Arizona football coach Brett Brennan on loss to UCF: ‘We need to coach better’

Arizona head coach Brett Brennan held himself and his team accountable after the Wildcats 56-12 loss to the UCF Knights on Saturday, dropping their fifth consecutive game.

“We need to coach better and need to go through everything and get back to finding how we execute in all three phases (of the game),” Brennan told reporters after the game.

UCF quarterback Dylan Rizk threw for 294 yards and three touchdowns as the Knights racked up 602 yards on Arizona.

The Wildcats put up only 261 offensive yards and struggled to run the ball, rushing for only five yards in the game. Brennan credits the struggles in the running game as one of the reasons for the loss.

“It’s unacceptable across the board,” Brennan said. “At the end of the day, it’s our job as coaches to put our players in the position where they can make plays and execute on defense and offense,” Brennan said.

Brennan notes Rizk’s Hail Mary touchdown to Randy Pitman Jr. to make it 35-6 before halftime as a crucial moment in the game for the Wildcats.

48-YARD HAIL MARY TD TO END THE HALF!!! 🚀 @UCF_Football pic.twitter.com/Jns6n0AVAp

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 2, 2024

“It was a crushing blow for us, Brennan said. “That’s one of those plays you practice and you rep and it’s so hard to duplicate on game day. We’re going to look at it and everybody is going to agree we can play it better.”

After a bye week, Arizona’s next game will be in Tucson against the Houston Cougars (4-5) on Nov. 15, who upset No.17 Kansas State on Saturday in a 24-19 win. Brennan sees the bye as a chance for the team to bounce back and finish the season strong.

“I think we have great coaches and great kids and I think they will be diligent in the process of getting right,” Brennan said. “We’ve got two weeks to get ready for another good opponent in the Big 12. Hopefully the bye will be a good thing for our football team to evaluate every our aspect of our team and our players will get a chance to work and we can start to fix it.”

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