Everything you need to know about the Arizona vs. Utah game

Arizona Football takes on the Utah Utes in their house this Saturday, here’s all you need to know about the upcoming game.

Game Information:  Arizona (2-3) vs. Utah (4-1) both in the Pac-12 South

Location: Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, Utah

When: October 8, 2016

Game Time:  7:00 pm PST/MST

Television: FS1 – Fox Sports 1

Radio:  Arizona IMG Sports Network (Try TuneIn Radio), Brian Jeffries and Lamont Lovett

Betting line: Utah -10

Series Lead: Utah 20, Arizona 19, two ties – Arizona has beaten Utah the last four times the two teams have met

Last Meeting:  Tucson, November 11, 2015, Arizona won in overtime 37-30

Uniforms: Arizona will wear White on top and Blue on the bottom

Remember the last time Arizona beat Utah, safety Will Parks tapped the referee back on the shoulder, it worked!

Here is the Pac-12 preview care of Yogi Roth in a rare moment when he actually talks about Arizona football:

Arizona Notes:

Rich Rod does not pay too much attention to past records between two teams, but recently Arizona has beaten Utah four times under Rodriguez. Utah recruited two of Arizona’s quarterbacks Brandon Dawkins and Khalil Tate losing out to Arizona. We asked Coach Rod if he thought that helped Utah.

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“They are probably preparing for the scheme no matter who the guy is. The fact that we’ve been playing multiple guys, I don’t think it changes much. They’re going to do what they do defensively. Certainly, if you’ve got a guy who runs a little bit, you are going to be aware of that. But I think they are just preparing for the scheme no matter who is the guy.”

We asked Coach Rod if any more true freshman were preparing to play this weekend, “Offensively we don’t know if there’s going to be any more true freshmen playing other than Khalil and obviously, he’s going to get ready to play right now.” Okay, well that’s pretty definitive coach.

Trey Griffey, Michael Barton, and Aiulua Fanene spoke to the media on Monday to discuss last week’s game and what they need to do going forward.

Note: Video’s and quotes care of Arizona Daily Star (Tucson.com)

Utah Notes

Coach Kyle Whittingham has not been lucky against Arizona. In fact, last season we burst their bubble and took them out of the Pac-12 Championship contention. Last season Arizona took the Utes to double overtime.

What concerns does Coach Whittingham have about playing Arizona?

“They’ve had our number without a doubt for the last several years. But the thing we haven’t been able to do a good job of is to defend the run against those guys. They’ve run the football effectively against us, and if a team can run the ball on ya, everything else is going to be very difficult.

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So that’s our first and foremost objective to slow down the run game. Aside from that, it’s just that they have played very well against us and we haven’t had an answer for it and so that’s the main concern.”

Utah suffered their first loss of the season last week against Cal, how is the team doing?

“We will find out today, but we’ve got to be able to put it behind us. You can’t let a team beat you twice. That’s a cardinal sin to allow that to happen so as tough a loss as it was, we’ve got to move on. There’s a lot of good football ahead of us, and we’ve got to be able to rebound just like 50-percent of the other teams in the country have to this week.”

Utah also lost their senior center J.J. Dielman to a season-ending injury, so Arizona may be able to capitalize on that by pressuring their quarterback Troy Williams. Other than their center, Utah has a healthy team otherwise, only a few more injuries.

Williams transferred from Washington and had redshirted with previous season. Troy played for Narbonne High School (Los Angeles, Calif.) in the CIF Pac-5 Southern Section, so he comes from experience from college and high school.

Here are Troy’s passing stats:

Provided by CFB at Sports Reference: View Original Table
Generated 10/5/2016.

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Prediction: Arizona  27 Utah 21

Even though Utah recruited Khalil Tate, they only have one-half of game tape to figure him out. Coach Whittingham is concerned about the run, but we are down to wide receivers for running backs, and we believe he is thinking about our Quarterbacks running prowess. Arizona is battered and bruised but has eager freshmen. Utah, despite losing their senior center, are seemingly healthier and there is the knowledge that Arizona has had their number.

Rich Rod has shown he does not want to lose and will do everything he can to win, let’s hope after another late game on Saturday, the Wildcats walk away with a win.