If there’s one thing the 2024 Arizona (4-6, 2-5 Big 12) team has shown an effectiveness for, it’s taking advantage of multiple weeks ahead of its next matchup.
After getting blown out 56-12 in an embarrassing way to UCF in Orlando, head coach Brent Brennan got to work in ensuring his team would be prepared at a high-level for its next matchup.
The result was the largest margin of victory the Wildcats have sustained this year when they shut out Houston for three quarters of football in a 27-3 pummeling of a Cougars team that was finding their footing.
With a win, that means that bowl conversations are a full go as Arizona hasn’t been eliminated from contention just yet, it just has to win out.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they are all out of bye weeks or an extended period between games and they’ll have to find ways to condense what makes the bye week preparation work so well into a week’s game plan.
Enter a TCU (6-4, 4-3 Big 12) team that is coming out of a bye ironically enough, and was able to clinch itself a bowl game eclipsing six wins in its last game beating Oklahoma State 38-13.
The Horned Frogs will show off the nation’s 6th ranked passing attack when the Wildcats come to Fort Worth on Saturday for Arizona’s last road trip of the season.
Arizona is 1-3 in road games during 2024, and in fact have suffered its worst losses in those games with the UCF game being mentioned along with the 41-19 loss to BYU and 31-7 loss to Kansas State sprinkled in there.
Just a day away from kickoff, TCU is favored big by -10.5 points with an O/U of 59.5 total points as a shootout between the Big 12’s best passing offenses face off.
At this point in the season if you were to assess this game, TCU would love a win to continue boosting bowl positioning along with its 2025 recruiting class and overall confidence, but Arizona cannot fathom another loss if it has any bowl aspirations making this a must win for the Wildcats. To win on either side, both teams are going to need big games from these key players that’ll give their side the upper hand.
Arizona
WR Tetairoa McMillan - stats vs. Houston: six receptions, 70 receiving yards, one touchdown
It is now officially stat watching season for one Tetairoa McMillan, as the star receiver and future first-round NFL draft pick nears Arizona’s all-time receiving yards record.
As it stands he is at 3,240 yards across his three seasons as a Wildcat and is only trailing the 3,351 from former receiver and current WRs coach Bobby Wade.
Of course as we all know with T-Mac, he is fully capable of reaching that 112 yardage total needed to break the record in a single game, but nonetheless he’ll have two opportunities guaranteed to make a run for it.
Knowing how close he is to the record, TCU may try to bracket McMillan throughout the game knowing he may be an increased part of the gameplan in these last two weeks.
The Horned Frogs defense over the years has become very well known for having feisty press-man defensive backs that’ll play close to the receiver and try to jam them off their rhythm and timing.
However, if there’s one thing McMillan is known for, it’s his size and press-beating ability. So he may be poised for a big time game on Saturday after catching touchdowns in each of the last three games.
RB Quali Conley - stats vs. Houston: 14 touches, 134 scrimmage yards, 9.7 yards per carry, two total touchdowns
There has been a constant in every game Arizona has played in 2024, and that is the Wildcats play a more coherent offense when they have a sustainable running game.
Many factors have gone into run game struggles such as taking such large deficits early meaning the offense has to deploy only passing plays along with just getting away from running the ball when it seems to be working well as the primary two.
Arizona’s main running back Quali Conley had also undergone some carrying mishaps where he fumbled in back-to-back games after keeping clean his entire career up to those points, perhaps making the coaches hesitant to go back to the ground game so soon.
When the Cats were punched in the mouth 56-12 to UCF close to three weeks ago, they put up five rushing yards on the day and that was very telling when looking at the final score.
Passing the ball for a quick three-and-out gives you absolutely zero control over the time of possession and in fact sets your defense up for failure, having to constantly deploy after a very minimal break.
It seems this was understood by the staff as well as they took a great effort to develop a running attack in their next matchup against Houston.
Three different players had 11 carries for Arizona but none more impressive with them than Conley who averaged nearly 10 yards per clip and showed off the long speed on a 50-yard breakaway touchdown.
While the better players for Arizona reside in the passing game, it’s important to not forget about the pivotal part to make the balanced offense work.
DB Genesis Smith - stats vs. Houston: seven tackles, 1.5 TFLs, one pass breakup, one interception, one fumble recovery
A breakout season saw even more fireworks when Genesis Smith absolutely dominated from the star position against Houston winning Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors for his efforts.
Two turnovers, being everywhere on the field and in the backfield, and making stellar highlight plays for the Wildcats is what Smith is good at and the young sophomore continues to shine as the future of the defensive unit.
In this final stretch of games, it is apparent that the defense is going to need to force Noah Fifita and company onto the field so they can have more opportunities to figure out the offense to close the season.
On the year, Smith has accumulated three interceptions and they all came in big moments to help seal victories for the Wildcats and he’ll be counted on every week to make the same kind of plays that he’s shown a knack for.
It’s a tough break what the defense has gone through with all the injuries to key veterans and leaders but fortunately for Arizona, Smith hasn’t looked back at his opportunity and is continuing to flourish.
TCU
QB Josh Hoover - stats vs. Oklahoma State: 286 passing yards, one passing touchdown, 74% comp. percentage
You can’t be responsible for the 6th best passing offense in the nation without a pretty good player at the quarterback position, and that’s exactly what the Horned Frogs have in Josh Hoover.
Now having played 10 games in 2024, it’s only right to look at the numbers he put up in 2023 in the same amount of time and the statistics have gotten exponentially more impressive.
A season ago Hoover had passed for 2,206 yards with 15 touchdowns to nine interceptions, and in 2024 it’s improvements all across the board with 3,233 yards (1st in the Big 12) along with 22 touchdowns to eight interceptions.
He’s even completing passes at a respectable 67% compared to 62% a year back.
While there are in fact some talented playmakers on the TCU offense, it all runs through the quarterback and Hoover is playing some really good football at this point and has five touchdowns to two interceptions in his last three games played.
WR Jack Bech - stats vs. Oklahoma State: five receptions, 59 receiving yards
While Arizona fans are certainly very familiar with how great a player McMillan is, there’s a fellow Big 12 wideout that’s neck and neck with him in statistics.
TCU’s Jack Bech has been tremendous in 2024 for the Horned Frogs and is currently tied for first in the conference with nine touchdown receptions.
Bech has also recorded 56 receptions for 982 receiving yards good enough for an amazing 17.5 receiving yards per catch.
The only man ahead of him in yardage is the aforementioned McMillan and that means that arguably two of the best wide receivers in the Big 12 will be matched up on Saturday.
With some time off coming out of TCU’s bye week, Bech will certainly be a big piece of the game plan.
Lining up across from a corner with great 6-foot-4 size like Tacario Davis will be an intriguing matchup to see how Bech does at the catch point.
LB Devean Deal - stats vs. Oklahoma State: five tackles, one TFL
Injuries have really caused a major reshuffling of Arizona’s offensive line that has resulted in a nearly new unit every week.
Because of this, Fifita has been under a lot of heat and has been sacked 18 times in the last four games.
In a sense, you can predict that TCU’s physical defense will get to the Wildcat quarterback at least once, and sacks are proven to be drive stallers when they occur on an offense.
Bring in a guy like TCU linebacker Devean Deal, who’s brought down opposing quarterbacks for a team-high 4.5 times, and is over his career-best in four sacks that he totaled last year with Tulane.
What’s so impressive about Deal is that he only accumulated 0.5 a sack through the first six games, and then had two sacks in the seventh and one each in the next two games as well.
He was held without a sack in TCU’s last matchup against Oklahoma State, regardless it’s a mean streak that he can turn on at any time to affect Arizona’s offensive game plan in a bad way.
