Arizona coach: Team must maintain focus and continue to execute

Following his team’s 44-20 loss to the Arizona Wildcats Saturday, Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre was asked why this defeat hurt more than the other three his team has suffered.

“Because we can beat that team,” he said.

MacIntyre’s statement is belied by the fact that the Wildcats, on the road, torched the Buffaloes to the tune of 670 total yards of offense — including 405 on the ground. Arizona managed to cruise to a comfortable victory even while committing more penalties and turning the ball over more than Colorado.

But Tuesday, when asked by Doug and Wolf, Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said he understood why MacIntyre said what he did.

“I’m sure everybody that watches us on film says the same thing, so we’ve got to make sure that we go out and execute.”

With the win over bottom-dwelling Colorado, Arizona is now 5-2 (2-2) on the season. Though they did not enter the season with high expectations, the Wildcats are currently still in the Pac-12 South race.

Two of the teams ahead of Arizona, UCLA and Arizona State, are still left on the schedule. But while the Wildcats control their own destiny, Rodriguez said he and his team are not looking that far ahead or focused on the standings.

“I mentioned it right after the game that, ‘Hey, the more you win, the more is at stake,’ and we still control a lot of our own destiny in a lot of ways so that’s a good thing,” he said. “But other than that, we don’t even look a week ahead or a day ahead; we look at the next play, we talk about winning the next play.

“That singular focus is what we have to do.”