Brent Brennan Shares Positive Updates Surrounding Arizona's Bye Week
While bye weeks always give teams a chance to regroup, something the Arizona Wildcats clearly needed after two straight underwhelming performances, the time off can also present some issues if everyone in the program isn't on the same page.
Because this bye came so early in the schedule, there was little chance there were people already looking past this season, but based on their performance the past two weeks, the coaching staff might have had their hands full figuring out how to right the ship.
Head coach Brent Brennan shared some information coming out of this time off, and based on his comments, things sound positive.
"I think it was good. I think really good intentional work last week. I thought our effort was really high, guys were into it. I thought it was good to kind of, hopefully, get some of our guys who beat up a little bit three games in. I thought we took advantage of that also. A lot of the guys stayed around here this weekend so they could get treatment and be in the training room," he said at his press conference.
While that could be viewed as coach speak, it's also a good sign he feels like the players were still locked into what needs to take place on the field so they can compete for a Big 12 title.
Arizona is not out of the equation by any means, and pulling off the upset against Utah would go a long way to putting them right back into the mix, especially with how poorly Kansas State played over the weekend.
This is the first conference game for the Wildcats, so they have a clean slate entering Saturday.
Brennan and his staff have harped on the things that hurt them against Kansas State throughout their bye week, hoping to fix the containment issues they had on defense and find ways to improve their offensive output.
According to him, that could come by the way of featuring their tight ends more.
"We want Keyan (Burnett) and Sam (Olson) and all those guys to be more involved. It's one of those deals where every game is a different game, depending on how you're playing or who you playing. Sometimes those opportunities present themselves more than others. In our previous life, we’ve always been a heavy tight end in the pass game football team, and so we definitely want to get those guys more involved," he explained.
Hopefully that's the case.
While Tetairoa McMillan is undoubtedly incredible, it's clear this offense needs more passing options than just him to truly be effective against top teams in the country.
This bye week gave Arizona an opportunity to reimagine their offense and work on defensive issues, something that has to be finetuned before they hit the road for Saturday's game.
