Arizona Football prepares for Week One match-up against Utah

After much waiting, Arizona Football is finally here, as the Wildcats will enter Week One with a big match-up against the Utah Utes.

The 2020 Arizona Football season is finally here! Weeks/ Months after waiting to learn if there would even be a season, finally, the anticipation of waiting is over, as the Wildcats suit up this weekend against the Utah Utes.

So far, there has been lots of build-up to the season, and some of that to the dismay of Wildcat fans anticipating the worst.

Arizona Wildcats

Regardless of how you feel about the Wildcats playing this season, we will nonetheless have Arizona Football to get us through the next six-to-seven weekends.

Already there has been a lot of events transpiring, and there hasn’t  been a shortage of storylines to follow this off-season either. From the season delay to the numerous transfers to the Wildcats being picked to finish last in the Pac-12 South, there has been plenty to follow and discuss.

For me, I am excited and anxious to see Arizona play. Numerous players came forth, voicing their opinion about wanting to get on the field, also, even with the negativity and poor perception regarding the program currently, I am curious to see how this team plays.

Maybe it will be ugly? Maybe the condensed season favors the Wildcats? Who knows, nevertheless, we have football and it’ll be against a talented Utah Football that is going through some big changes this off-season as well.

With that said, here we go as we dive into our First Edition of the 2020 Week One Preview!

Know Thy Foe:

Team: Utah Utes (0-0, 0-0)

Conference: Pac-12 Conference

2019 Record: Finished 11-3 (8-1), winning the Pac-12 South. Utah closed out the season by losing 38-10 to Texas in the 2019 Alamo Bowl, as well as losing to Oregon in the Pac-12 Title Game.

Head Coach: Kyle Wittingham enters his 16th season in Salt Lake City. He has certainly cemented himself as one of the top coaches in the conference, especially after taking over for Urban Meyer back in 2004. Compiling a 131-64 (77-52) record with the Utes, Wittingham should once again have a very competitive group that will likely contend for a Pac-12 South title.

Key Returners/ Starters: The Utes will have to replace a lot of talent, especially on the defensive side of the ball. They will also have big shoes to fill in the departures of QB Tyler Huntley and RB Zack Moss, but they should once again have a talented group.

So far, it is hard to say who will be under center just yet, however, it seems like Coach Wittingham has his quarterback, as Cameron Rising, Jake Bentley, and former walk-on Drew Lisk all battled this pre-season. I guess we will have to wait to see who is under center come Saturday.

The defense will still be their biggest question heading into this game. This is a group that is a year removed from finishing in the Top 10 nationally and will have to replace a lot of talent as well.

I still imagine that Wittingham will put together a very solid group just as he always does. Look for them to likely be led by guys like LB Devin Lloyd, DE Mika Tafua, DB R.J. Hubert, and DE Maxs Tupai.

Key Losses: 

QB – Tyler Huntley (Graduated)
CB – Jaylon Johnson (Draft)
S – Julian Blackmon (Draft)
RB – Zack Moss (Draft)
S – Terrell Burgess (Draft)
DT – Leki Fotu (Draft)
DE – Bradlee Anae (Draft)
DT – John Penisini (Draft)
CB – Javelin Guidry (Undrafted)
LB – Francis Bernard (Undrafted)
CB – Josh Nurse (Undrafted)
CB – Tareke Lewis (Graduated)

Key Injuries: 

Utah

• N/A

Arizona 

• Jabar Triplett – LB (Achilles) – The freshman is out for the season after suffering from a surgically repaired Achilles this off-season.
• Frank Brown – RB (Knee) – Status unknown
• Jaden Mitchell – WR (Knee) – Status unknown

Game Information: 

When: Saturday, November 7th, 2020

Time: 12:30 PM (PST)/1:30 PM (MST – Arizona Time)

Watch: ESPN2

Where: Rice-Eccles Stadium – Salt Lake City, UT (45,807)

Spread: +13.5 Arizona

Overall Series Record: 24-19-2 Utah. The Utes control this series, and they certainly have seen recent dominance in this series as well, winning seven of the last 11 match-ups, including four-straight.

Last Meeting vs. Arizona: Utah won the previous meeting between the two schools, coming away with the lopsided, 35-7 win over the Wildcats in Tucson in 2019. We will see if Utah can duplicate those results in Salt Lake City.

My Prediction: This is going to be a unique game. I think the benefit for Arizona coming into this one is that, Utah will have no fans in attendance, they are breaking in a new quarterback, and will have a lot of fresh faces on defense. Additionally, they are in Week One too, which means lots of learning, lots of adjusting, etc. at least early on.

While I still think Utah has the advantage here, I do think this is potentially one of the Wildcats’ more favorable match-ups strictly because of the aforementioned things.

However, I’m still going Utah 38 Arizona 27.

Prediction record so far: 0-0

At Zona Zealots, we’re hoping for a good, injury free game from our Wildcats, and hope they get plenty of valuable experience in Week One. As always, Bear Down Arizona and Beat Utah!