This season’s game at BYU will, hopefully, show Arizona can beat the conference’s better teams. Occurring in the second week of the season, it could propel the team to a historic season.
It’s wild to look at a game being played in early September as one that could mean so much, but such is life when it is a conference matchup and one of the seemingly most difficult games on the schedule. BYU is ranked 15th and very difficult to beat anywhere, let alone at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
It’s why Arizona, the good team that it is, enters the game as about a touchdown dog. The Wildcats winning would not necessarily be a surprise, .
Does that last sentence make sense to anyone else but me?
“It’s been one of the best teams in the conference for the last few years,” head coach Brent Brennan said of BYU. “They have outstanding players in lots of different positions. They’re very well coached, and so this is a big-time football game.
“This is going to be a great football game. We get to go on the road, we get to play in front of a tough environment. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The last time Arizona played BYU was almost fun. The last time they played at BYU was whatever the opposite of fun is. It was that bad.
Fortunately this year’s Arizona is better than the one we saw on the field in ‘24 and it has a chance to be better than the ’25 version, too.
The intriguing part about Arizona this season, at this point in the season, is that everything is still very much in front of it. Last week’s win over NAU shouldn’t have done much to make you think less of the team, which means if you felt good about the Wildcats one week ago you should still feel good today.
Now does that mean you think they’ll win seven or eight games? What about nine or 10? Are they a conference title contender in your eyes?
Whatever your belief, as of right now you still have it. And as of Saturday evening it will either be strengthened, solidified or shaken.
To be fair a loss would not necessarily be the end of the season. It’s not great to start the conference slate 0-1, but Arizona could conceivably lose this game and still reach AT&T Stadium. The schedule is not particularly unfavorable, though going forward there would be little room for error.
A win would not make the season a smashing success, either. It would be another signature victory for Brent Brennan and put the Wildcats in a great spot to reach the conference title game, and victory would also generate plenty of attention for the program. Beating BYU Saturday would make every subsequent game that much more important, with pressure that would build with each passing week and win.
Saturday is just one game though. Right?
“We have an opportunity to go up there and play one of the best football teams in the country in their house,” defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said. “And if it doesn’t go our way, it doesn’t mean that our season’s over. It doesn’t even mean we’re out of the conference championship race.
“What it means is we got to get our ass ready for the next great opportunity. We have an unbelievable opportunity for this team to go play a football game in an unbelievable atmosphere.”
Coach G gets it.
Arizona has beaten ranked teams and won big games, but few of the victories have come so early in the season in an environment that is difficult to play in when the team’s goals are still attainable. This game at BYU checks a lot of boxes when looking for a true measuring stick game, so it’s understandable why so many of us are viewing this one as being bigger than most.
This game is just one of a guaranteed 12 for Arizona, and if it goes the Wildcats’ way it will be tough not to think about a game 13 and beyond. This would definitely rank as the biggest victory in the Brennan era and and rank up there in terms of victories in recent program history.
The beauty of that, though, is a win Saturday would very likely lead to even bigger games in the future. Is Arizona ready to show it has arrived as a true threat to win the Big 12?
Let’s find out.
