Houston showed the ability to recover from a discouraging result. Now it’s Arizona’s turn to see if it can pull off that feat.
The teams meet Saturday in a Big 12 Conference game at Houston.
“This is a huge week for us,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said. “This is a huge opportunity for us.”
Arizona (4-2, 1-2 Big 12) fell in double overtime 33-27 to then-No. 18 BYU last weekend at home.
“We were devastated and we still are,” Brennan said. “The only thing we can do is go to work and learn from it. I’m not spending any time looking backwards. I’m about moving forward.”
Houston (5-1, 2-1) bounced back from a home loss to then-No. 11 Texas Tech to roll on the road last week against Oklahoma State for a 39-17 victory. The win included four field goals from Ethan Sanchez, who received his second Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week honor. He’s the only kicker in the country with four or more field goals in more than one game this year.
Much of the offense returned to good form for Houston because of quarterback Conner Weigman’s efforts. He threw for 306 yards and two touchdowns vs. Oklahoma State.
“It’s great when your quarterback has that kind of confidence and he conveys it to the rest of the offense,” Cougars coach Willie Fritz said. “I’m proud of him for seeing that’s what we needed to do.”
Weigman has thrown for 202.7 yards per game. He also is the team’s second-leading rusher in terms of yards (145) to go with a team-best five rushing touchdowns.
The Cougars expect to see different looks from Arizona’s defense, particularly along the line of scrimmage. The Wildcats rank third in the Big 12 in total defense, yielding just 275.7 yards per game.
“They’ve run a whole bunch of different things up front,” Fritz said, “so we’ve really got to be on point this week.”
Arizona’s defense has collected nine interceptions — one more than all of last season.
On offense, Wildcats quarterback Noah Fifita is third in program history with 59 touchdown passes.
This week, Brennan has defended his in-game decisions from the BYU game. He pointed to converting 4 of 6 chances on fourth-down plays as a sign that the coaching staff will be aggressive.
That might be necessary vs. Houston.
“They’re playing with a lot of confidence,” Brennan said. “Their offense has moved the ball against everybody they’ve played.”
The game is part of Houston’s homecoming, while it marks just the second away game for Arizona this season.
Houston leads the series 3-2, but last year’s 27-3 home victory for Arizona marks the teams’ only prior matchup as Big 12 members.
