Arizona dropped its fifth straight game this past weekend to fall to 3-6 on the season and 1-5 in Big 12 play. As a result, the Wildcats will have to win three straight games to end the season to make a bowl game.

Here is what coach Brent Brennan had to say heading into the bye week for Arizona.

Opening Statement:

"This is an important bye week for us coming off a tough outing on Saturday. The disappointment and challenges of that. I love how our players showed up for our meetings today and for the lift. We definitley have work to do. We're going to practice this week. We are going to make corrections. We are going to go to work on what we saw in that game that wasn't executed right and continue to find ways to build skill and improve our football team. Like I said on Saturday night, I also give credit to the UCF staff. They did a good job and their team played better than we did on Saturday."

Q: What goes into the thought process of not playing Noah under center as much as he did last year?

Brennan: "I think some of that is getting him away from the line of scrimmage from the big bodies so he can see a little bit better sometimes. He is comfortable there and I think some of the challenges we've had with the offensive front have made some of that not as clean as it was a year ago."

Q: Is there stuff you're looking to replicate from the first bye week?

Brennan: "Yeah for our football team, I think it's critical that we attack practice and meetings like we did over our first bye week. I think that was really good. I think we spaced out the days off so that our team had a chance to recover a little bit, but really keep our foot on the gas pedal on the improvement of our football team. I didn't mention in my opening statement but also a critical piece of this bye week is our coaches are going all over the country recruiting. We've got to go find the next great Wildcat and do everything we can to keep our recruiting class intact and find the pieces that we know will make us better in the future."

Q: The most glaring aspect of the game on Saturday was the line of scrimmage. When you look at the film, what do you see and what is your message to those guys?

Brennan: "That's been a huge conversation Saturday night and yesterday and still ongoing today. I think on the offensive side of the ball, finding things that we can execute at a high level, that we can execute in our sleep where we can play with the proper physicality and give us a chance to move people and run the football effectively which we obviously didn't do on Saturday. That part of it, how can we gameplan that better, how can we put our players in better positions and also accelerate the growth and the improvement of the new players that are playing on the offensive line. As we looked at the film, we felt that our defensive line played well in that game. We missed tackles on the perimeter. With the bye week, it's going to give us a chance to return to some of the fundamental work that is hard to do 10 weeks into the season."

Q: What are the recruits saying? Are you hearing any doubt from them?

Brennan: "So far, we're not but that's ongoing. I think recruiting is about relationships and trust, and those kids that have committed to us chose to do so because they believed in us and trusted us. We got to continue to insure and help them be able to see that when you come here, you are going to get developed at a really high level..."

Q: How do you keep this season in perspective?

Brennan: "I think the most important thing is as the players and coaches, we stay together and we move forward together. I think that's one of those things that is hard to do when you lose games and the outside world tries to pull them apart. These players care about each other and care about their coaches. I think that part of it is, how much can we lean on each other? The program, especially from my chair is in a constant process of evaluation. That's an every day thing for me evaluating every part of the program and we're going to continue to do that as we go."

Q: What are some of the positive takeaways that you had from the past game?

Brennan: "I think the team continues to play hard and I think that shows up. I think that speaks to how committed they are to each other even with the disappointing outcomes. I think that's a positive. I think how they show up to practice, our practice environment continues to be intense and physical. That part of it I think is really good and I think their are players that are playing that were maybe not thinking they were going to play at the start of the year, so we're developing a portion of our football team that maybe would not have gotten that opportunity and I think there's value in that also."

Q: When you looked at the Hail Mary on film, what did you see?

Brennan: "I think we can play that better... I think those things are a mosh pit. There's never going to be any calls on that, so we need to be boxed out on that and not playing behind that but playing in front of it and literally getting our backside on people and boxing them out. That's going to be a collision play. We need to not try and play that ball with two hands. It's got to be knocked down. The hardest part of that play is you can't replicate it in practice."

Q: Over the last several weeks, you mentioned how maybe you guys can be coaching these guys better. What is not working with the coaching?

Brennan: "I think whenever we don't play well or we don't execute at the level we're capable of executing, that always falls on me. That's where the constant evaluation every day... That's where these conversations are ongoing for us."

Q: You had a lot of success at San Jose State, especially the second half of your tenure. You entered into a different set of circumstances here. What have you learned over the last nine months about this particular school and situation?

Brennan: "I think college football is rapidly changing. I think we're in a great spot with our athletics director in terms of where we're going with revenue share and ways that will give us a chance to have a chance to have the caliber of talent and the kind of football teams we want here. I'm excited about that and we're building a program. It's hard when you come in with expectations because everyone is like the program is already built, but there's also pieces from a year ago that weren't part of us this year. We're still actively developing those other parts to try and get them up to the level of the Big 12 conference and that's still an ongoing thing."

Q: What do you like about the 2025 recruiting class?

Brennan: "I think we're moving in the right direction. I think we still have some pieces to add to it. I think the fluid nature of college football right now everybody is trying to figure out because there are so many unknowns. I don't know who is going to walk into my office some day and be like 'Hey, I'm going to hit the portal.' You don't know that, so everything is based on your best guess, kind of like an educated projection but there will also be surprises so you have to have contingency plans so that you can make sure that you continue to build the program the right way... The recruiting effort has been awesome here. I love where we're at. I think we have great recruiters on our staff and I think we have a great plan for how we're going to build it."

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