What Brent Brennan, Noah Fifita and Owen Goss said after the Arizona Wildcats' loss to West Virginia

Trailing by 18 points early in the fourth quarter, Arizona was close to its fourth straight loss. That score still came, but not before the Wildcats scored two goals in the final nine minutes and were one third stop away from a chance for a big comeback.

“I thought we could do it,” UA coach said Brent Brennan said after Arizona's 31-26 home loss to West Virginia. “I was really proud of the fight. I liked how we fought in the fourth quarter. As you can imagine, everyone is devastated because we feel like we had a chance to achieve this and we didn't. It starts with me.”

Arizona (3-5, 1-4 Big 12) has lost four straight and must win three of its last four games to be bowl eligible. The Wildcats can only be favored in one game remaining.

“I think we still have a lot of work to do and I think we have a chance to have a good football team,” Brennan said. “We just can’t prove it yet. And that’s the hardest pill to swallow.”

You can find our game summary here Here. Below is what Brennan, quarterback Noah Fifita and defensive back Owen Goss said after the game:

Brennan on the crowd: “I thought we had a great crowd tonight. I continued to think the student section was great. That’s something cool that our fans, our alumni and our students continue to support our team through this difficult period we’re in.”

When I saw the fans leaving early: “I don't see it. I concentrate on what's happening on the field. That’s a shame because they missed a hell of a fourth quarter.”

About the fake field goal: “They made us do it, they schemed us. We wanted to go for a heavy block look, but they were too short on that side of the formation.”

Whether there has been progress since the training camp: “It's a difficult question because of the injury situation we're in and some of the parts we were counting on are not available to us. So I think progress may need to be measured a little differently. The difficult thing is that we are always measured by wins and losses. But I think when I look at how this team comes to work every day, how we train, how much they give each other, I still believe in this team. And they still believe in each other. To me, this is the true story of the football team: how do we move forward together and are we willing to put in the effort, time and attention to detail necessary to solve the problems we've had and ourselves to defeat? on track.”

On West Virginia's 3rd^approx and 4^Th Down conversions: “This is a killer. We had 3rd and 9th place there (almost two minutes left). If we could have left the field, it would have given us the chance to have a nice time trial. We would have plenty of time. I think it's a combination of whether we can put pressure on the quarterback and whether we can keep up on the back end. A lot of the guys that play are in this race for maturity. This part of it is so important. Hopefully some of the hard lessons they learned today will pay off next week.”

On being offside four times: “I thought they were really creative with their cadence. I think they did a great job offensively. It was a delayed cadence of clapping, sometimes mixed with movement. They did really well, it was impressive. But it's still not okay. This is still crazy. We have to be better. We can’t have three offside penalties in one game.”

On Noah Fifita having a better game than he has in recent weeks: “I think a lot of it tonight started with protecting the passer better. So I give those guys credit, and I give credit to the offensive staff because it seemed like Noah had a little more time. We were able to distribute the ball a little more cleanly. And I thought Noah did a great job of using his feet to create and find some throwing lanes to deliver some good passes. They both did really impressive things on the track.”

Whether the trick plays between Tetairoa McMillan and Fifita were designed like this: “That was because T-Mac was just instinctive.”

For more games in the backyard: “I think there's always some of that when there's a little bit of fighting and because of Noah's athleticism and his ability to perform. Like the touchdown pass he threw to Sam (Olson), I thought he did an incredible job because he got swept a little bit to the left and looked like he was about to run and then he set his feet very quickly and trained it in the middle. So his ability to play the ball quickly and create things with his feet can obviously be an advantage.”

On Fifita's TD run through multiple defenders: “When you see Noah make that play and come in, I think you know what kind of competitor he is. And that’s one of the things that makes him really special.”

What is still the problem: “As a coaching staff, we have to pay a lot of attention to details. I think there are a few little things that can have a big impact on the result that weren't good enough tonight. But I also think it has an impact broadly when there aren't three team captains available for a game. There's an impact, the injury thing or some of the people that are not available to us. I think we were better in terms of turnovers tonight, but I thought that was a momentum killer in the first half. Quali (Conley) comes out on the edge, it’s a really nice run, he tries to run over someone and knock the ball out.”

On his message to the team: “My message is that I love their fight, I love how hard they fought. I love the fact that they gave us a chance. We were a game or two away from winning the game. And then I talked to them about how it's my responsibility to make sure we pay attention to details and get the lineup exactly right. And then it's important for them to show up and be ready to go to work, and they have to be ready and committed to fixing the problem. And that affects all of us, but that’s the players and the coaches.”

On the defense seeming overwhelmed at times: “Some of them are calls, and sometimes the offense makes a good call. On the last (third down) play we decided to play four instead of three to put some pressure on the quarterback. And then he dropped it as the pressure increased out there when the extra man was there, so we had one less man in coverage and he was carried vertical by a release from number two and he's late out apartment. So sometimes those are calls. If we were let go we would feel great.”

Fifita on whether this loss is different from the others: “In the end, every loss is mostly the same. It hurts, but all we can continue to do is come back tomorrow and Monday and recover.”

On his association with T-Mac: “I feel like once we got that rhythm going a little bit, it was the best rhythm we've had in a long time. Hopefully we can take that with us.”

About the trick-taking games: “The first one we played around a little bit in practice, but those are just plays that T-Mac makes.”

On the advantages of scoring opportunities in the second half: “I think it just shows that if everyone does their job and just sticks to the pattern, we're able to create a rhythm, and once we create a rhythm we can get some things going. There is still a lot to learn in every respect, including my own. So we’ll work on that.”

On T-Mac during a 200-yard game: “We designed a few more plays for him, and having a player of his caliber opens up other things for us.” Sam's touchdown, that's T-Mac, drew double coverage.”

The key to motivation: “It’s just about being present. This is one of our values ​​and this is what we must do every day. Tomorrow is a recovery day. Tomorrow it's just about analyzing the film and getting better, taking the good things that we did and then of course learning from the bad things and just keep trying to get better. But for us it’s one week at a time, one day at a time.”

When he sees teammates pointing fingers: “I don’t see that at all. There is no premonition that this will be the case in the future. It starts at the top with Coach B and then continues to us.”

On the offensive: “I think they played fantastic. Two sacks and I take the blame for both because I held on to the ball too long.”

On his TD run: “I think it was instincts that took over. I owed the team something for the play before, so I just tried to make the play.”

About the remaining four games: “We have that. And from here on out, this is truly a one-game season, one week at a time.”

Goss about missing 3^approx and 4^Th Downstops: “We just didn’t convert. We couldn’t leave the field.”

If he had fixed a fumble: “I think they said I had to have full possession of the ball and take two steps, I think.”