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Arizona Football can hang with anyone, Valley native Dampier leads Utah to victory

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Remnants of the “Pac-12 After Dark” days are alive and well.

Arizona Stadium was on fire tonight. Kudos to the fans for adjusting to the three hour delay and still having over 48,000 in attendance (and it felt like it).

Not to mention several home grown student-athletes on No. 2 Utah, including their Heisman candidate quarterback in Saguaro alum, Devon Dampier.

You can see Wildcats defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales congratulating Dampier on a job well done in the video above because Gonzales’ defense threw all they could at him.

They set the tone right away, flushing Dampier out of the pocket and for some of the question marks going into this one about the Wildcat secondary, they held their own for a solid portion of the game.

The big plays were simply a killer, though. Especially down the stretch.

Noah Fifita’s first drive of the game was a preview of the show we were about to witness between two worthy opponents.

Fifita was spreading the love to all his receivers. The balance was outstanding.

Chris Hunter III: 6 rec/119 yards, Gio Richardson: 7 rec/94 yards/ 1 TD, Isaiah Mizell: 7 rec/115 yards/ 2 TD. (Side note: That’s Mizell’s fifth straight game with a touchdown.)

Especially since Utah’s defensive line didn’t give Fifita much time to go through his reads (four sacks), his performance of 356 passing yards (27/43) and three touchdowns is that much more impressive.

Fifita is making those who scoffed at his preseason hype wish they bought stock.

On the other side, who knows better than us here in State 48 just how great Dampier is?

He got loose with his feet and hit his receivers in stride. Even when the defensive line broke through, he just danced his way into space until he made the right play.

Dual Threat Dampier: 204 passing yards (13/25), 2 passing TD’s…14 carries, 100 rushing yards, 2 rushing TD’s.

We’ve seen Dampier at quarterback, receiver, & running back…only thing he doesn’t do for the Utes is in-game host at the stadium. 

Brent Brennan and the Wildcats have shown they can hang with any squad and deserve top 20 respect from the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.

There’s no denying Arizona is a great team, but Utah showed why it’s elite.

The Wildcats will need to get over the hump of beating teams like Texas Tech or Utah in order to reach that next level.

This season has proven that they’re certainly on their way.

More sights and sounds from No. 2 Utah at No. 23 Arizona:

The post Arizona Football can hang with anyone, Valley native Dampier leads Utah to victory first appeared on Sports360AZ.



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