Arizona Wildcats shut down Cincinnati 34-7 in the Big 12 home opener

It’s Arizona’s (4-1) first win in Big 12 play this season. Cincinnati (4-1) suffered its first setback of the season. The Wildcats are now two wins away from bowl eligibility with seven regular-season games remaining.

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan called Saturday “an awesome night” for a “process-driven team.”

“How dialed in are we on our process of improvement and development and I thought that showed up tonight,” Brennan said. “Tonight, I felt like you saw redline when you talk about effort and execution. It’s our standard and how we live and die and I thought you saw that in all three phases.”

Arizona shut down Cincinnati’s run game. The Bearcats finished with 74 rushing yards, the fewest since the Wasabi Fenway Bowl in 2022. Cincinnati was also a combined 8 for 19 on third- and fourth-down conversions. Arizona’s defense played “lights out considering what Cincinnati had been able to do prior to coming in here tonight,” Brennan said.

“We knew they wanted to run the ball,” Brennan said. “And we said no, we’re not going to do that tonight. ‘We’re not going to let you do that tonight.’ That’s just a commitment and a mentality from the defensive staff and the defensive players.”

It’s the fewest rushing yards Arizona has allowed since giving up 35 yards to Washington State in 2023.

“The game plan was to be physical and violent in everything we do — every movement, every slant and every blitz,” said linebacker Chase Kennedy, who had seven tackles and a stop for loss. “That’s all it was, honestly, and playing within the scheme. (Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales) always tells us that players make plays, so we tried to go out there and execute to the best of our abilities and be physical. That was the game plan.”

The Wildcats out-gained Cincinnati 522-227 and out-rushed the second-best rushing attack in the Big 12, 238-74. It’s the most rushing yards for Arizona this season and the most since rushing for 244 yards against UTEP in 2023.

It’s the most rushing yards for Arizona in a conference game since the 2022 Territorial Cup. Saturday was the most rushing yards for Arizona since joining the Big 12 in 2024.

Arizona running back Antwan Roberts led the Wildcats in rushing with 87 yards on five carries. Arizona senior running back Quincy Craig had seven carries for 77 yards.

Arizona avoided a sluggish start like the previous two games, albeit Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita was sacked on the first play from scrimmage for the third straight game.

Fifita completed 25 of 37 passes for 284 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Fifita’s first touchdown of the night was a 24-yard pass to third-year receiver Brandon Phelps on the right sideline. Phelps avoided a low tackle, swung his leg up, maintained balance and ran in for his second touchdown as a Wildcat — first since the season opener against NAU.

“I slipped through, made a play on the ball and made one miss and got a little touchdown,” Phelps said.

Fifita also threw a 5-yard touchdown to tight end Tyler Powell to go up 34-0. Fifita orchestrated an Arizona offense that had 30 first downs compared to Cincinnati’s 12.

The Bearcats had three three-and-outs, a missed field goal that thumped the upright, two turnover on downs and punted it five times. Cincinnati didn’t score until its final drive of the game.

Before the final drive, the closest Cincinnati came to scoring points — besides the missed field goal — was a fourth-down stop by Arizona on the UA 2-yard line. On a play-action pass, Cincinnati quarterback JC French IV’s pass to tight end Gavin Grover was broken up by safety Gavin Hunter, who dove on Grover to break up the pass.

The Bearcats are now 0-4 against Big 12 teams in the pacific and mountain time zones since 2024.

Turning point

Roberts raced down the left sideline for a 70-yard gain and was closing in on the longest touchdown run of the season for the Wildcats until Cincinnati cornerback Jacob Finley punched out the ball from behind, forcing a fumble that dribbled in the end zone, which was intentionally knocked out of the back of the end zone by Cincinnati linebacker Antwan Peek Jr.

Instead of a touchback for Cincinnati, Peek’s decision penalized the Bearcats and Arizona regained possession at the UC 6-yard line. A few plays later, on third-and-8, Fifita took the ball on a designed quarterback run, cut up the middle and scored a rushing touchdown. Arizona tight end Shane King pulled from the right side of the line of scrimmage to seal a defender and allow Fifita to run through the middle.

If Cincinnati recovered the fumble, the Bearcats would’ve had possession trailing 10-0, but Arizona grabbed a 17-0 lead.

“That’s going to be one of those painful lessons for Antwan about ball security in the open field,” Brennan said. “The amount of time and effort and energy we put into coaching, teaching, drilling ball security, he now goes on the ball security tape for how not to do it, because he’s out and it’s an incredible run and we got bailed out because the kid batted it out of the back of the end zone. … So we got bailed out by the decision of their player. For Antwan, it’s a really tough lesson. But also, not a bad result.”

After French was stopped a yard short of a first down on fourth-and-5 on the following possession, Arizona answered with a touchdown to Phelps.

Offensive MVP

Fifita averaged 9.6 yards per completion. Fifita has 86 career touchdowns at Arizona.

Defensive MVP

Arizona linebacker Taye Brown had a team-high seven tackles and two quarterback hurries.

Unsung hero

If Hunter didn’t have the pass breakup, Grover’s catch would’ve tied the game 7-7. Hunter “is one of those players that continues to show up and make plays.”

“That group, we’re playing a lot of players at safety and they all bring something different to the table,” Brennan said. “It’s a good thing, because it allows us to keep people fresh and play with the physicality that our defense demands. I love Gavin and he’s doing a great job.”

Availability report

Before the game, Arizona running back Ismail Mahdi and linebacker Max Harris were ruled ineligible by the Pima County Superior Court.

After filing for a temporary restraining order against the NCAA in the Pima County Superior Court via Ryan Downton of Texas Trial Group and Tucson-based Farhang and Medcoff, LLC, Judge Randi L. Burnett denied the order that would prohibit the NCAA from making them ineligible to compete this season. 

The preliminary ruling was made Friday evening, four days after Mahdi, Harris and several other “five-for-five” athletes were in a one-hour Order to Show Cause hearing at the Pima County Superior Court on Monday.

Arizona wide receiver Giovanni Richardson, who missed the last two games with a leg injury, returned to the starting lineup on Saturday, but left after the Wildcats’ opening drive with an injury.

Every member of Arizona’s starting receiving trio got injured on Saturday. Chris Hunter exited the game with an undisclosed leg injury, but wore a sleeve on his left knee. Tre Spivey, who’s Arizona’s leading receiver with 278 and four touchdowns, missed the second half with a broken foot and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

Arizona’s starting receiving trio in the second half was Phelps, R.J. Mosley and Isaiah Mizell.

Additionally, Arizona played its second game without starting tight end Cole Rusk, so the Wildcats were without three starting receivers and their starting tight end in the second half.

“Something we talked about throughout the week is being prepared, and knowing the plays” Phelps said. “There wasn’t any shock. (Arizona wide receivers coach Bobby Wade) came in and said, ‘We’re going to do exactly what we’re going to do and there’s going to be no humps.’ We went out there and scored right at the (start of the) second half. We’re all prepared and ready to go and it’s a next-man-up mentality.”

Fifita “didn’t flinch at all” when Arizona’s starting trio went out with injuries,” Phelps said.

“Noah has complete faith in every single person in our room down to the last guy,” Phelps added. “He knew what he was going to do and we knew what we were going to do and come out and play the second half and win this game. We had no doubt in our minds we were going to come out and execute exactly what we needed to do.”

Up next

The Wildcats (4-1) turn to their second Big 12 road game of the season against the West Virginia Mountaineers (3-2) in Morgantown Saturday morning at 9 a.m. on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max.

West Virginia is coming off a 45-42 shootout loss to Iowa State in Ames. After starting 3-0, West Virginia has lost two straight games to Oklahoma State and Iowa State.

It will be West Virginia’s first matchup with Arizona since hiring head coach Rich Rodriguez, who coached the Wildcats from 2012-17. It’s also Rodriguez’s first game against the Wildcats since he was fired following the 2017 season.

Rodriguez replaced the fired Mike Stoops and was hired by Arizona in 2012 and led the Wildcats to five postseason appearances and three bowl victories — and a Pac-12 South championship in 2014.

Rodriguez was fired by Arizona following the 2017 season, but quickly returned to the sidelines as an offensive coordinator at Ole Miss and head coach at Louisiana Monroe and Jacksonville State in Alabama.

Following a 27-10 record at Jacksonville State, along with West Virginia firing Neal Brown, the stars aligned for Rodriguez’s return to WVU last season, his first Power 4 head coaching gig since Arizona.

Arizona also has two players connected to West Virginia: wide receiver Rodney Gallagher III played three seasons for the Mountaineers, including last season under Rodriguez, and punter Chase Ridley was previously committed to WVU’s 2026 recruiting class.

The Mountaineers have a Tucson connection on their this season: former UA fullback and Canyon del Oro High School product Kayden Luke, who led the Dorados to a Class 4A state championship, is in his first season with the Mountaineers after two seasons with the Wildcats.

The Wildcats lost their only game against West Virginia, 31-26, in Tucson in 2024.

“Each week, we’re pushing and striving to improve,” Brennan said. “That is the goal when you're in season. For us, it’s about our process and redline. We’re going to enjoy this tonight and then we’re going to get back tomorrow on our process. That is one day at a time, one meeting at a time, one practice at a time, one rep at a time. That is where we live.”