MANHATTAN, Kansas – The Wildcats won. It just wasn’t the guests from Tucson.

No. 20 Arizona lost 31-7 to 14th-ranked Kansas State on Friday night at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, ending Arizona’s nine-game winning streak from last season.

The setback is Arizona’s first loss under head coach Brent Brennan. Although two Big 12 teams met on Friday night, it was a previously scheduled non-conference game, so the loss does not count toward the UA’s record in the Big 12 standings.

After not playing at full strength last week against Northern Arizona and putting pressure on quarterback Noah Fifita, the UA utilized its starting lineup from the season opener. Left tackle Rhino Tapa’toutai, who suffered a leg injury in the season opener against New Mexico, returned alongside left guard Wendell Moe, center Josh Baker, right guard Ryan Stewart and right tackle Jonah Savaiinaea; Baker was absent last week after starting the previous 28 games.

The protection for Fifita was cleaner on Friday and the run blocking for the UA was effective. Arizona set the tone with a balanced 14-play, 73-yard touchdown drive that ate 7:34 off the clock, with seven passes and seven runs. Running back Quali Conley scored the score with his fourth touchdown of the season.

Arizona receiver Tetairoa McMillan had more yards on the UA’s opening drive than he did last week (11). McMillan finished Friday night with 11 catches for 138 yards. McMillan passed Theopolis “T” Bell and is now fifth all-time in receiving yards for the UA.

A week after Arizona went 0-of-10 on third downs, they were 5-of-14 on Friday but 1-of-4 on fourth downs.

Kansas State, which entered Friday as one of the top 20 rushing teams in college football, ran for 235 yards and was led by its triple-threat rushing attack featuring DJ Giddens, dual-threat quarterback Avery Johnson, who Brennan called “ridiculously explosive,” and Dylan Edwards, who returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown, the first punt return the UA has allowed for a touchdown since the Colorado game in 2021. Johnson finished the night with a career-high 110 rushing yards.

KSU outscored Arizona 235-56 and had 40 rushing attempts to UA’s 19. Senior running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt was ineligible for the second straight game because of eligibility issues. Conley had 14 of Arizona’s 19 rushing attempts for 48 yards.

Arizona was the seventh-most penalized team in the FBS on Friday. Brennan said last week that Arizona “has to play football the right way or it’s going to cost us a chance or a game.”

Arizona did not commit a single penalty in the first quarter. Then Arizona experienced an avalanche of penalties in the second quarter, with seven penalties for 59 yards. Arizona had nine penalties for 74 yards on Friday. Arizona has received 28 penalties for 169 yards in three games this season.

With a chance to tie the game, Fifita threw his third interception of the season. Fifita attempted a long pass over the middle to sophomore receiver Malachi Riley on a seam route, but Kansas State cornerback Keenan Garber dove into the end zone to intercept the Arizona quarterback.

Despite the plethora of second-quarter penalties and a turnover, Arizona got lucky with a missed 48-yard field goal by Chris Tennant and poor time management by KSU. Kansas State had a chance to take a two-possession lead at halftime — three to start the second half — but Johnson faltered on the final play of the first half, wasting the final 11 seconds on an empty drive.

Trailing 14-7, Arizona forced a three-and-out early in the second half, but the offense stalled. Here’s how Arizona’s drives ended after the first touchdown:

• punt
• Intercept
• punt
• punt
• punt
• Sales at Downs
• Sales at Downs
• Sales at Downs

Kansas State bounced back from the first-half debacle with two touchdowns and a 35-yard field goal despite nearly having possession in the second half. KSU scored 31 unanswered points to hand Arizona its first loss of the season.

Arizona (2-1) has a week off before facing No. 12 Utah in the Big 12 opener in Salt Lake City.

• Arizona strong safety Dalton Johnson was not used on Friday. Free safety Gunner Maldonado, who was not used last week, started in place of Johnson, while sophomore Genesis Smith started at free safety.
• Arizona wore candy-red helmets with the logo spelling out “Cats.” On Friday, players wore red helmets for the first time in four seasons. Arizona is 18-18 since 2013, when red helmets were worn.