed coach Jedd Fisch to Washington, and then expected No. 1 Jacory Crosskey-Merritt got caught up in an eligibility issue after the season-opener, and then Speedy Luke decided to redshirt after playing in four games. The Big 12 is packed with great backs, and the Wildcats, with Quali Conley leading the way, are … let’s call it “meh.”

With all that – and the coaching transition – things are desperate in a hurry around here.

Fifita has less time to throw, fewer open targets, can depend less on a complementary running game, and isn’t being helped by the play-calling. He has been intercepted nine times in six games. In each of the past four games, he has been picked off in the end zone or at the 1-yard line.

He’s trying to do way too much outside his comfort zone.

“It was just another week reiterating the same thing, so it’s starting to get old,” he said after the BYU game. “I have to fix a lot of things and get better individually. I mean, I’m just not even close to where I want to be individually, and we are not close to where we need to be offensively. It’s because of me.”

Bravo for Fifita trying to take the blame, but there’s plenty of that to go around.

So, what’s next?

I lean philosophical about these things because I’ve seen bad seasons turn good, good seasons turn bad, and you almost never see it coming. The Wildcats might have fumbled away the opening act of the season, but there’s still time for a Hail Mary of a twist ending.

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Top photo: Arizona Wildcats wide receiver Chris Hunter goes for a catch against BYU. (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)