Hey! We are lucky to do a Q&A with Brian Pederson of Arizona Desert Storm. I gave my answers here and to be honest, I regeret thinking that Texas Tech wins this game, but oh well, it’s not the first game prediction that I could get wrong.
1. It seems like Arizona is catching fire while the rest of the Big 12 stalling a bit, particularly Texas Tech. What’s been a key to the success of Arizona?
Arizona has won five in a row for the second straight season, which hadn’t happened since 1992-93, a testament to its consistency within the coaching staff with the same head coach and coordinators in consecutive seasons for the first time in a while. The Wildcats have also seen many of their portal additions become more comfortable in the schemes and there have been more freshman contributions than expected. Arizona has been able to overcome injuries, particularly at the receiver and tight end positions, without it impacting production.
2. Not being someone that follows Arizona really closely, but it seems as if the Arizona defense has really been the backbone of the program and this is the 2nd year in a row where the advanced metrics really like what Arizona has done. What’s been the key to that sort of consistency and what do you attribute their success?
Coordinator Danny Gonzales is a mad scientist who loves finding ways to solve opposing offenses. He brings a lot of pressure—watch out for the Red Rover!—and also goes incredibly deep in the front seven. Arizona has had 20 different defensive players log at least 100 snaps but only five have been on the field more than 60 percent of the time.
The run defense has been particularly improved this season, with Cincinnati and Iowa State being unable to do anything and West Virginia needing more than 75 carries to get to 300 yards on the ground. That was a big weakness a year ago.
3. Seth Doege is a familiar name for Texas Tech fans, can you discuss what he’s brought to the table as the offensive coordinator and maybe how he’s grown as an OC since arriving in Tucson.
I can only imagine what Doege is thinking heading into this game, considering his time there and his Texas roots. Throw in the opening at Baylor, where he’ll very much be in the mix for, and there’s a lot of potential distractions here.
Before coming to Arizona he called the plays for a Marshall team that won the Sun Belt and led the conference in rushing, but with him inheriting Noah Fifita he adjusted his scheme to maximize his quarterback’s skills. That’s included getting him to run a little more. The pass is the primary offensive weapon, though, and Doege has spread the ball around while moving players in and out of the slot to keep defenses honest.
4. This is year #3 for Brent Brennan, after a rough start, what’s been the key tenants of an Arizona Brennan-coached team?
As mentioned before, the consistency of the coaches has been a big part of it. The staff he put together on the fly in 2024 was overhauled after going 4-8, with Doege and Gonzales much better fits for the talent and what Brennan wants to do. He also is big on development, whether it be bringing along high school players slowly but surely or easing transfers into bigger roles.
Brennan also feels like someone who isn’t going to use Arizona as a stepping stone, which wasn’t the case for Jedd Fisch, who we all knew was going to leave sooner than later. Brennan was a GA here in 2000, his brother played receiver around that time and getting this job after having success at a tough place to win like San Jose State has put him in a place where he’s looking to develop roots.
5. I feel that we can’t talk about Arizona without talking about Noah Fifita. What has it meant to for Fifita to start and finish his career at Arizona and what has been the biggest improvement for Fifita to this year.
If plans for the Noah Fifita statue outside Casino Del Sol Stadium haven’t started, they should soon. Outside of his numbers, his impact on the community and his willingness to stick it out after a coaching change and a disastrous first season under Brennan has been immense. Saturday will be his 42nd consecutive start.
The biggest improvement for Fifita this year has been learning to trust all of his receiving targets. The three wideouts and tight end who started the first two games have all missed at least the last two games, with one out for the season, yet the next group has made those losses negligible.
The latest episode of What’s Next with Robert Giovannetti and head coach Joey McGuire:
Red Raider Sports’ Lane Selph: Kenny Perry Doesn’t Hold Back on Texas Tech’s Special Teams Struggles Against Cincinnati
“Definitely field position was going to be a big deal that game, and we just didn’t punt real well,” Perry said. “We had penalties, which, like, that’s unacceptable. And those are the ones that, you know, just the field position, and then you get a penalty on top of that. We missed some blocks.”
Perry also pointed to missed opportunities in the kickoff return game, including a return from J’Koby Williams that he believed had the potential to go the distance.
“We had J’Koby loose on the first kickoff return where I thought he was going to score, and then we had a couple other ones. We just didn’t win one-on-ones, and you know, you got to give credit to them. They came out and did what they needed to do, and we didn’t.”
Red Raider Sports’ L. Jordan: Howard Sampson, Stone Harrington on bouncing back and Arizona’s aggressive defense
Howard Sampson: “They have some wild looks, especially from the safety. I believe the quarterback’s brother, he comes in there and he’ll blitz. They can scheme some stuff up, but at the end of the day, I think it’s going to be one of those games of who can take the most punches. If we go out there and do our job, eliminate the schemes that they throw at us and live in the film room, we’ll be perfectly fine in my opinion.”
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams: Texas Tech football defenders reassess after breakdowns in Cincinnati
“You’ve just got to be able to take it on the chin,” Tech linebacker Ben Roberts said Tuesday, Oct. 27. “You’ve got to take things personally, and you’ve got to attack the next week better than you did the previous week.
“Everybody knows that we didn’t live up to the standard last week. I think that, as leaders, sometimes in practice we’re not holding that standard the way that we should. And so going into these next couple of weeks, these next five games, it’s [important to] continue to push people to be their best in practice.”