What to watch for when Arizona football hosts Cincinnati
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After four weeks of the season, Arizona is sitting with the same record it had a year ago. And the one before, and the one before that. It’s the fifth game where timelines have diverged.
In order to get to 4-1 for the second consecutive year, the Wildcats must knock off unbeaten Cincinnati. The Bearcats are off to their best start in five seasons but are playing their first game outside of their hometown, one that will start at 11 p.m. local time.
It’s Family Weekend at the UA, and a White Out has is in store for Casino Del Sol Stadium. Here’s what to watch for when the Wildcats host the Bearcats for the first time:
The starting gates
Arizona scored on its opening possession against NAU and BYU, but the past two games it has gone 3-and-out the first time getting the ball. Those unsuccessful opening drives both began with Noah Fifita taking sacks, immediately putting the offense behind the sticks.
The Wildcats have called a pass play to start that first drive each game, an indication offensive coordinator Seth Doege believes that’s the best way to create the momentum he’s hoping for at the outset. Yet only once has the call resulted in positive yardage, at BYU.
“I know our guys well enough to know, if I can get them in a rhythm, then it just takes off,” Doege said Tuesday. “Doesn’t mean we’re going to score every single possession, but I just mean like we’re going to be really hard to stop. The last two weeks we kind of started off on a sack and just kind of killed the momentum. With the pieces that we have, if we can start fast, it just helps us. And obviously, that’s everybody in the country.”
Cincinnati has been in a similar boat to start games. The Bearcats kicked a field goal on their first possession of the season, against Boston College, scored a TD on their first drive against Western Carolina and then punted the last two games. Ironically, they also fell behind by two scores in the last two games like the UA has.
The run games
Arizona finished with 150 yards on the ground at Washington State, a substantial uptick from the 97 and 84 yards it had gained in the previous two games. A good chunk of that was in the fourth quarter, when Ismail Mahdi had seven of his 10 carries.
The UA is averaging better than five yards on non-sack run plays, but through four games the pass/run balance has been 61.6 percent through the air in terms of play calls. A year ago it was 58 percent pass.
“I think as long as our measure and stick for how we run the football is internal and not external, then we have a better chance to to run it the way we need to run,” UA coach Brent Brennan said Thursday. “I thought I thought last Saturday was a really positive night that way. I think we saw some progress with that group.”
Cincinnati is a decidedly run-first team, with 51.5 percent of its play calls keeping it on the ground, and that’s produced big results. The Bearcats average 270 rushing yards per game, 7th-best in the country, and have a trio of ball carriers who have produced.
Senior Gi’Bran Payne has run for 368 yards and two TDs, junior Cole Tabb has 311 yards and six scores on only 28 carries and quarterback JC French IV has four rushing TDs in addition to six through the air. French is completing 74.5 percent of his passes.
French is 33 of 44 for 397 yards and five TDs on play action, the bread and butter of Cincy’s pass attack thanks to opponents keying on the run. That will require Arizona’s secondary to have “clean eyes,” according to defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales.
“It’s pretty simple, your guy is going to take you to your job, run or pass,” Gonzales said Tuesday. “It’s when you try to see too much, or you try to see the quarterback in man coverage, that you make mistakes. And I think our our guys do a great job with eye discipline, almost too good sometimes.”
Arizona’s run defense has been markedly better this season, currently allowing 3.06 yards per carry and 80.5 yards per game.
Turnover tallies
Arizona had one takeaway in the first three games before getting an interception and fumble recovery at Washington State, but for the season are still tied for 108th nationally in turnover margin at minus-3. At this time a year ago it was +5 en route to finishing second in FBS at +18.
“Our ball skills are not exactly what I thought they would be,” Gonzales said. “We should have had four or five interceptions on Saturday instead of one.”
The lack of takeaways to this point comes in spite of Arizona showing a massive uptick in sacks and tackles for loss. After getting the tally at WSU updated from three to sick, the UA has 15 sacks this season compared to 21 all of 2025, and its 6.75 TFL/game is top 30 nationally.
“We should have more turnovers with that many sacks,” Gonzales said.
Though there have been some issues at times in the secondary, both because of injury and miscommunication, overall the defense is starting to come around. Some of that is due to how many players Arizona is regularly rotating in, at all levels.
Through four games there have been 14 players to log at least 100 defensive snaps, and five of them have missed a game. In 2025 that number was 22, over 13 games.
“I think we played 11 D linemen on Saturday, that’s like a dream because that means they’re all good enough to play,” Gonzales said. “If they’re not good enough to play in a game that we’re not significantly up, they ain’t playing. So I think that gives us a great benefit. It gives you an opportunity to stay fresh and play hard. Your best players need to be on the field when the key moments of the game.”
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