Wildcats still looking for answers amid Big 12 chaos

The Arizona Wildcats are 3-2 after five games, which isn’t great, isn’t yet a disaster, but something just ain’t quite right.

What exactly are the Wildcats good at in 2024?

The NCAA tracks 25 statistical categories across the nation, and Arizona ranks higher than 31st in only one – fourth-down conversion defense. (Listed by player, not team, would be field goals per game, in which Tyler Loop is tied for first at 2.4.)

The Wildcats’ expected go-go offense has gone up and went, ranking 85th nationally in scoring. Did not see that coming. At all.

After a mistake-filled 28-22 loss to Texas Tech late Saturday night, Wildcats coach Brent Brennan talked about maybe his offense having “too much scheme.” He talked about guys going “the wrong way” on some calls.

“That’s coaching,” he said.

It’s still early, but not that early, and the margin of error is none in this league.

These are the top spots in the Big 12 standings:

• Texas Tech: 3-0
• BYU: 2-0
• Colorado: 2-0
• West Virginia: 2-0
• Iowa State: 2-0

This is the bottom of the Big 12 standings:

• Oklahoma State: 0-3
• Kansas: 0-3
• Baylor: 0-3

Did not see that coming. At all.

Up is down, down is up … and your Arizona Wildcats – as well as the school up north — are in the middle at 1-1.

It’s chaos.

The Big 12 might be – well, it is — the most tightly-packed major conference I’ve ever seen, top to bottom, nobody going to run away with it, no week in which a team knows before kickoff it is going to dunk on its opponent that day.

Which means this whole league is not about steamrolling foes due to superior talent; it’s about how you play that day.

Which brings us back to the Wildcats and that mess of a loss to the Red Raiders.

Brennan said he repeated one of the old Dick Tomey-isms this week to his team, which was coming off what seemed to be a season-altering victory at Utah in its Big 12 debut.

“The better team doesn’t win on game day. It’s the team that plays the best that day,” Brennan said. “And those guys played better than us for four quarters. We were in it, and we were playing better football for most of the second half, but in the last five minutes of the game we didn’t.”

Wildcats vs. Texas Tech: Massive missed opportunities

The Wildcats squandered whatever advantage they had in the Big 12 after winning at Utah by coughing up an oh-so-winnable game against the Red Raiders.

“There’s a lot of good moments in that game,” Brennan said. “We had every opportunity to finish it.”

The finish? Let’s start with the first half:

• Noah Fifita overshot an open receiver in the end zone on a flea-flicker in the first quarter.
• Quali Conley was stuffed on fourth-and-1 at the Texas Tech 20 in the second quarter.
• Fifita was intercepted twice, including in the end zone late in the first half, and then Texas Tech, with the help of a 57-yard pass, got in position to kick a 30-yard field goal on the last play of the half for an 18-3 lead.

Brennan was asked after the game about his team’s inability to finish drives, attempting six field goals (Tyler Loop made five).

“I think there were a couple of missed throws there. I think we had a little bit of issue with protection. I think everybody on the field had a piece of that, and everybody on the sideline, too. Me, play-callers, all of us. That was a collective, and absolutely not close to good enough,” Brennan said.

The defense was stellar for much of the second half, coming up with two turnovers, but, at the most critical time, it allowed Texas Tech’s longest drive after halftime, resulting in a 41-yard field goal, as the Red Raiders took back the lead at 21-19 with 2:21 to go.

On the next play from scrimmage, Tetairoa McMillan lost a fumble, and the Red Raiders padded their lead with a 32-yard touchdown run by Tahj Brooks.

Brennan dropped the “we have a lot of work to do” line after the game, so he got that right.

The Wildcats’ next three games are at BYU, vs. Colorado and vs. West Virginia, teams that are a collective 6-0 in the conference. Then comes a harrowing cross-country game at UCF in its annual Space Game, which has been sold out since the summer.

I have no idea what will happen next – college football is chaos – but the Wildcats have time to hit some recovery shots in a league in which no one is likely to run away from the others.

But they better get good at some things really quickly.

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Top photo: Arizona Wildcats defensive back Dalton Johnson (43) celebrates a turnover with the team during the third quarter. (Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images)