The Arizona Wildcats began their Big 12 career with an overwhelming success, defeating New Mexico 61-39 on Saturday evening. The season clearly kicked off with a bang, especially for wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan. McMillan finished the game with 10 receptions, 304 yards and four touchdowns.
McMillan was voted a preseason All-American and is widely considered a potential first round pick, and this game did not change that. He is a tall, athletic receiver, and he went over 300 yards in a game for the first time since Jaxon Smith-Njigba did it in 2022 with Ohio State.
His touchdown catches were 69, 17, 78, and 40 yards. All of the catches came from quarterback Noah Fifita, who finished the game with 422 yards passing, while the Wildcats had 627 as a team.
Head coach Brent Brennan was impressed with his star receiver on Saturday:
T-Mac is obviously special, man. He’s just something else. Those big explosives were just incredible. He outran the whole secondary on the big one down the sideline. He’s awesome. He’s an awesome competitor, and he’s also not satisfied. He was like, ‘We can play better.’ That’s what you hope for.
Brennan took over for Jedd Fisch after he took the open vacancy at Washington. Both McMillan and Fifita discussed the transfer portal but elected not to. McMillan was asked about that decision following the game:
Everybody in this building, the brotherhood we already had, the culture we had set in here, we just didn’t want to leave this building,” McMillan said. “The legacy that we already had began over here, we wanted to continue this legacy. At the end of the day, we came to Tucson to be program changers. Hopefully, Tucson, y’all can find pride in our play.
Arizona will remain at home for week two of the season. The Wildcats, who opened the season ranked 21st in the country, host Northern Arizona on Saturday.