Arizona has longest winning streak nationally after beating Northern Arizona

The 34-12 Michigan loss to Texas on Saturday afternoon gave Arizona the longest winning streak nationally entering their game versus Northern Arizona later that night. Arizona extended the winning streak to nine games on Saturday night. Arizona has come a long way since ending a 20-game losing streak in November 2021.

After starting 3-3 in 2023, Arizona began their winning streak with wins over three consecutive ranked opponents. Arizona won 44-6 at number 19 Washington State, beat number 11 Oregon State 27-24 and 20th-ranked UCLA 27-10 to complete a five-game stretch versus top 20 teams in 2023.

Arizona followed up the three consecutive wins versus ranked teams with a 34-31 win on a walk-off Tyler Loop field goal at Colorado. The Wildcats returned home and blew out number 16 Utah 42-18. Arizona finished the regular season by keeping the Territorial Cup with a 59-23 win at Arizona State.

Arizona capped off a remarkable seven-game run to finish the 2023 season with a 38-24 win over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl. That turned out to be the final game under Jed Fisch who was hired by Washington about two weeks later. Fisch led Arizona out of the darkest era in program history to one of its most successful seasons.

Brent Brennan who was a finalist when Fisch was hired for the 2021 season, was hired from San Jose State as the 31st permanent head coach in Arizona history in January. Arizona has extended the streak to nine games with a 61-39 win over New Mexico in the season opener and a 22-10 victory over NAU on Saturday.

Arizona faces arguably its toughest game during the streak at number 14/15 Kansas State on Friday night. After Kansas State, Arizona has a bye week before playing at Utah on September 28. The nine- game winning streak is tied for the longest in the history of the Arizona football program.