It had been more than two months since Arizona had won a football game on its home field and almost seven weeks since it had won anywhere. But the team hadn’t forgotten how to celebrate in the locker room, as evidenced Brent Brennan showed up to his postgame press conference after Friday’s 27-3 win over Houston wearing a water-soaked hoodie.

“The locker room is just electric,” Brennan said. “This thing is never about me. It’s about those kids, and it’s about how they smile and hug each other and dance and jump around and throw water. I’m just happy for them, just to see that excitement on their faces again, that hope on their faces, it’s just really special.

Arizona snapped a five-game losing streak and stayed alive to make a bowl game, needing to win its final three games to get to 6–6. Now it’s the final two games, starting with the road final on Nov. 23 at TCU.

“We were super focused on just getting one, like we had to get one,” Brennan said. “And now we can enjoy this for 24 hours and then we move on to the next one.”

Our game overview can be found here. Below is a look at running back Brennan Quality Conley, kicker Tyler Loop and defensive back Genesis Smith then said:

Brennan on Arizona’s defense: “I thought our defense was down. You hold a team to three points, you force multiple turnovers, you force multiple 4-and-outs, turnovers on downs. That was just excellent.”

About the violation: “It was good to see us finding some rhythm and moving the football consistently. I thought that was encouraging. Joey Capra came in there at right tackle and did a great job. And of course there will be things he can fix. But he was a player who joined us on August 5, so I was thrilled to see him play such a prominent role in this match tonight.”

When victory takes a burden off his shoulders: “I think when you’re going through such a difficult time, it’s about how quickly you can get the next chance to prove yourself. And I thought our players responded great tonight, after the challenge of how frustrated we came out of the UCF game and how the team responded in practice. I think that’s just getting lost. Everybody says we need to practice hard, and blah blah blah, and y’all get tired of me saying that, and I understand that, but the reality is the only way to get better is to do evil and do the things that matter. the practice environment, and bringing the right energy and intention to practice. And that’s what they’ve done over the last two weeks.”

About Genesis Smith: “I think we all continue to see Genesis grow and develop as a really good player. Obviously part of that is that he’s been put into action because of some of the injuries we had early on. Suddenly he plays more and more, but he continues to love football. He continues to make plays behind the line of scrimmage. He is a man we absolutely depend on. He is one of the most committed and energetic young people I have ever seen on the football field. Just seeing him in practice, or seeing him at the game today, his energy is contagious. It’s great.”

About Quali Conley: “Quali is a player we have given the ball to a lot in the last two years, and he had never fumbled before in the first, and then in the next game. That he could be detailed on ball security is obviously something we put a lot of the fundamental work into during the bye week. But it was great to see it pay off tonight. It’s great to see that counter play pop and see him house, it was really exciting because we haven’t gotten into the run game like that yet.

On having so many defenders close to the line of scrimmage: “The pressure of it, and being able to get to the quarterback, just trying to change the rhythm and timing of the passing game, was obviously effective. It’s all good if it works. We spend 16 to 20 hours a day drafting plays and ideas that we think will give us a chance to play good football or attack our opponent. And when it doesn’t work, you think: I thought that was a good idea. But tonight we had good hole integrity. And then I thought our guys just played incredibly hard. And that’s the one thing I said when I came out of this game: It’s got to look on tape like we’re playing harder than they are. That’s it. That was the only standard I gave the team, that we have to play harder for our opponent.”

On the way to 10 from 17 on 3^rd down: “I think Coach Adkins and the staff have had some really good conversations. And then I thought, when we had to run the ball with some of these 3rd and shorts, we found a way. We had some tough runs there. A few times Noah (Fifita) was able to get a fight, get us down first when the protection broke, or when no one was open, or they called a good defense for what we called and then Noah found his way to the first down. I think if Noah deviates from his schedule, of course he can do some things, it’s really exciting.

On being motivated by the blowout loss to UCF: “I think the UCF thing is they were just after us. And I think every time you get a blow like that, it’s an opportunity for you to really look at yourself – the bye week obviously helped – and for the players to all look at themselves and think: what can I do? do better? What can we do better as coaches? It gives us a chance to not make the scoreboard look like that. When there’s a number like that in play, people often want to blame the defense. But as a coach, to me that’s a score for the whole team because when that happens it means the offense isn’t moving the ball effectively enough to compensate for some of that.”

About capitalizing sales: “Sales and takeaways is something we place so much emphasis on as a program. And to not get any of these (opportunities) in the previous six quarters, like these are all just momentum plays, they just change the game. Maybe they change it temporarily, but it’s a huge moment in the game. I think the conversation over the last two weeks, even our conversations today, before the game, before we left the hotel, was a lot about protecting the football and taking it away. Big emphasis on that. It’s great to see one of the things you emphasize come to the fore in the game.”

About Tyler Loop’s school record 62-yard field goal: “It’s not surprising to anyone who’s ever been around Tyler. He is an incredibly hardworking young man. We were talking before the game, probably 20 minutes before kick-off, I felt the wind in there and I said, how do you hit the ball? He says: I hit it very honestly. I have to work really hard to eliminate that draw and be able to pound it down Main Street. And I said, well, you’ve told me several times that you don’t have to be a great kicker, you have to be a great adjuster. I think if you have that kind of attention to detail, and you have that mentality of, no, I can fix this, if I make the right adjustments along the way, you end up with an incredibly high-caliber player.”

Conley on rebounding back-to-back games with fumbles: “Fumbles are part of the game. Even though I had two, in back-to-back games I felt like ball security was the main focus in this game to get my confidence back.

On staying alive for a bowl game: “We will focus on TCU and then ASU. Right now our focus is on TCU.”

Walk on changing his approach: “That’s something I’ve been working on this past week. I just want to hit it straighter, a cleaner, rotating ball that cuts the wind well. That’s something I’ve been working on for years. I’ve talked about it a lot, like kicking is about being, not being a perfect kicker, but being a perfect adjuster, being a good adjuster. I don’t think my confidence changed during the game. It still felt good. He still hit a good ball. It’s pretty much the same ball, just doesn’t pull as much, but it was fun this week, we practiced a lot with our operation and had some good team ups. And funny enough, the last field goal I made before game day was a 62-yarder in practice. So when I went out I was like, yeah, yeah. I just did this two days ago.”

On dealing with a losing streak: “So I was here for the 2020 and 2021 season. And obviously it’s a completely different situation. But when you’re doing that, it’s very easy to let outside noise and that kind of doubt creep in. And something that this team has hammered on and really hammered on over the last few weeks, even through the losses, was talking about our brotherhood. That’s something that’s really special about this team: how the guys love each other, they’re there for each other. And so to come out and see the fruits of that, especially during the bye week, we worked really hard. We got after it in the weight room, got after it on the practice field and spent a lot of time together. It is very special to see the fruits of this. It helps you adjust your aim a bit so you can move on after the next game. We’ve talked about it. It’s one game at a time. Our first plan is Houston, now it’s time for TCU.”

Smith on his fumble recovery: “All week Coach Akina said the ball would bounce our way. So I felt like that was the case on that ride too. Great job by the D-line, just getting on the ball and hitting it out.”

On his interception: “I was looking at the quarterback’s eyes, so I was just looking at where he was throwing.”

About the heavy blitz package: “It was just something new we added. It was a new look that we added this week.”