“Lev it on the Field” is back for Game 4. It’s the Star’s unique look at Arizona’s upcoming football matchup and other happenings around the Big 12 through the eyes of UA beat reporter-turned-columnist Michael Lev. Away we go ...
Arizona’s game at No. 10 Utah on Saturday night isn’t a must-win for the Wildcats.
But it’s a must-play-well-and-be-competitive.
Michael Lev is a senior writer/columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson.com and The Wildcaster.
In order to restore the faith of the fan base — and inject confidence into a team coming off an ugly loss — Arizona has to show it belongs in Salt Lake City. Even if they fall short, the Wildcats have to put up a fight.
Arizona has to show it’s making progress after going backward, at least offensively, in each of the past two games. The Wildcats have to show that last year’s 42-18 victory, which ended a six-game losing streak in the series, wasn’t a fluke.
Arizona’s Dominic Lolesio (42) puts a stop to Utah running back Sione Vaki’s carry in the fourth quarter of their Pac-12 meeting at Arizona Stadium on Nov. 18, 2023.
Despite being in a new conference, Utah looks very much like, well, Utah. Tough. Physical. Relentless.
Can Arizona also be all those things? And play the brand of “clean” football that Brent Brennan is seeking?
We’ll see. Skepticism isn’t unwarranted here. The Wildcats have yet to show that they are the team they need to be.
The bye should help, especially with Utah coming off a road game played in sweltering heat in Stillwater, Oklahoma. And if Cam Rising can’t play again? That’d be advantageous for Arizona, too. No matter how promising freshman Isaac Wilson has looked, he’s still a freshman. Rising is old enough to rent a car without restrictions.
So yeah, I’m saying there’s a chance. But the Wildcats have to hold up their end. They have to show up ready to rumble.
Take that for data!
Like pitcher wins in baseball, time of possession in football is a statistic that isn’t valued as much as it used to be.
Don’t tell that to Kyle Whittingham.
Whittingham’s crew leads the Big 12 and ranked fourth nationally entering this week with an average time of possession of 36 minutes, 21 seconds. The Utes possessed the ball for 42:32 in last week’s win at Oklahoma State — which meant the Cowboys had it for just 17:28.
Utah has won the time-of-possession battle against Arizona in all 12 games that they’ve played since the Utes joined the Pac-12 Conference in 2011. They’ve held the ball for as much as 39:32 (2019) and as little as 30:34 (2011).
What’s behind that trend? And why does it matter?
The stat that usually correlates with time of possession is third-down conversion rate. Utah hasn’t converted third downs with much success so far this season, ranking 14th in the Big 12 at 31%. But the Utes have limited opponents to an even lower rate: 23.3%, second lowest in the league.
It matters because as long as Utah has the ball, Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan don’t. And every body blow the Utes deliver adds up.
Colorado wide receiver Travis Hunter, left, pulls in a pass as Baylor linebacker Keaton Thomas defends in the second half of their Sept. 21 matchup in Boulder, Colorado.
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Going up: Hunter Heisman hype
Colorado receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter is the best player in college football. What he’s doing for the Buffaloes, who visit UCF on Saturday, is unprecedented. Hunter isn’t playing one position and dabbling at the other. He’s working two full-time jobs and excelling at both. He’s averaging 133.5 snaps per game. He leads the Big 12 in receptions and receiving touchdowns. And, of course, he forced the fumble that clinched Colorado’s overtime comeback vs. Baylor. The best quarterback on the best team typically wins the Heisman Trophy. Hunter has neither going for him. But no one’s more valuable, and second place isn’t close.
Going down: Reasonable bedtimes
If you thought Arizona’s move to the Big 12 signaled the end of late kickoffs, well, you were misled. After facing Utah at 7:15 p.m. Arizona time (8:15 in Salt Lake City), the UA will host Texas Tech at 8 p.m. That’s suboptimal for many reasons, but especially because it deters older fans and families with young children from attending. Not that any of that matters to the TV execs who make these decisions. They’re all about maximizing their broadcast revenue. Expansion enabled the Big 12 to spread into an additional time zone. That’s more valuable than any school’s U.S. News & World Report ranking.
A question from my X
“If they get smoked by Utah, what does a successful season look like? I think we all thought 2-2 was (a) likely start, but how they have looked is what is problematic.” — @Toolman51 via X/Twitter
A second consecutive lopsided loss would reset expectations. If the Wildcats don’t look like they belong on the same field as the Utes, another 9-3 regular-season finish is probably unrealistic. A record of 7-5 might be on the table — which would be disappointing with everything and everyone Arizona had coming back.
If it’s a competitive game — one in which the Wildcats appear to take a step forward — 8-4 is a reasonable outcome. If that were the case, I’d consider the season to be a relative success.
Arizona won 10 games in a season three times before last year. Only once did the Wildcats win as many as eight the next season. Their follow-up records: 8-4 (1994), 6-6 (1999) and 7-6 (2015).
A Texas Tech player models the all-black uniforms the Red Raiders will wear in their game against Cincinnati on Saturday.
Threads
Utah and Texas Tech, which hosts Cincinnati on Saturday, are donning all-black uniforms this week. Who wears it better? I’m giving a slight edge to the Red Raiders for having “Texas Tech” across the chest, white numbers and stripes with red borders that really pop — Utah’s marks are the opposite — and a white stripe bisecting the helmet. But you can’t go wrong with either look.
What he said ...
“Always. It’s football. There's always things that are complicated, especially when you have a transition. Lots of new pieces, new coaching staff, new way to go about business. That's not surprising to me at all.” — Brennan
What he meant ...
“Can we have a little patience here, please? Look, I’d love for us to be 3-0. I’d be thrilled if everything had gone our way so far. But that’s not the reality. Stuff happens. What matters is how we handle ourselves moving forward. I think we’ll be OK. I’ve been through way worse.”
The other side
Gordon Monson, via The Salt Lake Tribune:
Big games come around every so often in the regular season, usually in the latter part of the fall, but perhaps the biggest game for Utah fell upon the Utes in a hurry on Saturday afternoon, the 21st of September, against an opponent they hadn’t played since the year World War II ended, in a stadium in which they’d never played, for the early advantage in a league in which they’d never played.
They say the first time anyone or any team does anything, it’s the hardest.
Well. Try it with a backup freshman quarterback. How hard could it be? Not as difficult as you might have thought. In fact, let’s say it all plain here: On Saturday, despite Utah’s circumstances being unique, their foe being novel, their setting being odd, their consequence being new, the Utes kicked … how should we say this? … fanny. That’s a nice enough word for the one-sided violence that occurred.
Kansas State offensive lineman Sam Hecht (75) prepares to snap the football during the Wildcats’ Sept. 21 matchup against BYU in Provo, Utah.
The only familiar thing for them was the outcome, a 22-19 win, this particular one over Oklahoma State, which happened to be their first official Big 12 game and their first official victory in that conference.
Pick to click (aka #fadelev)
Kansas State got blown out at BYU last week, but I’m not jumping off the KSU bandwagon. Fun fact: The Wildcats had more yards than the Cougars (367-241) and converted nearly three times as many third downs (8-3). The game — played at night on the road — got away because of turnovers and a punt return touchdown (sound familiar?). Back home, KSU will get back to what it does best. Give me Kansas State minus-4.5 over Oklahoma State. (season record: 3-0)
One last thing
When UNLV starting quarterback Matthew Sluka decided to walk away from the 3-0 Rebels because of “certain representations ... which were not upheld” — i.e., NIL promises — it sent shockwaves through the college sports world.
No one should have been surprised.
Although NIL is now accepted and talked about openly, much of it remains murky and secretive. It’s hard to know exactly what went on with Sluka because the entire affair has devolved into a he-said, he-said situation. But it’s safe to assume that certain verbal agreements were either not kept or misinterpreted.
There’s one way to avoid similar scenarios in the future, and you’re not going to like it: Collective bargaining.
If student-athletes were employees with contracts, they wouldn’t be able to leave their teams after three games without consequences. Everyone would have more accountability.
Would that be a better system overall? Maybe. I hope it doesn’t come to that. The real world can wait. But it feels inevitable.
