A pair of teams looking to bounce back after disappointing losses meet on Saturday night when Arizona hosts Northern Illinois in a nonconference game at Tucson, Ariz.
The Wildcats (1-1) were unable to hold onto a halftime lead at then-No. 15 BYU, falling 28-17 to open Big 12 Conference play, while Northern Illinois (0-2) dropped a 28-24 decision at home to Illinois State, an FCS team. The Huskies were down 21-0 but took the lead in the fourth quarter before falling in their second game under interim head coach Rob Harley.
“We got a glimpse of what we can do when we’re connected and can play consistent football,” said Harley, NIU’s defensive coordinator in 2025 who was elevated to the head gig when Thomas Hammock resigned in February to take an assistant coach position with the Seattle Seahawks.
Arizona is led by fifth-year senior Noah Fifita, one of three active FBS quarterbacks with at least 9,000 passing yards and 70 touchdowns. He has an outside shot at becoming the Wildcats’ career passing leader this weekend, needing 320 to pass Nick Foles’ mark of 10,111 from 2009-11.
But Fifita won’t have his top target from the first two games. Sophomore receiver Giovanni Richardson, who has 14 catches for 161 yards, sustained a leg injury at BYU and will be out “a little bit,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said Monday.
The Wildcats added a pair of starters from last season’s 9-4 squad last week when running back Ismail Mahdi and linebacker Max Harris were granted a temporary restraining order against the NCAA’s new 5-for-5 eligibility policy that didn’t apply to student-athletes who graduated high school in 2022. Harris had two tackles at BYU while Mahdi, Arizona’s leading rusher a year ago with 859 yards, could be used in the backfield this weekend.
“We’re going to see how that plays out in practice this week,” Brennan said. “That group is deep.”
Northern Illinois has used two quarterbacks in each game so far. Senior Jalen Macon has started both games, but junior Taron Dickens has received the bulk of the snaps.
Dickens, the Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year last season at Western Carolina, did not join the Huskies until July after originally committing to North Carolina.
