How WSU can pull an upset on visiting Arizona in a primetime matchup

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Sep. 25—PULLMAN — When DJ Warner was growing up in the Phoenix area, in between the dry heat and the desert views he got to know Arizona's football program .

The Wildcats are based about two hours away from Warner's hometown of Glendale, but thanks to the relatively close distance he formed something of a relationship with their coaches during the first stages of his recruitment.

Warner is now at his third stop of his college football journey — starting at linebacker for Washington State — but he still remembers some of the friendships he formed in those days. Many stayed in the area. Some even landed at Arizona.

"It's gonna be great to see them after the game," Warner said.

Warner will hope that when he sees his old buddies after WSU's home showdown with Arizona, set for 4:30 p.m. Saturday on CBS, he won't just be smiling because he's happy to see them. He'll hope he's happy because his Cougars pulled an upset in primetime.

There's a lot on the line this weekend for WSU, which is aiming for its second straight win following a home blowout over Duquesne last week. For Kirby Moore to avoid a 1-3 start in his debut season, which would put his program's sparkly bowl streak in peril, Moore will have to prepare his team for the scintillating offense the Wildcats have ridden to a 2-1 start to the season.

"I think our guys have done a good job being where their feet are. That's been the most important thing for us this week," Moore said, whose team enters as a 101/2-point underdog. "Really good meetings, walk-through, practice, control the things you can. It's gonna be a great challenge on Saturday."

It's a legacy Pac-12 tilt for Arizona and WSU, who scheduled this nonconference affair back in January 2025, about a year and a half after the traditional conference collapsed and the Wildcats joined the Big 12. Arizona won the last meeting, a blowout win in Pullman in 2023, but the Cougars have won five of the past seven clashes. If you look past the 2023 game, you would have to flip the calendar back to 2014 to find the last time the Wildcats walked out of Pullman with a win.

Can WSU (1-2) keep that trend up? Here's the interesting part about one of the keys to the game, which will be whether the Cougs can defang Arizona QB Noah Fifita and his playmakers: WSU defensive coordinator Trent Bray, who will lead the charge on that front, is no stranger to the Wildcats' staff. Back in 2012-14, when Bray was a linebackers coach and graduate assistant at Oregon State, he got to know Arizona coach Brent Brennan, who was the Beavers' wide receivers coach at the time.

Brennan, who called Bray "a really good friend of mine," also had this to say this week about his old buddy at OSU: "He's Uncle Trent to my kids. We've had a lot of fun together. Trent is an outstanding football coach."

But on Saturday, Bray and the Cougars' defense will have their hands full with the Wildcats' offense, which put up 42 points in a lopsided win over Northern Illinois last weekend. The tip of the spear is Fifita, who has completed 81% of his passes for 834 yards, seven touchdowns and just one interception, leading his club to a season-opening win over FCS Northern Arizona before falling in a close loss to top-15 BYU the following weekend.

Fifita, who set a program record for career touchdown passes last Saturday, used that 2023 win over WSU to continue what turned into a breakout year. Three years later, he's still running the show at Arizona (2-1), whose passing offense has been the strength of the team. The Wildcats' 306 passing yards per game ranks No. 20 nationwide, including third in the Big 12.

"Very accurate passer, ton of completions, can extend plays. He's a playmaker," Moore said of Fifita. "We gotta play team defense. Trust your teammate that he's doing his job. Sometimes you try and force something or you're pressing, and he's able to extend the play and then find guys downfield."

But there's more to the story on Arizona's offense. One of the Wildcats' top receivers, Giovanni Richardson, is questionable to play on Saturday thanks to a lower-body injury. He missed his group's last game. Despite that absence, he retains the team's best receiving numbers, hauling in 14 catches for 161 yards.

If Giovanni can't go on Saturday, look for receivers Tre Spivey and Isaiah Mizell to get more reps. Regardless, WSU may not be at full strength at cornerback, where starter Jalil Tucker will be a game-time decision due to injury. Tucker has missed the last two games, and if that becomes three, the Cougars may be forced to move nickelback Jamarey Smith to cornerback, which is the approach they took last weekend against Duquesne.

WSU also has something to prove on offense. After their first two outings, road losses to Washington and Kansas State, the Cougars ranked last nationally in total offense and points per game. Quarterback Caden Pinnick and the Cougars' offense rebounded nicely in a blowout win over winless FCS club Duquesne, but the Wildcats' will bear many more similarities to the kinds of defenses WSU will face when Pac-12 play begins the following week.

Here's another key to Saturday's game: How does kicker Jack Stevens fare? After opening the season 1-for-5 on field goals, including a missed extra point last weekend, Stevens is off to a rocky start. Moore has expressed confidence in his kicker, but if the Cougars face a fourth-and-manageable on the Wildcats' side of the field, what will they do? Keep a close eye on that pattern.

Either way, WSU has lots to play for in Saturday's game, even outside of looking good in a primetime slot on national TV. To earn bowl eligibility, which they've secured in 10 of the last 11 full seasons, the Cougars could really use this win over the Wildcats. Otherwise, they'll be looking at the program's first 1-3 start in five years.

To avoid that fate, they could get a little boost from Warner and Bray, two of the men who are more familiar with this matchup than others in their program.

"It's big for me," Warner said of Bray's help on the sideline during games. "I'm someone who wants instant feedback. I'm able to go through a play and then instantly look at him to see his reaction, kinda see if I did something right or did something wrong, and then if I did something wrong, I'm able to go to the sideline and instantly correct it. So it's been big. It's been very helpful to have somebody who knows the game as much as him in my corner."

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