Arizona Football Talk: Breaking Down the Wildcats’ Running Game

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 prospective sports there will be moments where he will take a deep dive into the Cats excelling outside of Tucson.

Friday night in Tucson was a Wildcats brawl as Arizona (3-0, 1-0) faced off against Kansas State in the final non-conference game of the regular season. UA started hot, jumping out to an impressive 17-3 lead over KSU, but a few missed field goals and holding calls caused the team some points right before half.

Despite the great first half, Arizona saw its lead vanish fast with KSU (1-3, 0-2) breaking off a 75-yard touchdown run and then scoring another touchdown after a blocked punt. From that point on, it was a defensive grinder with UA prevailing 23-17 over Kansas State.

One of the most important drives of the game came in the fourth quarter with just over 12 minutes when UA marched 58 yards downfield, eating up 7:30 of the clock on 14 plays, but had to settle for a 41-yard field goal by Michael Salgado-Medina to put the team up by six points.

One of the major aspects of the Wildcats’ win over KSU was the rushing attack of running back Ismail Mahdi and quarterback Noah Fifita were able to put together to help secure UA’s 6-point victory.

Against Kasnas State, Arizona controlled the line of scrimmage by racking up 235 yards rushing on 43 carries. Leading the charge for the Wildcats was Mahdi, who totaled 189 yards while averaging 8.6 yards per rushing attempt.

Meanwhile, Fifita was able to find the end zone twice with his legs. Fifita managed to rush for 48 yards on 15 rushing attempts.

Not only was Mahdi a monster in the running game, he was able to make KSU pay through the air and racked up 32 yards on two catches and helping convert a massive third down in the second half of the game.

Overall Mahdi ended the game with 221 total yards outgaining KSU as a team, which finished with 193 on the night.

Thanks to the amazing night by Mahdi, not only did Arizona walk away with the victory, but he also won Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week.

Now, Mahdi has been given another honor by being named the Earl Campbell Honorable Mention Player of the Week.

Plus, Mahdi received national recognition from On3 with transfer portal reporter Pete Nakos placing him at No.9 for the most impactful week by transfer players.

So far this season, Arizona has had two running backs go over 100 yards in the game and as a team they have eclipsed the 100-yard mark twice in three games.

Doege was regarded as an Air Raid offensive mind but has seen the running game play a massive part of the team’s offensive attack.

The Wildcats will finish up this bye week and start preparing for No. 12 Iowa State in the first official conference game of the season.