No. 10 Utah (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) vs. Arizona (2-1, 0-0 Big 12)
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Kickoff: Saturday, 8:15 p.m. MDT
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Venue: Rice-Eccles Stadium
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TV: ESPN
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Livestream: espn.com/watch
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Radio: ESPN 700 AM/92.1 FM
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Series: Utah leads 26-20-2
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Weather: Clear with temperatures in the high 70s at kickoff, dropping to low 70s by end of game.
The trends
For Utah: The Utes are 4-0 after picking up their first-ever Big 12 victory at Oklahoma State last Saturday. Without quarterback Cam Rising, Utah won 22-19 behind a mostly dominant performance from its defense and a career-high day from running back Micah Bernard.
For Arizona: Yet to play a Big 12 game, Arizona had a bye week after a 31-7 loss at Kansas State in a nonconference game. It marked the second straight week of stifled offensive production and another game this year wherein the Wildcats let a mobile quarterback run wild.
What to watch for
The key matchup when Arizona has the ball is Tetairoa McMillan vs. cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn. Vaughn, Utah’s No. 1 cornerback, will draw the challenge of taking on one of the nation’s best receivers, and it might be the toughest matchup he has all year.
McMillan has been his usual elite self this year — 453 yards and four touchdowns on 23 catches — and has all of Utah’s attention this week.
Aside from McMillan, though, it’s been a disappointing performance from the rest of Arizona’s pass catchers. After Jacob Cowling went to the NFL, the Wildcats still have not found their WR2 and haven’t had much production from their tight ends, who entered the season with a lot of buzz.
Non-McMillan wide receivers have combined for just 201 yards thus far, and tight end Keyan Burnett had had just 49 yards on three catches.
McMillan is a fantastic talent and could hurt the Utes, but if Utah locks the other pass-catchers down, that will go a long way to slowing down Arizona’s offense.
Key player
Noah Fifita, Arizona QB: After a productive season last year, coming in for the injured Jayden de Laura and leading Arizona to a 10-3 record and an Alamo Bowl win over Oklahoma, it’s been a bit of a slow start for Fifita this season.
One of the nation’s most accurate passers a season ago, Fifita has thrown an interception in each game, and his completion percentage is down nine points to 63.6%.
But despite the less-than-ideal start to the season, Utah knows what Fifita is like when he gets going, and he only needs one game to do so. Will that get-right game come against Utah’s defense, which allowed 167 passing yards per game (34th in the nation) and just 13 points per game (21st in the nation)?
That remains to be seen, but when Fifita is on, he’s up there with some of the better talents in college football. If Arizona is to pull off the upset on the road in Salt Lake City, Fifita is going to have to have a great game.
Quotable
“The McMillan kid is a terrific receiver leading the conference in yards per game … He’s a big target, big catch radius. It reminds me a lot of Devaughn Vele, 6-foot-5, 210, and runs exceptionally well. Great body control. He’s a big time receiver so we got to have an answer and hopefully, like I said, play better than we did last year.” — Utah coach Kyle Whittingham
“The decade of college football experience? I think we always talk about that as coaches, that there’s no substitute for live bullets and Cam has had so many opportunities and big games and big moments and big arenas and that part of it. But Wilson looks like a really good player and he obviously handled that situation great last weekend and that’s as tough of an environment as you’re going to have to play in at Oklahoma State. So I think whoever we end up playing against, we’re going to play against a really good player.” — Arizona coach Brent Brennan on the difference between Cam Rising and Isaac Wilson
Next up
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Utah: Bye
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Arizona: vs. Texas Tech
Utah schedule
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Aug. 29: Utah 49, Southern Utah 0
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Sept. 7: Utah 23, Baylor 12
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Sept. 14: Utah 38, Utah State 21
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Sept. 21: at Oklahoma State (2 p.m., Fox)
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Sept. 28: Utah 22, Oklahoma State 19
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Oct. 5: Bye
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Oct. 11: at Arizona State (8:30 p.m., ESPN)
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Oct. 19: TCU
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Oct. 26: at Houston
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Nov. 2: Bye
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Nov. 9: BYU
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Nov. 16: at Colorado
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Nov. 23: Iowa State
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Nov. 29: at UCF (6 p.m., Fox)
All times Mountain time zone.
