With No. 10 Michigan’s loss to third-ranked Texas in Ann Arbor, the Wildcats’ nine-game winning streak, which includes the last seven games of last season, is the longest in college football.

Arizona won with several notable players out: running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt, left tackle Rhino Tapa’toutai, free safety Gunner Maldonado, wide receiver Reymello Murphy and center Josh Baker, who dressed out but didn’t play. Baker made 28 straight starts (26 at center, two at guard) before Saturday. Redshirt sophomore and Chandler native Grayson Stovall made his first-career start at the UA. 

With two starters out, Arizona shook up the offensive line with Jonah Savaiinaea making his first start at left tackle in place of Tapa’toutai, with left guard Wendell Moe, Stovall, right guard Leif Magnuson and right tackle Ryan Stewart, who started at right guard last week. 

After producing the eighth-most offensive yards (671) last week against New Mexico, the Wildcats offense struggled in the first half on Saturday with just 55 passing yards in the first two quarters. Arizona ended with 361 yards of total offense. Arizona had more rushing yards (188) than passing yards (173) for the first time since the 2022 Territorial Cup game against Arizona State. 

Arizona star receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who had 10 catches for a school-record 304 yards and four touchdowns in his record-setting performance last week, had just two catches for 11 yards on six targets. McMillan’s second target, quarterback Noah Fifita’s first incompletion of the night after completing his first six throws, was lobbed into double-coverage near the NAU sideline for an interception. Fifita completed 18 of 26 passes for 173 yards, one touchdown and an interception. It’s the fewest yards for Fifita as a starter — and the first time the Arizona star has thrown fewer than 200 yards. 

Arizona bookended its first-half offensive possessions with field goals by Tyler Loop (33 and 48 yards), but had three punts and an interception in between. Arizona running back Quali Conley’s 58-yard run in the first quarter was the only over 20 yards for the Wildcats. The Wildcats were 0-for-10 on third-down conversions on Saturday.  

With the help of a trick play, a jet sweep hand-off to wide receiver Isaiah Eastman, who completed a wide-open pass to receiver Xander Werner for a 25-yard touchdown, and a 38-yard field goal, NAU jumped out to a 10-6 lead at halftime.  

Arizona caught a defensive spark in the second half with a fourth-down stop by linebacker Jacob Manu and edge rusher Chase Kennedy at the line of scrimmage on the NAU 34-yard line. The Wildcats converted the turnover on downs into a touchdown after junior-college transfer receiver Jeremiah Patterson caught a swing pass near the UA sideline, broke through two NAU defenders and ran in for a 17-yard touchdown in the third quarter to take a 13-10 lead. 

With freshman punter Michael Salgado-Medina limited to field-goal holding duties, walk-on and Phoenix product Jordan Forbes manned punting duties. Forbes, who averaged 46.3 yards per punt on Saturday, kicked a 46-yarder that was stopped at the NAU 1-yard line by Colgate transfer defensive back Owen Goss. 

With NAU’s heels in the north end zone of Arizona Stadium, UA defensive tackle Chubba Ma’ae tackled running back Darvon Hubbard for a safety.

Ole Miss transfer running back Kedrick Reescano, in his first collegiate offensive snaps, raced for a 56-yard touchdown to extend the Wildcats’ lead 22-10. San Jose State transfer edge rusher Tre Smith, who had six quarterback pressures and no sacks last week, sacked NAU quarterback Ty Pennington and caused a fumble to secure the win for the Wildcats. 

Arizona’s (2-0) sets up a battle between undefeated Top 20 teams for the Wildcats’ road opener on Friday against No. 17 Kansas State (2-0), which pulled off a 34-27 win over Tulane in New Orleans, in Manhattan for the final nonconference game of the season.