Arizona Wildcats Continue to Plummet in Rankings After Latest Loss
The Arizona Wildcats and first-year head coach continue to struggle their way through their first season as a member of the Big 12 after spending over five decades in the PAC-12.
With their latest loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers, the Wildcats have fallen to 3-5 overall on the year with a 1-4 record in conference play.
It has been a struggle in all aspects of the game for Arizona, and there are still four games left to play, with the team still having an outside chance at becoming bowl-eligible should they go 3-1 down the stretch.
It is not impossible, as the Wildcats started the 2024 campaign with a 3-1 stretch, though one of those wins came against the New Mexico Lobos, a team struggling to find success in the Mountain West, and the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, a Division 2 team that held Arizona to only 22 points.
The Wildcats' recent run of losses has seen their stock continue to plummet, as Chris Vannini of The Athletic has now dropped the program to 66th in his latest college football power rankings after having the team ranked 55th in last week's.
Many teams jumped Arizona in the rankings this week, including the Mountaineers who won Saturday's contest 31-26 to advance to 4-4 on the year and 3-2 in conference play.
The game was never as close as the score might suggest, however, as West Virginia held a 17-7 lead going into halftime, and a 24-13 lead going into the fourth quarter.
While I have been hard on Noah Fifita over the weeks, he was a bright spot for the team in this matchup, throwing for 294 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions on 21 of 32 passing.
Tetairoa McMillan played a much bigger part in the offensive attack this week, something that needs to continue going forward, as he was targeted 14 times and totaled 10 catches for 202 yards and one touchdown.
The wide receiver is now just 18 yards away from the 1,000 mark for the 2024 campaign, on just 57 catches for an average of 17.2 yards per catch.
The junior continues to be the standout on this team, and the Wildcats would be well served to continue to work him into the offensive gameplan early and often as they did on Saturday.
The season is winding down, but with four games left on the slate, bowl eligibility is still a possibility for this program.
