Tim Kish won his Arizona coaching debut in such a dominant fashion that it may eventually cost his counterpart at UCLA his job. Arizona made a winner out of Kish as the Wildcats blew out the Bruins 48-12 in a Pac-12 contest Thursday night in Tucson, Ariz.

Kish took over for Mike Stoops, who was fired a week ago after spending 7½ years with the club and saw his team roar out to a 42-7 halftime lead to snap its five-game losing streak and beat a BCS team for the first time in 11 tries.

Arizona (2-5, 1-4 Pac-12) scored touchdowns all six times it had the ball in the first half. Three of the scores came on passes from Nick Foles to Juron Criner.
Foles, who entered the game second in the nation in passing yards, finished with 290 yards through the air before leaving the game after three quarters. Criner had 10 catches for 101 yards and Taimi Tutogi scored a pair of short rushing touchdowns.

With rumors circulating about Rick Neuheisel’s tenuous future at UCLA, the Bruins were embarrassed, allowing 416 yards in the first half alone. And their frustration boiled over late in the first half as both teams took part in a wild bench-clearing melee resulting in two ejections and delaying the game for several minutes.

UCLA (3-4, 2-2) got a touchdown pass from Kevin Prince to Johnathan Franklin in the first quarter but little else on the way to its fifth straight loss to Arizona.