Arizona Wildcats cruise to season-opening victory over NAU

Saturday night was a light show for the Wildcats, especially in the first half, with Arizona starting Year 3 of the Brent Brennan era with a 35-7 win over Northern Arizona.

Arizona has won five straight season openers since 2022 and is 3-0 in season openers under Brennan. Arizona has outscored its opponents 136-52 in season openers under Brennan.

“We showed up ready to play,” Brennan said after Arizona’s season opener. “Our guys wer excited. I thought our coaching staff did a fantastic job preparing them to play. … There’s a lot to be excited about from that.”

The Wildcats had 520 yards of total offense to NAU’s 193 yards, albeit Lumberjacks quarterback Ty Pennington had a gritty first half with multiple first-down throws. Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita completed 22 of 29 passes (76%) for 262 yards and two touchdowns.

NAU had -7 rushing yards, the fewest rushing yards allowed by Arizona since facing Stanford in 2006.

“Any time you don’t allow any points from your opponent and you hold them to negative rushing yards, that’s a hell of a day,” Brennan said. “Plain and simple.”

Turning point

NAU’s second possession of the game, a nine-play drive that took over five minutes, ended on an incomplete pass from Pennington to running Quran Gossett on fourth-and-2 on the UA 43-yard line. Arizona edge rusher Dominic Lolesio pressured Pennington, who didn’t throw his first incompletetion until the fourth-down play that resulted in a turnover on downs.

NAU had five scoreless drives end in Arizona territory — three turnover on downs. After the first fourth-down stop, the Wildcats had two straight touchdown drives. Three of Arizona’s first four drives in the first half resulted in touchdowns.

Fifita’s first touchdown of the game was a 20-yard throw to the back-left corner of the end zone to wide receiver Tre Spivey, who had four catches for 45 yards and a touchdown. Arizona’s two touchdowns after the turnover on downs were a 21-yard throw to third-year wide receiver Brandon Phelps, who emerged in training camp after overcoming a leg injury in the spring. It marked Phelps’ second career touchdown at Arizona.

After Fifita’s 11-yard rush was ruled at the 1-yard line, UA running back Kedrick Reescano punched in for a 1-yard touchdown.

In addition to NAU’s two turnover on downs, the Lumberjacks also had four three-and-out drives. Pennington threw an interception to former walk-on safety Quinn Olson, who was put on scholarship days before making his first start.

The Wildcats pitched a shutout through the first three quarters before backup quarterback Sawyer Anderson threw a pick-six on his first-ever pass attempt as a college quarterback. NAU safety Noble Young-Blackgoat returned the interception 36 yards for the Lumberjacks’ only points of the night. Arizona scored 35 straight points before NAU’s pick-six.

Offensive MVP

Fifita had one of his most efficient games as a Wildcat, completing 76% of his passes. Saturday night was Fifita’s best completion percentage since his 92.3% completion rate against Houston last season.

Including Saturday night, Fifita has six games with a completion rate better than 75% (with a minimum of 10 pass attempts).

In the first three drives, Fifita was 11 for 13 passing for 152 yards and two touchdowns. Fifita completed 13 consecutive passes in the first half, which marked a personal best for the fifth-year quarterback. Fifita was 4 for 6 passing to start, but Spivey dropped his first attempt over the middle and wide receiver Chris Hunter’s catch out of bounds, despite dragging his foot inbounds, was upheld.

Fifita’s performance moved him ahead of Willie Tuitama for the second-most passing yards by an Arizona quarterback.

“Noah Fifita is such a good player and he’s so efficient,” Brennan said. “You saw that on the deep ball to Spivey. It was an incredible throw. It’s as good of a throw as you can make. Spivey made a great play, but it was in the perfect place for that. We have incredibly high expectations for Noah, but so does Noah. Nothing he does surprises us. We expect for that high-level of consistency to continue.”

Defensive MVP

Arizona linebacker Taye Brown had 11 tackles and a pass breakup — 10 of his tackles were in the first half. It’s the most tackles for Brown since his 14-tackle performance against BYU last season.

Brown led Arizona’s starting linebacker corps in tackles. Fifth-year linebacker Chase Kennedy and Georgetown transfer Cooper Blomstrom combined for 14 tackles, 2.5 sacks and four tackles for loss. Kennedy, who had four sacks all of last season, had 2.5 sacks on Saturday.

Unsung hero

After scoring seven red-zone touchdowns last season, Reescano had two on Saturday. Both of Reescano’s rushing touchdowns were courtesy of Arizona’s jumbo package with two additional offensive linemen — Javian Goo and San Jose State transfer tackle Nathan Hale — lined up as tight ends.

“The O-Line, they’re moving stuff up there,” Reescano said.

It’s the second multi-touchdown performance of Reescano’s career. Reescano also had multiple blitz pickups in the backfield, including Fifita’s touchdown pass to Spivey.

“Don’t let them touch uno (Fifita),” Reescano said after the game .

The Wildcats had 204 rushing yards, the first time Arizona had 200-plus rushing yards since the Colorado game last season. Marshall transfer running back Antwan Roberts, on his first rush attempt as a Wildcat, scored a 14-yard rushing touchdown.

Availability report

Multiple Wildcats were unavailable on Saturday, including linebacker Max Harris, running back Ismail Mahdi, Oregon transfer defensive back Daylen Austin, Memphis transfer linebacker Everett Roussaw, running back Cornelius Warren III, defensive tackle Ezra Funa and defensve back Dajon Hinton, who suffered a leg injury in the Holiday Bowl last season.

Harris and Mahdi are awaiting their eligibility status after filing for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the NCAA, which could allow them to play for the Wildcats as “five-for-five” players this season.

What’s next

Arizona (1-0) will face 14th-ranked BYU (1-0) for the Big 12 opener at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. on Fox. The Wildcats are 12-14-1 in the all-time series against BYU. Arizona has lost five straight games to BYU since beating the Cougars in the 2008 Las Vegas Bowl, including last season’s double-overtime thriller in Tucson.

Arizona lost to BYU, 41-19, in Provo in 2024. The Cougars routed Utah Tech, 63-7, on Saturday.

Reescano said the loss to BYU last season “left a sour feeling.”

“It still gets to a lot of us. Losing that game last year was one of the hardest things we went through as a team, I think,” Reescano said. “Being able to get another opportunity at them, a lot of us have been preparing for this moment.”