Arizona and Cincinnati are headed for a Saturday night Big 12 matchup in Tucson that puts two very different offenses on the same field.
The Wildcats lean on the air. Arizona is second in the conference in passing at 303.8 yards per game, and fifth-year senior Noah Fifita sits at the center of it all.
He owns the school’s career records for passing yards, with 10,314, and passing touchdowns, with 84. He has been responsible for nine touchdowns over the last two games, and last season he threw for 294 yards in Arizona’s win at Cincinnati.
“He's fun to watch unless you've got to play him,” said Bearcats coach Scott Satterfield, whose team is off to its best start since opening the 2021 season with 13 straight wins.
“He's probably the best quarterback nobody really talks about throughout the country.”
Cincinnati, meanwhile, has built its perfect start on the ground. The Bearcats are 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the Big 12, and they average 270 rushing yards per game with 16 rushing touchdowns.
They are running the ball more than 40 times a game, with senior Gi'Bran Payne and junior Cole Tabb leading the way. Together, they have piled up 679 yards and eight touchdowns, and both topped 100 yards in last week’s 31-26 comeback win over Kansas State.
“They've been running the ball basically at will,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said. “It's going to be an incredible challenge for our defense.”
Arizona comes in at 3-1 overall and 0-1 in conference play after its own comeback last week, a 34-24 road win at Washington State. The Wildcats trailed 14-0 in the first quarter before turning it around, and it was the first time since 2011 that Arizona won a road game after falling behind by two scores.
Cincinnati’s offense is also getting efficient work from quarterback JC French IV, who has completed 74.5% of his passes for 796 yards and six touchdowns without an interception. Against Kansas State, he went 8 of 13 for 165 yards and a touchdown, and he added eight carries for 21 yards.
In Other News...
Arizonas Slow Start Still Looms As Young Wildcats Raise The Stakes
Brent Brennan spent part of this week looking back at Arizonas 34-24 win over Washington State, but the larger conversation still circles the way the Wildcats have opened the season. The recent surge has given the offense a little more room to breathe, and Brennan has pointed to the growth of several young players, including freshmen, as a big reason the group looks more confident and more settled as the year moves on.
For a coaching staff trying to build consistency, the early stretch still matters because it shaped the urgency around everything that has followed. Brennan also acknowledged that the defense has had its own unique challenge handling an unconventional style of play, which only adds another layer to the evaluation as Arizona tries to turn those encouraging signs into something more lasting. [Read more 🡒]