Wildcats head coach Brent Brennan ‘felt good’ about kneeling at end of regulation vs. BYU

With 19 seconds left in a tie game against BYU, Arizona Wildcats coach Brent Brennan decided to kneel out the clock on his own 25-yard line, despite still having two timeouts.

Arizona ended up falling to the Cougars on Saturday by a score of 33-27 in double overtime.

Brennan defended his decision on Monday, wanting to secure overtime instead of risking a turnover.

“To me, in that situation, you’re playing against an excellent defense with an active front,” Brennan told reporters. “They’re going to play some sort of big coverage, which is going to make it challenging to throw the football and … their kicker is a surefire, NFL, Tyler Loop-type guy.

“Every situation is different, and we have to make those decisions in a really short time frame. But I felt good about that decision at the time.”

Brennan and the Wildcats were aggressive at other points in the game, going for it six times on fourth down.

Between analytics, gut feelings and the inputs of players and coordinators there are many factors that go into making risky decisions. But Brennan acknowledged that difficult decisions happen every game and focusing only on results is not helpful.

“There’s so many moments in every football game that come down to, the back side of it is whether it worked or not,” Brennan said. “And that’s fine, we understand that. But we feel good about our decision making, about how we’re going about those situations in-game.”

The Wildcats (4-2, 1-2 Big 12) will face off against Houston (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) on Saturday on the road. The game will air on FS1 at 9 a.m. MST.

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