Arizona bends, then slams the door: 23-17 over Kansas State
The first touchdown Arizona allowed this season came on the first snap of the second half—and the Wildcats still walked out 3-0. In a tense Friday night finish in Tucson, Arizona beat Kansas State 23-17, surviving a momentum swing that would have buried a less steady team and showing why September has a different feel in the desert this year.
Arizona rode a bruising night from running back Ismail Mahdi, who piled up 189 yards on 22 carries, and two tough quarterback keepers from Noah Fifita to build a 17-3 halftime lead. Fifita finished 16 of 33 for 178 yards through the air and added those two short touchdown runs—one from 15 yards, one from two—that gave Arizona early control. The defense did the rest for most of the night, smothering Kansas State to 193 total yards and keeping its quarterback in a box.
Then came the jolt. On the first play after the break, Kansas State wideout Jayce Brown took a direct snap in the Wildcat formation, bounced outside to the right, and ripped 75 yards untouched. Just like that, Arizona’s streak without a touchdown allowed was gone and the game was on again.
Special teams added fuel to the swing. Arizona punter Michael Salgado-Medina mishandled a snap and had his kick blocked, handing Kansas State a gift at the Arizona 13-yard line. Four plays later, quarterback Avery Johnson slipped in from a yard out to tie it 17-17 midway through the third quarter. The stadium tightened. So did Arizona’s resolve.
The same Arizona specialist who found trouble gave the team its edge back. Salgado-Medina steadied himself and hit field goals from 31 and 41 yards to restore a six-point cushion at 23-17. He even had a chance to make it a two-score game with 1:55 left, but his 46-yarder smacked the right upright and fell away. The defense, which had done the heavy lifting all night, handled the rest by forcing a turnover on downs in the closing minutes.
What stood out wasn’t just the response—it was the control Arizona kept in all the small places games usually go to die. Third downs? Arizona went 8 for 18, enough to tilt time and rhythm. Total yardage? 412 to 193 in Arizona’s favor, a gap that told a plainer story than the final score. Even after the chaos of the third quarter, Arizona’s front seven kept Johnson off balance. He completed 13 of 29 for 88 yards and finished with minus-16 on seven rushing attempts, swallowed by pressures and negative plays.
Brown did his part as Kansas State’s spark plug. Along with the 75-yard sprint, he caught six passes for 68 yards, becoming Johnson’s most reliable outlet. But the Wildcats (the Kansas State variety) never found a sustainable run game outside that one shot, and short fields were rare. When they finally got one—off the blocked punt—they cashed it in. Otherwise, Arizona’s structure held, series after series.
Arizona’s start matters for more than a clean record. It’s the program’s best since 2015, and it comes after two blowouts over smaller-conference opponents by a combined 88-9. This was the first real stress test, the kind that exposes weak spots and bad habits. Instead, it highlighted traits that travel: a downhill run game behind Mahdi, a quarterback comfortable making tough plays without forcing throws, and a defense that trades big plays for body blows. In a meeting of future conference foes—booked before Arizona’s move into the Big 12 was finalized—Arizona looked like a team ready for the step up.
Inside Arizona Stadium, 40,051 watched the game crackle and reset. The venue has its own history with Kansas State—this is where the Wildcats celebrated their first-ever bowl win in the 1993 Copper Bowl. Three decades later, it was Arizona’s turn to own the night on that turf, even if they had to work through a tight fourth quarter to claim it.
Fifita’s line won’t pop off the page—178 yards on 33 attempts—but he protected the ball, avoided the back-breaking mistake, and hurt Kansas State with his legs in the red zone. His first touchdown, a 15-yard keeper, was all patience and angles. The second, from two yards out, capped another clock-churning march that pushed Arizona’s halftime lead to two scores. Those were the body shots that set up Mahdi’s haymakers between the tackles.
Mahdi’s night was the quiet kind of dominant. No single run did the damage. It was the accumulation—getting downhill early, turning second-and-8 into third-and-2, and making sure Kansas State’s linebackers felt every decision. That volume can be a coach’s favorite stat. It gives a defense fewer chances to pin its ears back and it keeps your own defense fresh. The contrast was obvious: Kansas State needed trickery and short fields to score. Arizona could just hand it off.
Arizona’s special teams lived a full game in 60 minutes. The fumbled snap and blocked punt could have swung the result. Instead, Salgado-Medina steadied his approach, drilled two kicks under pressure, and shrugged off the miss that hit the upright late. That kind of resilience doesn’t show up in the box score, but it changes how a sideline breathes in the fourth quarter.
Kansas State had some bright spots, even in a loss that dropped it to 1-3. Brown’s versatility gives the offense a wrinkle it clearly needs. Fresh off an ankle sprain in the opener at Iowa State, running back Dylan Edwards got back on the field and logged 13 yards on four carries. Head coach Chris Klieman noted postgame that Edwards pushed through to be available but simply didn’t have the legs to go long stretches yet. The plan was limited touches, and it stayed that way.
Johnson is still learning how to manage a game when the run isn’t there and the pocket closes. Arizona kept edge pressure in his lap and forced him to throw into tighter windows than he saw earlier this month. The result: a low-efficiency passing night and too many drives stuck behind the chains. For Kansas State, improvement starts with early-down success and cleaning up protection so Johnson can play on schedule.
As for Arizona, head coach Brent Brennan liked the way his team handled the swing. He pointed to stretches where the Wildcats looked exactly like the group they want to be—disciplined on defense, clean on third down, balanced and ruthless on the ground. After two weeks of blowouts, this one asked harder questions. Arizona had answers.
The atmospherics matched the stakes. On a dry, late-summer night, the noise rose hardest during the stops that mattered—on a third-and-medium near midfield in the fourth quarter, on a stuffed quarterback draw after the missed field goal, and, finally, on the turnover on downs that settled it. Arizona didn’t celebrate like it had climbed a mountain. It looked more like a team that expects to keep winning these kinds of games.
How it swung—and what comes next
Key moments tell the story:
- First half control: Fifita’s two touchdown runs and a defense that squeezed Kansas State to a single field goal set a 17-3 tone.
- One-play spark: Jayce Brown’s 75-yard Wildcat snap touchdown on the first play of the second half cut the lead to seven and woke up Kansas State’s sideline.
- Special teams whiplash: A fumbled snap and blocked punt gave Kansas State the ball at Arizona’s 13; Avery Johnson’s 1-yard sneak tied it 17-17.
- Composure under pressure: Michael Salgado-Medina hit from 31 and 41 yards to restore the lead; his late 46-yarder hit the upright with 1:55 left.
- The final stand: Arizona’s defense forced a turnover on downs in the closing minutes to ice the win.
The numbers back it up. Arizona outgained Kansas State 412-193 and kept the chains moving just enough by going 8 of 18 on third downs. Johnson’s 88 passing yards on 29 attempts underline how tight Arizona’s coverage was and how often pressure forced checkdowns or throwaways. Brown led Kansas State with six catches for 68 yards, and his long run carried the ground totals. Everything else on the ground felt like a crawl.
Context matters here too. Arizona’s 3-0 start is its best since 2015, but those first two wins came against smaller-conference opponents. This was scheduled long before Arizona’s move into the Big 12, and it looked like a conference game in everything but the label—field position grind, long drives, and a fourth quarter in the balance. If you’re trying to judge whether Arizona is ready for the Big 12 jump, nights like this are the evidence.
The schedule turns fast: both teams open Big 12 play on September 27. Kansas State gets UCF at home, a matchup that puts stress on tackling in space and communication in the back seven. Arizona heads to Ames to face Iowa State, where offensive patience gets tested and field goals matter—something Arizona’s specialist learned all about under the lights. After a week where the Wildcats proved they can take a punch and answer back, the next challenge is to carry that edge on the road.
Zoom out and the picture is simple. Arizona won at the line of scrimmage, ran the ball when it had to, and defended the pass like a unit that trusts its rules. Kansas State found life with creativity but couldn’t manufacture enough steady offense to keep pace. In a meeting of mirror mascots and future league rivals—Arizona vs Kansas State—the difference was who could settle the game’s chaos. Arizona did.
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