What Brent Brennan, Arizona players said after season-opening win over Hawaii

There’s no such thing as a perfect performance, but in beating Hawaii 40-6 on Saturday night it accomplished something for the first time in 15 years. The Wildcats had not recorded a victory by 30 or more points against an FBS opponent, while also holding them without a touchdown, since a 41-2 win at Toledo in 2010.

“When I think about this game tonight, the way I’m going to measure success is is Redline,” UA coach Brent Brennan said. “That’s defined simply in effort, execution and accountability. I think on the effort side, I think we played really hard. I think that was visible. Sure there were mistakes, but we played hard in all three phases.

“On the execution piece, I think we have a little bit of work to do. I’m excited to look at this film and go to work, and we’ll be accountable for where we want to be and on the level we want to be at. But at the end of the day, this is a win for our football team. This is a win for our fans. It was a great night in Arizona Stadium.”

Arizona had five sacks and forced five turnovers in the same game for the first time since 2016 and had four different players score a rushing touchdown for the first time since 2019.

Below is what Brennan, running back Quincy Craig—who ran for 125 yards and a TD—and defensive standouts Taye Brown and Tre Smith said after the victory:

Brennan on the run game: “I thought all three backs ran hard. Some of that stuff they had to create because everything, or a lot of what Hawaii does is they’re always kind of plugged in on your run game. They’re always trying to outnumber you in the run game. And so we knew that some of those runs, that our backs would be one on one with a linebacker or safety, and usually they’re gonna have to make a miss or break a tackle. And so I thought there was good physicality there, too. Like I said, it’s not perfect, but that’s okay. It’s game one.”

On Craig’s big game: “I don’t think Quincy’s success surprised any of us. I think even for you guys that have been at practice with some frequency, you’ve seen him really, really be dynamic running the football. He had an incredible week of practice. Really, really attacked the work and showed up on gameday. And that’s one of those examples where preparation leads to opportunity, and he made the most of it.”

On Ismail Mahdi not getting many touches: “We’ve got three good backs, and I promise you, by the end of the season we’re going to need them all. We needed them all tonight. I think the world oftentimes gets fixated on like, this one back. You get this one back the ball all the time. But that’s not been my experience in football, you always need more than one, because they take too much of a pounding. And as physical as they were running the ball tonight, you’re gonna need multiple guys. And so I thought when Ish got in there, he did a great job. He kind of banged his knee a couple weeks ago, and so he was coming back from that. So those other guys were getting the bulk of the reps leading up to game time. But I thought when we got in there, he showed some stuff, which is not surprising. We feel good about that running back room. I think those guys will be contributing in meaningful ways this season.”

On Noah Fifita: “I think he missed a couple throws. It didn’t look like timing. It just looked like he sailed two of them, the two down in the red zone, one on the wheel route to Sam Olson, and then looked like he floated a back post to (Tre) Spivey or (Isaiah) Mizell maybe. I think that will tighten up the more we play.”

On the receivers: “I think we have some room to grow there. We had a couple guys that were unavailable tonight who are impactful players at that position, but I think you also saw some guys do some stuff, you saw some freshmen get in there and mix it up and make some plays. The more people that we can get on the field, and the more confidence Noah has for distributing the football makes it harder to defend us. I think we can continue to develop there and continue to move football effectively throwing it.”

On the offensive execution: “I think we missed some opportunities in the red zone. We got that ball down there, I think at least twice, where a penalty could pushed us back and got us off, got us behind the chains, and we had to settle for a field goal.”

On Fifita’s vocal leadership: “He’s been great that way all season, those moments where we weren’t exactly right. The quarterback position, there’s a fine line, right? They can’t be a hard ass all the time. They gotta have some balance. They gotta know who they’re talking to. They might be able to talk to one player a certain way and another player a certain way. And Noah does a fantastic job of feeling that kind of vibe, that energy, and knowing the right way to get to people and to motivate them. And you see him doing that all the time on the sideline. You see him doing that out there on the field, the command he has out there.”

On the defense: “I think anytime you go 5-0 in the turnover battle, you’re going to be in great shape in that football game. And so that was outstanding. I love the way our defense backs were triggering and showing up physically. That’s that moment of recognition and exploding towards the football and then getting there with bad intentions. And I thought we saw some of that, which was fun.”

On the offensive line: “It was good at times, and I think it was inconsistent at times. It’s something that we obviously have had some work to do there. But I thought those guys showed up in a great way. coming in this season, we knew we wanted to be more effective running football, and Week 1 we end up running football the way we did against a pretty stour front that’s always plus-one in the run game, we feel good about that. So those guys are going to continue to grow, to continue to improve.”

On the defensive line: “We had 10 different players have a tackle for loss in the game, which is exciting.”

On the decision to hold guys out: “It’s case by case. Like with Rhino (Tapa’toutai), we wanted him to get kind of the reps of pregame and get through some of that. He’s still coming back from that injury. With Kris (Hutson), we knew that Kris’ injury is still on the mend, and so we weren’t going to push that. It’s really case by case.”

On Michael Salgado-Medina: “It was great to see him drill that 52-yarder, that was so exciting for him. This is his first time kicking field goals in a game, and I thought he did a great job. And he also did a nice job punting. I think we had one of those ones on the punt that I think we we got some work to do, we need to fix that on the protection piece, but otherwise I think he kicked the ball well.”

On Gavin Hunter intercepting a pass after some mistakes earlier in the drive: “He’s had a tremendous amount of growth in the last year, since the end of last season, and he’s a super hard worker. He’s a well-liked guy on the team. He’s a tough guy, he’s a physical guy, but to see him respond that way, that’s just been such a huge message with our team is responding. Because it wasn’t just a holding penalty. He got beat on the corner, on third and long two plays before that. So I thought he did a great job of responding. For him, that’s the most plays he’s ever played the game. So I’m sure there was a little bit of fatigue that settled in on that. But give him credit, he made that pick. It’s awesome to see him do it. Have good ball security.”

On Jeremiah Patterson as a punt returner: “He’s really playing with a lot of confidence. That position takes a lot of courage, and it was great. That first punt in the game, to see him explode like that, and bring that thing back to midfield, which led to points, was really exciting.”

On adjusting after tight end Tyler Powell was hurt on the first offensive play: “We didn’t make any adjustments. Tyler Powell, we don’t know anything about it yet, but we’re hopeful that we get good news there? But Sam Olson has played a lot of football, right? And so has Cam Barmore. He’s had a really nice camp. I’ve really been impressed with him over the training camp. The Cam that we had in spring, versus the cam we had here in training camp, were two totally different people. He really embraced the physical side of it. I’m excited to see how he progresses over the next few weeks. And then also, I’m optimistic that Keyan Burnett will be available soon.”

Craig on his 54-yard TD run: “Our O-line’s been opening up holes. We practiced that play all week. Once I saw that open up I was like, I have to go in there.”

On the run game: “I think the running backs performed great. We all found our way to the end zone, which is, which is absolutely exciting. We all bring great versatility. I think it’s very good that … we’re so interchangeable.”

On the importance of establishing the run: “Establishing the running game is definitely a big part of football. If you’re able to do that, it opens up some passes. That opens up a lot of things.”

On the offense overall: “I think we should have put up at least 60.”

Brown on the hard hitters in the secondary: “The secondary was definitely coming up, flying out there, hitting people. Coach G has talked about that, just flying and not stopping your feet.”

On the last time he had an interception: “In a game, in high school. It’s definitely exciting out here playing football, just sticking to the scheme that Coach G has for us.”

Smith on the physicality of the defense: “It’s a huge emphasis in practice and even in pregrame. I don’t know if you guys saw that but we were launching at dummies.”

On getting 5 takeaways: “It’s huge. Something that I would say not everyone thinks about in the game of football is the battle of momentum, and how that can change the game. So just stacking responses.”