On Arizona’s massive opportunity at BYU and other Week 2 thoughts | Michael Lev

Arizona’s game at No. 15 BYU on Saturday represents a mighty challenge.

It’s also a wonderful opportunity.

The Wildcats can establish themselves as legitimate contenders for the Big 12 championship — and, in turn, the College Football Playoff — if they’re able to upset the Cougars.

Arizona can raise the program’s profile beyond the 520 area code. Expectations were high entering this season — among UA supporters. Nationwide? Not so much. The Wildcats can change that Saturday.

They also can launch Noah Fifita’s Heisman Trophy campaign beyond social-media posts and I-10 billboards. If Arizona stuns BYU — and Fifita plays a key role — it’ll be among the biggest storylines of Week 2. The college football punditry will view Fifita and the Wildcats in a new light.

None of this will be easy, of course. The Cougars rarely lose at home. BYU is 12-1 at LaVell Edwards Stadium over the past two-plus seasons. Even in 2023, when they struggled in their first year in the Big 12, the Cougars went 4-2 at home.

Arizona has lost the past five meetings dating to 2016. Four of those were one-score games decided by an average of 5.3 points. One was a 22-point blowout.

That was the only one of the five played in Provo.

BYU was favored by 7.5 points as of this writing. But would anyone be surprised if the Cougars won by double digits?

That’s the general expectation outside the walls of the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility:

Sure, Arizona has improved a ton under Brent Brennan and is trending upward. But this program has a ceiling. Beating No. 15 BYU on the road is beyond its reach.

The far less likely outcome:

The Wildcats flip that script and alter that perception.

The opportunity is in front of them. The impact, should they pull it off, would be immense.

Take that for data!

The UA defense had 10 missed tackles in its opener against NAU, according to Pro Football Focus.

Considering that the Wildcats didn’t do any live tackling in practice the entire offseason, it wasn’t surprising to see some struggles in that area.

Is it cause for concern moving forward? I don’t think so.

Arizona had 137 missed tackles last season — when it ranked second in the Big 12 in total defense — per PFF. That’s an average of 10.5 per game. The opening-night performance was right in line with that.

The Wildcats had 13 or fewer missed tackles in 11 of 13 games. The exceptions: 16 against Baylor and 15 against ... BYU.

Bear Bachmeier and LJ Martin are tough to tackle. They’re linebackers masquerading as ball-carriers.

That’s why Brennan emphasized “population to the football” this week. Defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales liked what he saw in that regard last week.

“If you put on that tape,” Gonzales said, “you'll see five, six, seven, eight guys diving on the pile every single time.”

Gonzales measures missed tackles differently than most. If the initial defender executes his technique but fails to get the runner on the ground, that’s OK — as long as several of his friends are nearby to finish the job.

The more white jerseys and helmets you see on your screen Saturday, the better.

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Going up: Geographical rivalries

This week’s Big 12 opener: A Friday-night clash between Kansas and Missouri, aka the “Border Showdown.” Smackdab in the middle of Saturday’s slate: Iowa State at Iowa, the crown jewel of the “Cy-Hawk Series.” Is there anything better than regional rivalries? Neighborly resentment? Intrastate bragging rights? That’s what separates college sports from pro sports in the U.S. — or at least it did before conference realignment made matchups like these less common. Thankfully, Kansas and Missouri set aside their differences and resumed their longstanding rivalry in 2025 after a 14-year hiatus spurred by the Tigers’ departure for the SEC. College football is better for it.

Going down: Total makeovers

It took all of one week for the Oklahoma State hype train to slip off the rails and careen into a ditch. Armed with a record 92 new players — including quarterback Drew Mestemaker, a scouting-community favorite — the Cowboys were supposed to be dark-horse contenders in the Big 12. Maybe they still will be. But their debut was a dud — a 24-10 loss to little brother Tulsa. That was OSU’s 21st consecutive defeat against FBS opponents. If that streak ends Saturday, it’ll be the story of the day. No. 6 Oregon is favored by more than three touchdowns. The Ducks hastened Mike Gundy’s exit with a 69-3 drubbing of the Cowboys last season.

A question from my X

“BYU (has) been getting away with 24- (and) 25-year-olds forever with the two-year missions. Anyone got stats on OL average age this millennium?” — @tmmmurph via X

I like a challenging research project, but this one is beyond my scope. However, we can look at BYU’s starting offensive lines the past two years to see if that reveals anything.

The fivesome that started last year’s game in Tucson and helped the Cougars rush for 258 yards was a veteran group to say the least — a redshirt senior, two “true” seniors and two redshirt juniors. Three served on multiyear LDS missions, and three graduated from high school before 2020 — including one from the class of ’17.

Two of the players who served missions started this year’s opener as redshirt seniors. Another redshirt-senior starter served a mission and was part of the high school class of 2019.

Left guard Kyle Sfarcioc is listed as a redshirt senior (class of ’21), while left tackle Paki Finau (class of ’24) is the only member of either group who could be considered an underclassman.

But is he? Finau redshirted in 2024 at Washington. Under the new five-for-five eligibility structure — which has exemptions for religious missions, by the way — he should be labeled a junior.

Threads

Sometimes the matchup makes the look. Utah’s all-reds are not my favorite Utes uniform combination. In a vacuum, I prefer the all-blacks. But when Arkansas is coming to town wearing all-whites with red accents, well, now you’ve got something. I will give Utah credit for not going too far with the red. The Utes’ white facemasks create a welcome contrast, as do the black sleeves featuring red and white stripes.

What he said ...

“We put the ball on the ground too much. I want to see us clean that up. I think that's a choice, too. We can rep it. There’s a million ball drills. ... But we also have to have the mentality and the belief and (make) the choice to take care of football. That's going to be a big deal this week — that we choose to play the game the right way.” — UA offensive coordinator Seth Doege.

What he meant ...

“We were minus-2 in turnover margin against NAU. There is no chance we beat BYU with a negative turnover ratio. Ain’t gonna happen. So y’all better protect the football like your life depends on it.”

The other side

“No different. Our mindset going into the season has been that we want to be ready for 12 (games) on the schedule and trying to create more. That’s what we’re focused on. We want to take care of what we can control, which is making sure that we’re ready and prepared. ... We have to anticipate them giving us their best shot, so we gotta make sure that ours shows up as well.” — BYU coach Kalani Sitake on playing a conference game in Week 2

Pick to click (aka #fadelev)

Boston College didn’t come through last week at Cincinnati, but we’re sticking with the ACC and taking host Pittsburgh over UCF. The line has crept up from 6.5 to 7.5, which gives me slight pause, but I firmly believe the Panthers are the superior squad. Pitt pummeled preseason MAC favorite Miami (Ohio) 59-14 last week behind quarterback Mason Heintschel’s conference-record seven touchdown passes. UCF battered Bethune-Cookman 73-6, rushing for 360 yards in the process. That won’t happen against Pitt, putting the onus on QB Alonza Barnett, who was just OK in his Knights debut (11 of 18, 158 yards, one touchdown, one interception). (season record: 0-1)

One last thing

Is Arizona DBU?

Gonzales proudly proclaimed that the UA is the first program to ever put five rookie defensive backs on NFL rosters. Whether it’s true or not is irrelevant; it’s an amazing accomplishment either way.

Four of those five — Treydan Stukes, Dalton Johnson, Genesis Smith and Ayden Garnes — could make their pro debuts Sunday. That quartet — plus Michael Dansby, who’s on Seattle’s practice squad — was instrumental in Bachmeier having the worst passing performance of his career.

Bachmeier completed just 12 of 29 passes (41.4%) for 172 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. It’s the only time his completion rate has been below 59.1% in 15 career starts, and it’s one of two times he’s thrown multiple picks.

The question is whether Arizona’s revamped secondary, featuring just two holdovers who played significant snaps for the Wildcats last season (Jay’Vion Cole, Gavin Hunter), can replicate that.

If the game plan works, they’ll get multiple chances to at least try. Arizona will put maximum resources into run defense and dare Bachmeier to throw.

That matchup could determine the outcome.