Territorial Cup records galore
In the final week of the regular season, Arizona took to Tempe to play Arizona State. In what felt like a moment of vengeance for the 70-7 loss in 2021, Fifita and the Wildcats laid the wood to the Sun Devils in a 59-23 demolition derby.
Fifita put on a clinic, to say the least. He completed a season-high 30 of his 41 passes (73.2%) for an Arizona single-game record 527 yards and his second five-touchdown game of the season. It was only the third time in program history that a quarterback passed for over 500 yards and the first time since 2014. McMillan, his top target, finished with a Territorial Cup-record 266 yards and one touchdown — good for the second-most single-game receiving yards in Arizona program history.
The win moved the Wildcats to a final record of 9-3 (7-1 in Pac-12) and set them up for one of the better bowl games closer to the end of December.
Bowl game-winning quarterback
The selection committee allocated Arizona the No. 14 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings and a bid to the Alamo Bowl, where their opponent would be No. 12 Oklahoma.
The Wildcats struck first, and the cushion quickly became extremely necessary. After jumping out to a 13-0 lead a few minutes into the second quarter, the Wildcats went cold for most of the second quarter and the entirety of the third. However, an 87-yard fumble return touchdown by free safety Gunner Maldonado jolted Arizona awake again, and it was all Arizona from then on out.
In the fourth quarter, Loop kicked a field goal to knot the game up at 24-24 before a 57-yard bomb from Fifita to Jacob Cowing broke the game wide open and gave Arizona a 31-24 lead with 5:28 remaining. A 19-yard scoring run from Williams put Arizona ahead 38-24 with just under three minutes remaining, and that was all she wrote.
Coincidentally, of his 38 attempts (Arizona's point total), Fifita completed 24 (Oklahoma's total) of them for 63.2% completion percentage. He also threw two touchdowns, with none coming at a more opportune time than his deep strike to Cowing.