No. 25 Arizona gets another chance to show this hot start is for real Saturday afternoon in Tucson, where the Wildcats will try to keep rolling against Iowa State in a Big 12 matchup.
Arizona has already put together a season it hasn’t matched in 12 years. The Wildcats are 5-1 overall and 2-1 in league play, and they’ve rattled off four straight wins since an 11-point loss at then-No.
15 BYU. During that stretch, Arizona has been winning by an average of 20.8 points.
That run was enough to push the Wildcats into the AP Top 25 this week for the first time in 2026.
Iowa State arrives at 3-3 and 1-2, a team that has gone win-loss-win-loss-win-loss so far before heading into a bye after its latest game, a defeat at then-No. 8 BYU.
Arizona’s offense has been the engine behind the surge, and it starts with Noah Fifita. The quarterback has become the school’s career leader in passing yards and touchdowns, and this season he has thrown for 1,756 yards, 16 touchdowns and four interceptions while completing 73.3% of his passes. He’s done that while dealing with injuries to his top three targets.
First-year Iowa State coach Jimmy Rogers made it clear he knows what kind of challenge is coming.
"I think they've got one of the best quarterbacks in the country," first-year Iowa State coach Jimmy Rogers said. "Our offense has to play better than their offense."
The Cyclones have struggled through the air, with quarterback Jaylen Raynor completing 57.4% of his passes for 1,001 yards, seven touchdowns and four interceptions. Rogers didn’t sugarcoat what he wants to see from him.
Rogers said of Raynor, "There is no question Jaylen needs to improve his accuracy and make plays and really be an X factor in the offense. I'm not blind to the fact of certain things, but there's also deficiencies in other areas that are leading to what looks like his mistake. It could be somebody else's mistakes."
Where Iowa State has found more traction is on the ground, where Aiden Flora has carried the load. Flora has rushed for 680 yards and six touchdowns, and he also threw two scoring passes during a five-touchdown performance on Oct. 3 against West Virginia.
Brent Brennan had plenty of praise for him.
"He's a throwback dude, he does it all," Arizona coach Brent Brennan said of Flora. "He's just a total stud. It's really, really fun to watch him play."
Arizona’s defense will need a cleaner showing against the run after allowing more than 300 rushing yards in last week’s 52-31 win over West Virginia. Even so, the Wildcats have generally handled the run well and have been one of the better pass-rushing teams in the Big 12, piling up 19 sacks.
That’s just two fewer than they had all of last season. Iowa State, though, has given up only nine sacks.
Third down could swing the whole thing. Arizona enters ranked fourth in the conference in third-down conversion rate at 54.8%, while Iowa State is second to last at 31%.
The red zone may matter just as much. Iowa State is one of just two teams in the country to score on every trip inside the 20, going 17-for-17 with 12 touchdowns.
Arizona has been just as sharp in that area, finishing 21 of 23 chances with 17 touchdowns. On defense, the Wildcats have limited opponents to nine touchdowns on 17 red-zone trips and forced six stops overall.
Arizona is chasing its best opening stretch since 2014, when it started 6-1 and made it to the Pac-12 final, the program’s only conference championship game appearance.
Iowa State, meanwhile, is looking for its first road win over a ranked opponent in conference play since beating Kansas State in 2023.
"This team executes at an extremely high level," Brennan said of the Cyclones. "They're incredibly physical, and that's a challenge for our football team."
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For the Cyclones, Brown is the kind of player who can turn a decent drive into a stalled one in a hurry. Arizona has leaned on him all season as one of its most reliable tacklers, and his consistency gives the Wildcats a linebacker who can set the tone from snap to snap. Iowa State has already learned what happens when it runs into ranked competition, and Brown looks like a major reason this matchup could be another long afternoon. [Read more 🡒]
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Arizonas next test comes with an upcoming exhibition against Eastern Washington, another chance to see how quickly the new-look rotation is coming together. The buzz around Krivas is about more than preseason recognition, though. His early play has only added to the feeling that Arizona may have a legitimate centerpiece to build around, and the next question is how far that momentum can carry once the games start counting for real. [Read more 🡒]