Storylines, stats and quotes from Arizona’s win over Northern Illinois

In Arizona’s 42-17 win over Northern Illinois Saturday night at Casino Del Sol Stadium, Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita set the Wildcats’ career passing yards record, passing Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles, who set the record in 2011.

Fifita set the record with just over six minutes left in the game, completing a 7-yard pass to receiver Isaiah Mizell. Fifita also owns Arizona’s career passing touchdowns record, which he set last season, passing Foles. Fifita has the single-game passing yards record (527), which he set in the 2023 Territorial Cup.

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan called it “a special night for Noah Fifita.”

“We don’t go into the game saying, ‘We’re going to get him the record tonight,” Brennan said. “We’re focused on doing whatever we have to do to win the football game. … As a program, we owe him a chance for him to do that here (in Tucson).”

Mizell described the record-setting moment as “ecstasy.”

“I was just super happy for him,” Mizell added. “Straight up. I was just super happy for him. He’s so about his business, he wasn’t even worried about that going through the week. He really just wanted a W.”

Mission accomplished. And the win came with a new place in the Arizona record books.

Here are notable storylines, statistics, quotes and a look at what’s next for Arizona following the Wildcats’ second win of the season.

‘He was incredible’

After Fifita set the Arizona passing record, he was taken out of the game with the Wildcats ahead 42-10. The video board at Casino Del Sol Stadium played a congratulatory video sent in from Foles and Fifita high-fived Arizona coaches and players while walking off the field.

“What an incredible young man, how cool that was, having Nick Foles on the jumbotron, just celebrating that with him, becoming the all-time passing leader,” Brennan said.

Added Mizell: “We were all hype for him, because we know what type of person he is, the type of work he puts in. It was just a special moment. It doesn’t really get any bigger than that.”

Fifita ended Saturday night completing 31 of 34 passes for 325 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. On the same drive Fifita set Arizona’s passing yards record, he scored a 30-yard rushing touchdown — the second rushing touchdown of the season for the Arizona quarterback.

Fifita had one of his most efficient passing performances as a Wildcat, completing 91% of his passes, which bested Foles for the best single-game completion percentage with a minimum of 30 attempts. It’s Fifita’s second-best completion rate behind his performance at Houston last season, when he completed 24 of 26 passes (92.7%), which is also an Arizona record. Fifita completed his first eight passes and had a streak of 19 straight completions on Saturday.

“He was incredible,” Brennan said while looking at the stat sheet from Saturday. “How about that? How many games have you been a part of like that? That is my thing with Noah Fifita: the whole country should be talking about this kid, not just based on how he plays, but the choices he has made throughout his career here.

“That’s rare. So many other people have jumped ship and have taken the money and have gone somewhere different or looked for something new where the grass is greener. That guy stayed here and watered the grass here and made it into something truly special.”

Spreading the wealth

Fifita had four passing touchdowns to four different pass catchers. Wide receiver Chris Hunter scored on a 38-yard post. Arizona’s second touchdown was a 14-yard throw to Mizell, who scored his first-career touchdown.

Arizona wide receiver Tre Spivey scored his first touchdown of the season on a play-action pass in the second quarter. Spivey, despite smothering coverage, made an Odell Beckham-esque one-handed catch while falling down in the end zone. Spivey’s touchdown was No. 4 on “SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays” on ESPN.

“Any good quarterback-receiver relationship has some natural chemistry,” Brennan said. “They have thrown that ball 5,000 times in that stadium when no one is there. Now, I would like Tre to catch it with two hands, but it was an incredible play.”

Tight end Tyler Powell, who has spent the last year recovering from a season-ending knee injury he suffered on the first play from scrimmage in the season opener against Hawaii last season, caught his first-career touchdown at the UA in the third quarter — Fifita’s final touchdown pass of the night.

“I was so happy for him to get that touchdown,” Brennan said of Powell. “Just to see the smile on his face and how incredibly rewarding it must’ve been for him.”

Arizona out-gained the Huskies 441-341 in total yards. Arizona had 11 different pass catchers on Saturday — six receivers, three running backs and two tight ends. Spivey had a team-high six catches for 90 yards and a touchdown. Hunter was right behind Spivey with five catches for 73 yards and a touchdown, while Mizell had five catches for 49 yards and a touchdown.

Powell, wide receiver Brandon Phelps, tight end Cole Rusk and wide receiver Rodney Gallagher III had three receptions apiece for a combined 104 yards.

“I thought that was great,” Brennan said. “I felt like Noah was doing a great job of getting through his progression. We were getting a lot of pressure in the game, so we had to win one-on-one matchups and those guys did a great job of that.

“Spivey got hot early and you could see that momentum build. Same with Chris, he made some big plays. When we’re distributing the ball across the field to a bunch of different people, that makes us harder to defend.”

Responding and redlining

The Wildcats scored 42 straight points following a flat first quarter — a start that included Northern Illinois running the ball effectively and picking up three first downs on the opening drive, kicking a 38-yard field goal to go up 3-0 early.

Arizona’s first offensive possession was a three-and-out that included two sacks. The Wildcats surrendered four sacks to the Huskies.

“There was a ton of pressure,” Brennan said. “There was a ton of unique pressure and that’s obviously something we got to work on.”

Punter Chase Ridley’s only attempt was a 32-yarder out of bounds, setting up NIU’s second possession on the 48-yard line. NIU took a 10-0 lead following a 52-yard deep shot from quarterback Taron Dickens to Cam Thompson. Arizona cornerback Tyrese Boss, who stepped in for the injured Dwight Bootle II, broke down in coverage.

“The first two drives, we didn’t come ready to go and they came and attacked us,” said Arizona strong safety Lee Molette III. “(Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales) told us that we gotta be locked in from the jump and we can’t let a team like that have two good drives back-to-back, so he was on us, for sure. … We locked in and kept battling, redlining.”

NIU’s drive chart after the 10-0 start included two missed field goals, three straight punts, a turnover on downs and a last-second touchdown. Brennan said the biggest adjustment after NIU’s first two drives “was our overall physicality.”

“When we play with that edge and we play a physical brand of football that we’re capable, we’re tough to deal with,” Brennan said.

In addition to Fifita scoring five touchdowns, the Wildcats also had a special teams touchdown.

Arizona freshman receiver and punt returner Caleb “Jet” Smith split two defenders, broke one tackle and returned a punt 69 yards for a touchdown, the first touchdown of Smith’s Arizona career. The slot receiver from Allen, Texas, became the first Arizona player to return a punt for a touchdown since Shun Brown in 2017.

“I love the response,” Brennan said. “We need to start fast in all three phases, but I love the response. The big lesson for us tonight is how we respond matters. … Our defense was executing, our offense was executing and we had a huge momentum play on special teams. There’s a lot of good things there.”

Brennan said the Wildcats had four “overarching” points of emphasis after Arizona’s 28-17 loss to No. 15 BYU to begin Big 12 play: ball security, tackling, special teams and penalty avoidance.

Arizona didn’t fumble. However, Smith came close to muffing a punt attempt after scoring a touchdown.

Arizona had fewer missed tackles (seven) this week compared to last week at BYU, according to Pro Football Focus.

Arizona had a bright moment on special teams with Smith.

Arizona had four penalties for 50 yards compared to the seven last week — five of which were on the left side of the offensive line.

Check, check, check and check.

By the numbers

1: Number of takeaways Arizona has through three games. The Wildcats had eight takeaways through three games last season — 31 for the entire year. Arizona’s only takeaway of the season is an interception by Olson in the season opener against Northern Arizona.

2: Arizona backup quarterback Sawyer Anderson threw his second interception of the season.

4: Arizona players remaining from the 2022 recruiting class. Fifita, Hunter, Powell and backup center Grayson Stovall are the only Wildcats left from the UA’s loaded ‘22 recruiting class.

9: Snaps running back Ismail Mahdi played in his season debut on Saturday. Mahdi, who led the team in rushing last season, played his first snaps since successfully filing for a temporary restraining order against the NCAA as a five-for-five player. Mahdi had two carries for 9 yards. Arizona had 84 total rushing yards.

81.1%: Fifita’s completion percentage this season. Fifita has completed 77 of 95 passes for 834 yards, seven touchdowns and an interception. Fifita has the third-best completion percentage in college football behind Miami’s Darian Mensah and Georgia’s Gunner Stockton.

184: NIU had 157 yards of total offense. The Huskies had a total of 184 over the final three quarters.

10,017: Fifita’s career passing yards. Fifita and Foles are the only two UA quarterbacks with over 10,000 passing yards.

They said it

Brennan, on Arizona linebacker Cooper Blomstrom, who had a team-high 10 tackles: “Cooper plays his butt off. He is so fun to watch. It’s really cool. I think our defensive staff have done a really good job of evaluating players in the portal and those players are showing up for us. … When you talk about Cooper, he plays with a great level of physicality and redline and that’s exciting for us.”

Mizell, on scoring his first touchdown: “Before the play, (Arizona wide receivers coach Bobby Wade) told me, ‘The ball is coming to you. You’re probably going to score.’ My nerves obviously went up. I tried to stay relaxed when I caught the ball. I had the space when I ran in. I had the celebration planned and everything. I was very excited. I was excited to celebrate with my brothers.”

Foles, to Fifita in the video played at Casino Del Sol Stadium: “Congratulations on becoming Arizona’s all-time passing yards leader. I couldn’t be more proud of you. There’s still a lot more passing yards for you to throw and a lot more touchdowns to be had, so keep it rolling.”

Availability report

Arizona wide receiver Giovanni Richardson was held out for a lower-body injury, which he suffered in the first quarter of Arizona’s loss to BYU.

The Wildcats were also without linebacker Chase Kennedy and defensive linemen Mays Pese, Zac Siulepa and Ezra Funa. With Bootle out, the Wildcats were down three defensive starters on Saturday.

Second-year linebacker Myron Robinson started in place of Kennedy, with freshman Kaisi Lafitaga filling in for Pese and Boss replacing Bootle as Arizona’s starting cornerback opposite of Jay’Vion Cole.

“We’re hoping to get them back this week,” Brennan said of the injured starters.

Arizona free safety Quinn Olson and slot cornerback Daylen Austin also left the game, leaving more reps for Northern Colorado safety transfer Cam Chapa, who tied Boss for the third-most tackles (four) by a UA defender on Saturday.

“I thought Chapa showed up,” Brennan said. “Chapa showed up and you saw him trigger with violence and he knew exactly what he was doing. You saw him doing it with confidence and that was exciting.”

Brennan said “those opportunities are critical” for young players or non-starters. Arizona had 12 newcomers log defensive snaps against NIU — half of them were freshmen.

“Personally, I had those type of moments when I was younger as a freshman,” Molette said. “Getting your feet wet, seeing what the environment is like, the speed of the game, I feel like that would benefit them in the next year — next few years. … There’s certain things you’ll see in the game that are different from practice. I think that will benefit them a lot going forward.”

Arizona freshman defensive tackle Keytrin Harris’ sack on Dickens in the fourth quarter “was a great redline play,” Brennan said.

“You saw him chasing the quarterback, kept chasing and was able to get him down in the backfield,” Brennan added. “I thought that was outstanding.”

Arizona tight end Cole Rusk exited the game on Saturday with a leg injury.

Up next

Arizona (2-1) will face former Pac-12 foe Washington State (1-2) at Gesa Field in Pullman Saturday at 4:30 p.m. on CBS.

It’s the first game of the home-and-home series between the Wildcats and Cougars, with Washington State coming to Tucson in 2027.

Washington State was one of two teams to stay in the Pac-12 in 2024 despite conference realignment, along with the Oregon State Beavers.

Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah bolted for the Big 12 in the year of conference realignment, while USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon joined the Big Ten. Cal and Stanford left the “Conference of Champions” to compete in the ACC.

Arizona is 28-19 all-time against Washington State since the first contest in 1963.

The Wildcats won the previous contest, a 44-6 drubbing in Pullman, which kickstarted Arizona’s seven-game winning streak to end the 2023 season. Arizona’s last game against Washington State was also Fifita’s first win as Arizona’s starting quarterback.

Washington State dominated Duquesne, 48-7, in Pullman on Saturday. The Cougars had back-to-back punt returns for a touchdown.

The Wildcats are looking to end nonconference play with a winning record for the fifth consecutive season.

Arizona opened as a 12.5-point favorite to win on Saturday, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.