Breaking Down Arizona's Bowl Clinching Win Over Kansas

Now, Arizona faced off against Kansas (5-5, 3-4) with both teams being one win away from clinching a bowl berth. 

After falling behind 17-7, the Wildcats managed to outscore KU 17-3 the rest of the way to clinch a bowl berth for the first time under head coach Brent Brennan, and won 24-20 over the Jayhawks.

Now that Arizona has clinched a trip to a bowl game, this marks the 23rd time in program history that the Wildcats will be playing postseason football. It is the first bowl game since the 2023 season when Jedd Fisch led UA to the Alamo Bowl and finished 10-3 on the season.

The Wildcats were able to have some success on the ground, and quarterback Noah Fifita managed to go 16 of 31 on his passing attempts, where he totaled 158 yards and found the end zone two times.

The two passing touchdowns put Fifita in a three-way tie for No. 1 all-time in Arizona football history for passing touchdowns with 67, which includes a list of Willie Tuitama and Nick Foles.

The rushing attack had its moments, but with the team falling behind by 10 points, Seth Doege went away from rushing the ball. Still, Arizona managed to rush for 165 yards on 29 carries with running back Ismail Mahdi leading the team with his 61 yards on the ground.

Although the offense had its ups and downs with five sacks that killed a handful of drives, Fifita still managed to ride the wave and put together enough offense to get the job done and lock in the sixth win of the season.

Late in the fourth quarter, with the game under three minutes remaining, a missed 30-yard field goal by Kansas gave the Wildcats a shot in the arm and a chance to either tie or win the game on a final drive.

Throughout the season, Arizona’s offense has been one of the worst offensive units when it comes to third down conversions, converting at a 37% clip. 

Although the Wildcats struggled on third down, yet again by going 5 of 13, UA came up with a massive third down conversion late in the fourth quarter to keep the game-winning drive alive.

The rushing attack started slow, running back Quincy Craig had the biggest plays of the game with a 18-yard run to convert a third and three situation and then a 24-yard run to score the game winning touchdown.

Craig finished the game with three rushing attempts totaling 47 yards and scored the game-winning touchdown to seal a bowl berth for the Wildcats.

Not only did Craig have the two biggest runs of the game but he managed to get involved in the passing game with two catches for 13 yards and scored an 8-yard receiving touchdown.

Now, Arizona will hit the road to face Cincinnati (7-2, 5-1), which is coming off a bye-week and looking to get back on track after a 45-14 loss to the Utes. The Wildcats will have another early kick with a 10 a.m. (MST) start and the game being televised on FS1.