With five games remaining in the regular season, Arizona is two wins away from being eligible for a bowl. The Wildcats have been in that same scenario since early October, though, dropping their last two games by one score apiece before getting a week off.
Refreshed and refocused, Arizona (4-3, 1-3 Big 12) begins the stretch run Saturday at Colorado. It will be Homecoming for the Buffaloes (3-5, 1-4).
Here’s what to look for when the Wildcats and Buffs meet for the 28th time:
Fifita finding his groove
Saturday will be Noah Fifita’s
29th consecutive start, tying him with Willie Tuitama for most in school history in at least 30 years. It’s only his eighth working with offensive coordinator Seth Doege, though, but after some uneven performances earlier in the season Fifita put together a masterful effort last time out at Houston.
Fifita was 24 of 26, setting a school record for completion percentage, for 269 yards and two touchdowns. For the season he’s thrown 17 TD passes against four interceptions and is up to 66 percent accuracy.
“I think he’s just getting more comfortable,” offensive coordinator Seth Doege said of Fifita, who during the bye was added to the Manning Award watchlist. “The relationship that we have, to me, is unmatched. I don’t think that happens very often in college football. I do think he trusts me, but I think he’s starting to trust the scheme more and more and more and know that if he just follows his reads, his footwork, his progression, it’s going to look like it did.”
Fifita is continuing to spread the ball around, with eight different players getting targeted at least 10 times this season. Only nine players got to 10 targets all of last season.
“He starting to trust the receivers, the timing, everything,” Doege said. “It’s a process, it’s a new scheme. And as much as all of us, including myself, want it just to overnight happen it just takes some time. And I think he starting to really feel it.”
A vulnerable opponent
Three weeks ago Colorado rallied to beat Iowa State, a team Arizona lost to by 25, improving to 3-2 at home with the two losses by one score each to unbeaten Top 10 schools Georgia Tech and BYU. Then came the Buffs’ last game, an abject disaster of a 53-7 loss at Utah.
Colorado had negative yardage at halftime and finished with 140 overall, while it allowed more than 400 rushing yards. It was the worst loss of Deion Sanders‘ coaching career, and he said it was his worst beating since one his mother gave him as a kid.
The Buffs could also be without some starters on Saturday, as offensive lineman Xavier Hill has been ruled out and a pair of defensive lineman are listed as doubtful. This is a team that could be ready to mail it in after that performance and with the way the season has gone, or it could use that beatdown as motivation.
“It doesn’t matter what happened (last) weekend,” UA coach Brent Brennan said. “What matters is what happens (this) weekend. And that’s all we’re worried about.”
Ground and pound
Arizona’s last two games have seen the opponent seemingly run at will on a defense that beforehand had looked pretty stout against the run. BYU and Houston combined for 490 rushing yards, a good chunk of that coming via power runs by the quarterbacks, while the first five games saw the Wildcats allow only 488 rushing yards.
Missed tackles were a big part of the problem, with 18 of those coming in the past two games. That led to Arizona going back to basics during the bye, focusing as much on the fundamentals as gameplanning for the Buffaloes.
Colorado averages is second-to-last in the Big 12 in rushing, at 130.1 yards per game, though that’s twice as much as it averaged last season. Quarterback Kaidon Salter has run for 374 yards when you take out sack yardage, tops on the team, though only 160 of that has been on designed runs.
“Phenomenal athlete,” Gonzales said of Salter, a fifth-year senior who began his career at Liberty. “I think he’s very similar to Avery Johnson at Kansas State, who’s on a roll right now, by the way. I think he’s fast as him, and they will do some things. They have not been a huge quarterback power, but why would you not put quarterback power in once you’ve seen the last two weeks?”
Arizona is 12th in the Big 12 in rushing, at 142.1 yards per game, but this could be the breakout performance for that part of the offense. Colorado has allowed 200-plus on the ground five times, giving up nearly six yards per carry on first down and 6.4 in the first quarter.
All three of the UA’s main running backs are averaging at least 4.9 yards per carry, and Fifita has picked up 16 first downs himself on runs.
