Saturday Storylines: Plenty at stake in Arizona-TCU showdown in Fort Worth

Five storylines ahead of Arizona football's road finale at TCU on Saturday in Fort Worth, as the Wildcats look to remain bowl eligible. 

FORT WORTH, Texas — For the second straight week, the Arizona Wildcats are in a one-week season when they meet the TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday afternoon at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

It's simple for Arizona: Win, and the bowl hopes still have a pulse. Or lose, converting the Territorial Cup battle with Arizona State into a bowl game since the Wildcats won't qualify for the game in a season that started with Arizona preseason ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in nearly a decade.

After Arizona (4-6) beat Houston to snap a five-game losing skid, the Wildcats will now have to face TCU (6-4), which has the top offense in the Big 12, for the Horned Frogs' home finale. TCU could conceivably win the next two games and bolster the bowl résumé.

In recent years, excluding last season, the Wildcats struggled in the game preceding the Territorial Cup game. But maybe the Wildcats facing bowl elimination will keep Arizona intact for its final road contest.   

"When we get so focused on outcome, when we get so focused on down the road, that's the worst place for us to be because we're missing the importance of what's happening right now," Brennan said.

Added Brennan: "We can't worry about what's down the road because none of that matters. What matters is what we're doing right now. ... For us, we need to find a way to play good football Saturday against TCU. That's all that matters."

Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan needs 112 yards to become the UA's all-time leading receiver, passing current Arizona wide receivers coach Bobby Wade.

Saturday could be a momentous day for Arizona.  

UA defense to play with 'good balance of pressure and playing it straight' 

In last week's win over Houston, the Wildcats used their dime defense, which has evolved into their base defense following season-ending injuries to captains in linebacker Jacob Manu, safety Gunner Maldonado and nickel back Treydan Stukes.

However, the Wildcats brought more defensive backs in the box and flashed blitz, but sometimes dropped back in pass coverage; other times, the Wildcats rattled Houston's dual-threat quarterback Zeon Chriss, who is more potent with his legs than his arms. Sophomore defensive back Genesis Smith broke out for a career-high seven tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery, earning him Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors.  

It was a defensive formula that was effective and forced four fourth-down stops. This week is a different story. 

"Two totally different worlds," said Brennan. "They don't even correlate." 

TCU quarterback Josh Hoover "is a much cleaner and better thrower than (Chriss)," said Brennan. Hoover leads the Big 12 in passing, averaging 323.3 yards per game. TCU also has four receivers with over 500 yards this season: Jack Bech, Savion Williams, Eric McAlister and JP Richardson. TCU's offensive line has also only given up 11 sacks the entire season; Arizona has allowed 24. 

Arizona's defense will look to find "good balance of pressure and playing it straight" against TCU, said Brennan. 

"You can't allow (Hoover) to stand back there all day and pick you apart and have all the time to do it," Brennan said. "The biggest thing is when you do pressure him or you do get there, you gotta get him down and you gotta make the tackle. That part has been a huge point of emphasis for us." 

Lone Star recruiting 

When the Arizona coaching staff strategized the Wildcats' recruiting plan, Arizona running backs coach Alonzo Carter was the first coach to raise his hand. 

"'I want Houston and Dallas,'" Carter said.

When Carter was the recruiting coordinator at San Jose State, even though the Spartans' primary hotspots for recruits are along the West Coast, Carter developed connections in Texas, a prominent state for producing high-level football players — and high school programs with small college-sized stadiums. 

"I was the first person to want to go to those areas, because ... I have a lot of ties to the South," Carter said. "I have a lot of ties in the state of Texas, I know a lot of high school coaches, so to be able to go down there was fun because my peers were a little nervous.

"I always told them, 'If I get a different logo, all of ya'll are in trouble because you know I can only recruit west coast. If you put me where I can go national, all of ya'll are in trouble.' Plus, I can get some good food while I'm at it? I was all-in. ... I love going to Texas."

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Texas has produced more NFL players this season than any other state with 211 Texans on league rosters. About one-third of Arizona's 2025 recruiting cycle hails from Texas. The Wildcats currently have seven commits from the Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin regions for their upcoming class, which ranks seventh in the Big 12, per 247Sports.com. 

"Everybody knows there's good football there in that state," said Brennan, who first started recruiting Texas as a wide receivers coach at Oregon State. Recruiting Texas prospects is "very different than recruiting California," Brennan said, because every coach is an employee of the school, most programs have "a fieldhouse and that's where the coach operates out of," where California has more "off-campus" coaches. 

"The cool thing about Texas is high school football is such an important thing there," said Brennan. "All of those situations that you go into, it's like a college. It's like when the NFL scouts come here. They have the lists, they have the film, they have everything you need, so you can get a chance to properly evaluate players."

Arizona is no stranger to recruiting Texas. The Wildcats pulled several standouts from Texas during the Dick Tomey era, including running back Kelvin Eafon and All-Pac-10 offensive lineman Yusuff Scott. Arizona emphasized recruiting Texas under former head coaches Mike Stoops and Kevin Sumlin. Notable UA Texans under Stoops include Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles, Earl Mitchell, Syndric Steptoe and Trevin Wade, among others.

Now that Arizona is a member of the Big 12, which has three schools in Texas, including the Wildcats' upcoming opponent in TCU, the UA has re-established the pipeline in Texas for 2025 and future recruiting classes.  

"That's the beauty of this program with Texas being so close, being in the Big 12, a great conference. You know you can recruit Texas heavy because those families get to see them play even when we're on the road," said Carter. "Even when we're at home, it's only a one-hour or two-hour plane ride depending on where you're coming from. That's a heavy emphasis for us being a member of the Big 12." 

TCU found a spark, but 'still a flawed team'

Ahead of the Arizona-TCU game, we had a chance to speak with Horned Frogs beat writer Steven Johnson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about TCU's up-and-down season. Here are three questions he answered: 

How would you summarize this season?

A: "I would say right now, they have turned things around. Maybe less than a month ago, right before they played Utah, it was a legitimate and fair question, is (head coach) Sonny Dykes on the hot seat less than two seasons after taking the team to the national championship game? The defense was looking bad, they blew an 18-point lead to UCF, they got blown out by SMU, upset at home by Houston, which was the worst team in the Big 12 at the time.

"Things were looking rocky, but you gotta give credit to Sonny Dykes. After that bye week, they won three out of the last four games; the one game they lost was a last-second loss to Baylor. TCU is still a flawed team. Everything hasn't been fixed, but the Horned Frogs are playing with a lot of confidence and they're trying to finish the season strong and move up in the Big 12 pecking order. They've turned things around and Sonny Dykes, (quarterback) Josh Hoover and those guys deserve a ton of credit for not letting the season get away like last year." 

TCU has the best passing offense in the Big 12, but the Horned Frogs have one of the worst rushing attacks in the league. How is the offense so effective despite being mostly one-dimensional?

A: "Well, they trust the arm of Josh Hoover. He was their guy and they didn't explore experienced or older quarterbacks because they trust him that much. For the most part, he has shown why the staff was so high on him. He's a guy I consider a gunslinger. He loves pushing the ball down the field, but sometimes his decision-making can slip away from him. When he's playing within himself and playing with confidence, I think he's one of the best quarterbacks in the country.

"They have found a wrinkle in the run game. They're using (wide receiver) Savion Williams, who is 6-5 and an extremely talented wide receiver and a draft pick. They've been using him in the backfield. ... They gotta be creative running the football, so they're not asking Josh Hoover to throw 50 or 60 times a game."

Who are TCU's X-factors on offense and defense?

A: "For defense, it has to be (LaMareon James). That'll be TCU's top cornerback and he's going to be the guy to match up with on (Tetairoa McMillan) the most. He's an Old Dominion transfer. He's not the tallest cornerback, but he's super-explosive. ... Offensively, I'll go with TCU's wide receivers — all of them. TCU might be the only school in the country with four receivers with at least 500 yards. ... It's hard to pick one, because they all have different roles and different breakout moments this year."

Turnover battle

The Wildcats aren't foreign to success on the road this season. In Arizona's first-ever conference game in the Big 12, the Wildcats upset then-10th-ranked Utah, albeit the Utes have lost five straight since then. 

Beyond the Utah win? Three massive losses for the Wildcats. Including the lone road victory, Arizona has been outscored 138-61 away from Tucson this season — a season after the Wildcats lost three games by a combined 16 points.

The turnover battle is the most noticeable difference between Arizona's win at Utah and the other three setbacks. Arizona has forced three takeaways on the road but its opponents have forced seven UA turnovers. The Wildcats have yet to play a turnover-less game this season.

Some of Arizona's turnovers were momentum-shifting plays that turned into points for its opponents, such as quarterback Noah Fifita's fumble and interception on the opening drives of the second half of the 41-19 loss to BYU; the Cougars scored 20 straight points before the Wildcats scored a touchdown. 

Arizona running back Quali Conley had fumbles in back-to-back games, which led to touchdowns for West Virginia and UCF; the Knights subsequently went ahead by two touchdowns in their 56-12 drubbing of Arizona.

Turnover differential is "one of those statistics that always leads to the outcome," said Brennan.

"It's one of the best predictors of winning and losing," he said. "Noah needs to do a great job with where he goes with the football.

"We've gotta do a great job of protecting him with a good defensive front and then anyone who carries it needs to be strong with the ball, keep four points of pressure and understand that when they're possessing, at the end of the play, they need to hand (the ball) to the official."