Helmet Stickers: Arizona vs. KSU

Arizona could’ve had a more productive day on the offensive side of the ball, but penalties hurt the Wildcats’ offense with the team collecting 7 flags for 56 yards with most of the issues coming on the offensive line with holding calls.

Not only did Fifita put up 48 yards on the ground, he was able to go 16 of 33 totaling 178 passing yards. Again, holding calls caused that number to be lower than it was and took a touchdown pass off the board for the team.

Outside of the 75-yard rushing touchdown by KSU, Arizona’s defense controlled the line of scrimmage and had a dominating performance holding Kansas State to 105 yards on 24 carries.

Meanwhile, the secondary was lights out for Arizona and held quarterback Avery Johnson to 88 yards while going 12 of 29 on his passing attempts. Plus, Johnson wasn’t able to get his wheels going and was forced into (-16) yards rushing.

It was a 180-degree turnaround for the defense that struggled last season against Johnson who rushed for 110 yards and passed for 156 while scoring two touchdowns.

The change at defensive coordinator with Danny Gonzales taking over seems to be paying off for Arizona. Gonzales was able to mix things up all-game-long against KSU and put the opponent into situations where you knew exactly what they were going to do.

The final score of a 6-point win doesn’t show how much Arizona dominated this game.

When you take a deep dive into the stats, UA had 219 more yards of total offense, had 13 more first downs, ran 26 more plays and over 13 more minutes of time of possession.

It was the little things with penalties, a blocked punt and two missed field goals that managed to keep Kansas State in the game til the end.

So, has Arizona improved as a football team?

Yes, but Arizona will have room to grow by cleaning up the small details of the game if the Wildcats want to improve as a unit.

There were a lot of standout performances from the game but we at Arizona Wildcats On SI have put together out three helmet stickers of the game:

Helmet Stickers

Ismail Mahdi

• Arizona was able to control the offensive line of scrimmage all night long against Kansas State and leading the offensive charge was running back Ismail Mahdi, who set the tone for UA.

• Mahdi was able to get 22 carries where he went off for 189 yards averaging 8.6 yards per rushing attempt. Plus, he was able to get involved in the passing game by collecting two catches for 32 yards and managed 27 yards after the catch.

Noah Fifita

• Coming into the season, Fifita stated several times that he wanted to improve his ground game and start to use his legs more as an offensive threat. Against Kansas State, he was able to put up a career-high 48 yards on 15 rushes and found the end zone twice.

Defensive Front

• This helmet sticker goes the the whole defensive front and the job they did against Kansas State QB Avery Johnson by forcing him into (-16) rushing yards, which set the tone for the game.

• Arizona held KSU to 193 total offensive yards and held Kansas State to 105 rushing yards with 75 yards coming on one play to open up the second half.