If a 12-game college football season can be broken into quarters, Arizona dominated the opening period. A 3-0 start, the first in 10 years, began with two blowout victories and was following by a gritty win over Kansas State that saw the UA blow a 2-score lead but bounce back quickly.
None of that matters, though, now that Big 12 play has begun. After a week off, the UA is back in action Saturday at No. 14 Iowa State. It’s the first meeting between the teams since 1968.
Arizona has won its last two conference openers, including last year at preseason favorite Utah. The Wildcats only claimed one more Big 12 victory after that in 2024, finishing 2-7 in the league in its first season of competition.
Here’s what to look for when Arizona visits Ames to take on the Cyclones:
Both teams were on byes last week, which allowed for injuries players to heal up—Arizona’s availability report only includes a few notable names—and gave the coaching staffs additional time to put together game plans.
UA offensive coordinator Seth Doege said he was very thankful for the extra time considering how Iowa State has looked on defense so far this season.
“Nobody’s truly consistently scored or moved the football on them,” he said. “Last year they were the top pass defense in the country, and I can see why when you watch the games.”
Iowa State allowed 165.6 passing yards per game in 2024. That number is 176 per game this season. The Cyclones are also giving up less than 3.8 yards per carry, with both the run and pass defense performances the product of Jon Heacock’s 3-3-5 alignment that.
“It looks and seems like there’s a lighter box, but then all of a sudden, there’s six to seven hats very quickly at the line of scrimmage,” Doege said. “And then when you do drop back no there’s eight people dropping into coverage. And so there’s not a whole lot of space there. They’re very disciplined and very detailed in what they do, and they play extremely hard, and they tackle really well, and they’re really good at forcing turnovers, so we got to be extremely disciplined and detailed in what we do to be able to attack them.”
Arizona has run for 189 yards per game so far this season, rushing 45 times last time out against Kansas State. Offensive balance will be key, Doege said.
“If you want to attack Iowa State, you better be able to run the football,” he said. “If they can make you one dimensional it’s going to be tough.”
Neither Noah Fifita or Iowa State’s Rocco Becht would be described as “mobile” quarterbacks, though both have shown the ability to run successfully when needed. Fifita has three rushing touchdowns this season, including two against Kansas State to become the first UA QB to score twice on the ground in a game since Khalil Tate in 2017, while Becht has 13 rushing TDs in his career including two in 2025.
“Dude does not make mistakes,” UA defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said of Becht, who has also thrown for 860 yards and seven TDs. “He’s very dangerous with his feet. His ability to run the ball, especially on short down distances, is uncanny, and he’s aggressive. When he has to he’ll run you over, when he doesn’t have to he’s smart, he protects himself. He might be the most efficient quarterback in this league with how they build their team.”
Becht has 48 yards on 27 carries but that includes sack yardage, but on pure runs it’s 79 yards. That includes eight runs on third or fourth down that have led to conversions or scores.
Fifita has gained 103 non-sack yards, with 64 of that coming on scrambles. And most importantly, he’s avoided taking a big hit when keeping it.
“Here’s the thing about Noah, and even as a runner, he’s very elite at understanding space and being aware of people,” Doege noted. “And so when you give him a plan of action, and he studied that plan of action, he knows where to go with the football, but he also knows what really bad could happen if he does try to do something outside of what the plan is. He doesn’t take these massive hits. Why? Because he can feel space. He can feel people. He understands when he’s about to take a blow and get down.”
Arizona produced one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history in Rob Gronkowski, and two years ago Tanner McLachlan broke many of Gronk’s UA records. But that’s more or less where the story begins and ends for the Wildcats at that position.
Iowa State, on the other hand, could easily build the entire plane out of tight ends.
The Cyclones this season have had at least two tight ends on the field for more than 75 percent of their snaps, per Pro Football Focus, and often will put three or four out there. And these guys aren’t just there to block; juniors Benjamin Brahmer and Gabe Burkle are the top two pass-catchers on the team, with 14 and 10, respectively, and four of Iowa State’s seven receiving TDs.
“We’re going to do whatever our best personnel is on the field,” said Gonzales, who against Kansas State often used four linebackers. “They create extra gaps with 12 personnel. We’re gonna have to put extra people in those gaps to make sure that we cancel them and they can’t run them and take away the run. That’s the best thing to do.”
Arizona has held its last two opponents under 100 passing yards and for the season has not allowed a passing TD. Iowa State has thrown for at least one TD in 22 consecutive games.
In the win over Kansas State, Arizona held the other Wildcats to 3 for 13 on third downs and stopped all fourth down attempts. For the season the UA’s third down defense is at 22.5 percent, nearly half the 41.45 from 2024.
But Iowa State is among the best at converting on third down, getting the necessary yardage 50 percent of the time. Of the Cyclones’ 76 rushing and passing first downs, 25 have come on third down.
“We’re gonna have to be really good on third down, getting pressure on Rocco Becht, so that he’s not comfortable, and he can’t go through his progression,” Gonzales said. “It’s going to be the difference in the game. The team that doesn’t turn the ball over and who wins third down battle is going to be the team that has the best chance to win.”
Arizona is at 41 percent on third down with the ball, while Iowa State is allowing a third down conversion 40 percent of the time.
A ‘monster’ road environment
It will be a sellout at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday night, where Iowa State has a White Out planned. Arizona will be going with all red, just the fifth time since 2015 the Wildcats will be wearing home colors in a true road game.
None of Arizona’s players have any experience playing in Ames, but Doege does from his time at Texas Tech. In 2012 he threw for 331 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions, including a pick-six, but the Red Raiders won 24-13.
“It’s a tough place to play,” Doege said. “When you’re coming in on the bus, it’s like, where am I? It’s like, in the middle of nowhere. It’s like these cornfields, and then all of a sudden it’s just like, everybody’s ecstatic about Iowa State football. I was pretty surprised, honestly, as a player at least, about the environment, and so I expect nothing less.”
Last year the UA experienced hostile Big 12 road environments at Kansas State, Utah, BYU, UCF and TCU. At each place the Wildcats faced sellouts or near capacity crowds, all of which had an impact on the games as Arizona went 1-4 with the four losses by an average of 27.8 points.
“I’ve said this ad nauseum here, every stadium on the road in this conference is a monster,” UA coach Brent Brennan said. “Every road game that we play is sold out, everywhere the crowd is all over your ass the moment you get off the bus. It’s just part of playing in this conference. We expect that, we know it’s going to be a rowdy crowd. It’s a 6 o’clock game. We know how passionate they are about their football there, and they’ve got a really good football team. Really, for us, how much do we lock into handling every piece of our process with the right mindset, with the right discipline as we lead up to getting ready for game time?”
