Arizona Football Talk: Arizona vs. Hawaii

Hutchison has been covering Arizona for the last seven years, with his coverage spanning all across UA’s campus from football and men’s basketball to Title IX sports. Plus, with so many former Wildcats playing at the next level in their respective sports, there will be moments where he will take a deep dive into the Cats' excelling outside of Tucson.

The long offseason finally came to an end and the Wildcats’ were back in action, looking to start the season on a high note and wash away the memories of the underwhelming 4-8 season in the first year of Brent Brennan as head coach.

After many chances to the coaching staff with the hirings of Seth Doege (offensive coordinator), Danny Gonzales (defensive coordinator), Josh Miller (tight ends coach), Josh Bringuel (linebackers coach), Joe Salave’a (defensive line coach) and Craig Naiver (special teams coach), the Wildcats were looking to see how the changes were going to play out on the field.

After a first drive stop of Hawaii and forcing them to go 3-and-out, Arizona’s offense directed by Doege went to work and put together a balanced 4-play drive that was capped off by a 13-yard rushing touchdown from running back Kedrick Reescano.

From that point on, it was all Arizona as both sides of the ball were clicking and setting the tone early in the game. The Wildcats were able to take care of business in an impressive 40-6 win over the Rainbow Warriors 

The energy that Gonzales’ unit brought was something that really wasn’t seen last season. Defenders were flying to the ball and making things difficult on the Hawaii offensive line.

Arizona was able to have its way with the offensive line and got into the backfield and recorded five sacks and 10 tackles for loss. In comparison the Wildcats totaled 28 sacks during the 12-game season averaging 2.3 per game.

As a team, the defensive had five players get in on the sack party.

Offensively, the Wildcats were led by quarterback Noah Fifita, who was coming off an underwhelming 2024 season. Against Hawaii, Fifita was able to get on track, tossing for 161 yards on 13 of 23 and recorded a touchdown pass.

Although there was some passing success for the Wildcats with Fifita finding eight different targets on the night, it was the running game that took control for Arizona.

The Wildcats saw their top three running backs go off for 199 yards on 23 rushing attempts and logged a touchdown each. Overall, Arizona finished with 183 yards on the ground and it was RB Quincy Craig, who led the way with his 125 yards and a touchdown run of 55 yards on just seven touches.

The offensive line was highly successful in the running game and allowed just two sacks against the Hawaii defensive unit.

In comparison, Fifita was sacked 28 times last season. So, if the Wildcats line holds the two per game number, that would be four less than the 2024 season.

Not only did the Wildcats cause issues in the backfield for Hawaii, they were able to create chaos on the field and came up with five turnovers and five different players in Jack Luttrell, Chase Kennedy, Taye Brown, Julian Savaiinaea and Gavin Hunter getting their hands on the ball.

Still, the offense had its issues in the passing game with miss chances at completions and some defensive lapses that led to a couple of chunk plays for Hawaii.

However, when you are able to walk away with a 34-point season opening win, it was a good day for the program.