Arizona doesn’t get much room to ease into Big 12 play. The Wildcats open conference action Saturday afternoon at No. 15 BYU, and the timing is awkward enough that their lone off week of the season had to be pushed into Week 2 just to make the schedule work.
Coach Brent Brennan said Monday that Arizona is dealing with the kind of hand every team gets in a conference slate.
“I think everyone’s kind of at the mercy of the luck of the draw, and sometimes the draw is good, and sometimes it’s not,” coach Brent Brennan said Monday. “But at the end of the day, nobody wants to hear you complain about the schedule, so you better get your team ready to play. That’s what we’re doing.”
The challenge is obvious. Arizona has dropped five straight to BYU, including last season’s painful double-overtime loss in Tucson, and the Wildcats haven’t won in Provo since 1975. FanDuel Sportsbook lists BYU as a 7.5-point favorite.
The matchup comes with plenty to sort out, starting up front. Arizona’s defense was dominant against NAU, holding the Lumberjacks to minus-7 rushing yards and posting the program’s first negative rushing-yard performance allowed since Stanford in 2006. That’s a sharp jump from a unit that ranked No. 58 in FBS against the run a year ago, but BYU is a much bigger test.
The Cougars ran for 308 yards against Utah Tech and piled up 258 on Arizona in Tucson last season. LJ Martin, now a senior, had a then-career-high 162 yards in that game, and quarterback Bear Bachmeier added 89 yards and two touchdowns.
“If we don’t give up 258 yards rushing, we have a chance to play in the conference championship,” UA defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said Tuesday. “That was my fail to our kids.”
Arizona did spread the workload in the opener, rotating 10 defensive linemen and keeping everyone under 29 of 53 defensive snaps. BYU, meanwhile, was second in the Big 12 in run defense last season, giving up 122 yards per game. Arizona still managed 164 on the ground in last year’s meeting, with 90 coming from Kedrick Reescano.
The turnover battle could be just as important. Arizona was loose with the ball against NAU, losing two fumbles and throwing an interception that was returned for a touchdown. It was the Wildcats’ first lost turnover margin since the fifth game of 2025, when they finished second nationally in turnover margin at plus-18.
That issue showed up in a costly way against BYU last year, when Arizona couldn’t recover a late Cougar fumble in the double-overtime defeat. The year before, the Wildcats coughed it up four times in a 41-19 loss in Provo, and Noah Fifita threw three interceptions - the only time in his career he has done that.
There is reason to think the passing game can settle in. Arizona intercepted Bachmeier twice in 2025 and held him to 12 completions on 29 attempts. If the Wildcats can pressure him and force him to stay in the pocket, they could create chances to change the field position battle.
Fifita’s history in Provo is a rough one. In the 2024 game at BYU, he went 26 of 52 for 272 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions, finishing with a quarterback rating of 89.23, well below his season average of 126.48.
He also struggled in Arizona’s first Big 12 road game last season at Iowa State, throwing two picks, but he steadied after that. In road games at Houston, Colorado, Cincinnati and ASU, he went 86 of 121 for 1,062 yards and eight touchdowns without an interception.
Arizona may also have help in the secondary to work with. BYU safety Raider Damuni was injured in the opener and is listed as out on the first Big 12 availability report.
The Wildcats are still sorting through personnel on their own side as well. Arizona used four running backs and seven linebackers against NAU, and on Wednesday it learned that 2025 standouts Ismail Mahdi and Max Harris had been granted a temporary restraining order by a Pima County judge to regain eligibility.
Mahdi led Arizona in rushing last season and had 21 yards plus three catches against BYU a year ago. Harris added seven tackles in that game.
In Other News...
Arizona Suddenly Has A Defensive Strength BYU Can't Ignore
Arizonas linebacker room has become one of the quieter reasons this defense has started to draw real attention, and it starts with the way Danny Gonzales talks about the group. The defensive coordinator has been especially high on Josh Bringuel, the young linebackers coach whose relationships and teaching ability have helped the unit settle in and improve. Gonzales has also pointed to the development of Cooper Blomstrom and Chase Kennedy, a sign that this is not just about one standout, but about a room that is becoming more reliable across the board.
For Arizona, that matters because the defense is heading into games where consistency at linebacker can tilt everything from run fits to coverage communication. Gonzales has made it clear he likes what he has in the middle of the defense, and his praise for Taye Brown suggests the Wildcats believe they have a difference-maker anchoring the group. The bigger question now is whether that growth holds up when the competition asks more from the unit, because if it does, Arizona may have found a strength opponents cant afford to overlook. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona Gets A Late Boost Before Its Biggest BYU Test
Arizona picked up a late roster boost heading into one of its biggest tests of the season, adding running back Ismail Mahdi, linebacker Max Harris and punter Sullivan Moon after a Pima County judge granted them a temporary restraining order against the NCAA. The trio is now cleared for competition, giving the Wildcats a little more flexibility at a time when depth can matter just as much as star power.
The most immediate impact figures to come from Mahdi and Harris, who are expected to provide meaningful help on both sides of the ball as Arizona prepares for BYU. Their availability gives the coaching staff a few more options for a road game that already carried plenty of weight, and the question now is how quickly they can be folded into the mix once the Wildcats get to Provo. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona Faces Its First Real Season Test At BYU
Arizonas trip to BYU arrives as the kind of early conference measuring stick that can tell a program a lot about itself. The Cougars are ranked 15th and have built a reputation for making life hard on visiting teams, so this one has the feel of a real road challenge for Brent Brennans group and a useful snapshot of where the Wildcats stand as the Big 12 race starts to take shape.
Brennan and defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales have both pointed to the broader picture around the game, treating it as important without turning it into a season-defining referendum. Arizona still has plenty of football left after this one, but the trip offers a chance to show the program can handle a difficult environment and keep itself positioned for the bigger goals ahead. [Read more 🡒]