Arizona Wildcats Boss Confirms Offensive Play Caller Change for Utah Win
The Arizona Wildcats made a move during their bye week leading up to their impressive upset victory over the Utah Utes that shook up how things went on the offensive side of the ball.
Wildcats coach Brent Brennan confirmed to reporters covering the team on Monday that he installed tight ends coach and passing game coordinator Matt Adkins as the primary play-caller for the 23-10 victory.
Offensive coordinator Dino Babers had been calling plays for the first three games of the season.
Brennan said that Babers helped with the transition to Adkins and that it was the "right time, with the help of Dino, (for Adkins) to step into that role," said Brennan to the Tucson Star.
It sounds like the plan was, at some point, for Adkins to slide into more of a hands-on role as the play-caller and the bye week allowed Arizona to facilitate that. The Wildcats face the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Saturday.
Along with the victory, the Wildcats (3-1, 1-0 in Big 12) ended up with a balanced performance.
Arizona ran 61 plays against Utah, with 30 runs and 31 passes. The units put up nearly identical yardage numbers. Led by Kedrick Reescano’s 73 yards and Quali Conley’s 72 yards, the ground game rushed for 161 yards and averaged 5.4 yards per carry.
Meanwhile, quarterback Noah Fifita threw for 197 yards on 19-of-31 passing. He threw both of Arizona’s touchdowns and also tossed an interception.
That was the most balance the Wildcats achieve since their win over Northern Arizona. Against the Lumberjacks they rushed for 188 yards and passed for 173 yards. But the Wildcats struggled with an FCS team that was under .500 the season before and was getting used to a new head coach.
Arizona won that game, 22-10.
Brennan hired Babers as his offensive coordinator in February. He was Syracuse’s head coach for eight seasons before he and the Orange parted ways after last season. He ended his time at Syracuse with a 78-70 record and led Syracuse into the top-25 in three of his final six seasons with the program.
But, like Brennan, he had Arizona ties. From 1995-2000, Babers served the Wildcats under legendary coach Dick Tomey as wide receivers coach (1995-96), running backs coach (1997), and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach from 1998-00.
Brennan served as a graduate assistant under Tomey at Arizona and as Tomey’s assistant coach at San Jose State, where he later became the head coach.
Adkins worked for Brennan for five seasons at San Jose State as tight ends coach and passing game coordinator. Before that, he was a graduate assistant. The former college football player at Southern Oregon worked his way up the lower college ranks before landing with San Jose State as a graduate assistant in 2017.
