What Arizona players said after the Colorado loss

Despite jumping out to a 13-0 lead, the Arizona Wildcats couldn’t maintain that early momentum and lost 24-13 to the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday night at Arizona Stadium.

It was Arizona’s 11^th consecutive loss, extending the longest skid in program history, and it is 0-4 for the first time since 1969.

Following the loss, two Arizona players spoke with reporters via Zoom. Here’s what they had to say about the latest setback:

Senior running back Gary Brightwell

On coach Kevin Sumlin’s message in the locker room: “Basically his message was, we’ve got to come back tomorrow and work harder. That’s as simple as I can put it.”

On the run game: “Honestly, it looked like everything was just working. We’ve just got to execute on our goal-line plays. But everything was basically ways.”

On RB Michael Wiley’s 126-yard performance: “He blew me away, man. He was very decisive in his running. He’d see the hole and take it right now and wasted no time. Leading up to the game he had a great week of practice. That might have helped him come out and rush for as much as he did. Hopefully we can go back and do it next week.”

On QB Will Plummer’s first career start: “I think Will did a great job, especially coming in as a freshman, not expecting to play. He did an awesome job if you ask me.”

On the mood of the team: “I would say we’re still here. We’re still locked in. We’re not going away, we’re not backing down from nobody.”

Senior defensive lineman Roy Lopez

On dealing with losing: “I came from a school (New Mexico State) that doesn’t win a lot, either. I’m not saying I’m experienced at losing, but I just try to remind them to keep their heads up. This season is a little shorter, but usually I say it’s a long season. For the young guys that might be frustrated, between not making a play or not playing, they’ve just got to understand it will be their time eventually. When their number is called they need to make the play. I just keep reminding them that every day counts, every game counts and every play counts.”

On who was to blame for the loss: “We look for corrections. As a defensive player you can’t really correct the offense. Thirteen points, we should hold them to 12, that’s the way you should see it. We need to be better, simple as that. Just because you have three turnovers doesn’t mean you deserve to win.”

On defending the run: “I think we did good besides the big plays. We let up too many big plays. You take those away, it’s a completely different game. We had a lot of missed tackles, including myself, I had a big one. They were pretty much stacking a side, they were having a tackle over or a tight end with a wing. They had a lot of blockers to one side, trying to open up gaps for the running back. They played well.”

On the team’s morale: “We’re losing, but like Gary said the team’s still here. We understand a lot of these games we should have won. We feel that way, we really do. The people don’t believe that, at least the team does. We’ve got to keep fighting.”

On LB Anthony Pandy, who had two interceptions: “He’s a leader, he’s a veteran. He understands that the game is long and the game is going to go on. We celebrated, and he was the first guy to say ‘next play.’”