“It’s not on the list of the things that I worry about on a regular basis,” he said.

But...

“Exposure is good for all programs, particularly if you think it’s going to be good exposure,” he continued.

Indeed, and the newly-ranked Arizona Wildcats are already reaping the benefits of being in the national spotlight.

Arizona has won four straight behind the electrifying quarterback play of Khalil Tate, becoming must-watch TV, and high school recruits are taking notice.

Rodriguez said there has been an “uptick” in Arizona’s recruiting during UA’s four-game winning streak.

“From guys answering their phones quicker to texting us,” he said. “Certainly there’s guys in Southern California that know Khalil Tate. That’s helped a little bit, but we had some outstanding guys here this past weekend.”

Arizona has landed several 2018 recruits lately (I urge you to go to our recruiting section for all the updates), now sitting with 16 commits in its class, which is ranked 63rd nationally.

It’s not a super impressive class, but that could certainly change if the Wildcats keep winning.

“I don’t know how many we’re going to sign, but we’re going to have a lot more interest all of a sudden,” Rodriguez said. “It was going well anyway. We thought recruiting well last year and that’s showing up a little bit, and we think it’s going well this year, too."

The UA even added its first 2019 commit recently, and a good one at that: four-star athlete Casey Kline.

Whether or not that can directly be attributed to Arizona’s recent success — and the exposure that comes along with it — is unclear, but it should only help the Wildcats moving forward.

Follow Ryan Kelapire on Twitter at @RKelapire

The Wildcats ranked 116th out of 128 programs in the index, which not only makes them last in the Pac-12, but second to last among all Power Five programs, only ahead of the Kansas Jayhawks.

The Fan Happiness Index is comprised of six elements: program power, rivalry dominance, coaching stability, recruiting trend, revenue growth and Twitter buzz.

The elements are graded on a 0-100 scale. Here’s how Arizona did on each one:

Program power: 62

Arizona’s program power scored a 62 out of 100, which combines the strength of records from 2012-2016 and current FPI compared to recent history.

Non-conference play at Arizona has been absolutely horrendous, playing one power five school in the past five seasons — Oklahoma State back in 2012.

The FPI, Football Power Index, measures a team’s strength that gives the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season, representing how many points above or below average a team is. Arizona’s 2017 FPI index is currently 1.7, which ranks 54th in the nation.

Rivalry dominance: 47

The next category is rivalry dominance, which combines wins above expectation over rivals in the past five seasons, and how a team’s FPI compares to their rivals. Arizona scored a 47 out of 100, meanwhile Arizona State was at 60.

Rich Rodriguez is 2-3 against Arizona State, pulling off a win in 2014 to clinch the Pac-12 South, and avoided a winless Pac-12 season in 2016. Both of those games were played in Tucson.

The ‘Cats probably should have beaten Arizona State in 2012, but virtually had no chance in Tempe in 2013 and almost pulled off a huge comeback with Brandon Dawkins in 2015.

Coaching stability: 5

Coaching stability is based on how close a coach is to being fired. And while many felt like Greg Byrne should have fired Rodriguez after last season, it will be up to Dave Heeke to make that long-term, financial decision.

This was Arizona’s lowest category, with five points.

Recruiting trend: 82

Recruiting trend was the next topic, and that was based on the difference in percentage of five-, four- and three-star recruits in the current class vs. expectation.

The way I interpret this is looking at the 2018 class right now, and basing it off expectations on National Signing Day.

I don’t think this recruiting class is as solid as the 2016 or 2017 classes looked, but there are a few good pieces. There are some big time pieces on the defensive line with Mykee Irving and Josh Walker. Jamarye Joiner is one of the most electrifying quarterbacks in the country and I think Issaiah Johnson and Jhevon Hill are very solid prospects.

But right now recruiting is hard to gauge, because if Rodriguez is fired, the class could end up looking completely different just a few days after the news.

Arizona scored an 82, which is rather high in my opinion.

Revenue growth: 99

Revenue growth was Arizona’s highest score, with a 99. This compares the 2016 revenue relative to the 2012-2015 average.

In 2016, Arizona football recorded $41 million in total revenue, however the department failed to make a profit as a whole.

Twitter buzz: 69

The last section is Twitter buzz, which is a percentage of tweets from fans that are positive based on social media analysis, where Arizona scored a 69.

That’s nice, however I have always felt that compared to most programs, the social media following for Arizona football isn’t as large as other programs, and it might not even be half the size of Arizona basketball’s social media following.

Just based off pure Twitter followers, Arizona basketball is at roughly 222,000, meanwhile Arizona football is at roughly 92,000.

But I think this section might contradict Arizona’s ranking of 116th. Scoring a 69 seems fairly high for being a program that is second to last in the Power Five, and dead last in the Pac-12.

Now, given the metrics, this seems to be geared more towards program success from 2012-present, not necessarily fan happiness.

So we’ll ask the fans: Are you happy with the state of Arizona football?

Schooler has now become a priority for the staff

The Arizona Wildcats lost out on one of the top JuCo linebackers in the nation after Delshawn Phillips flipped to Illinois after taking a visit a few days before.

Now the staff will be looking to fill the need at the linebacker position, which doesn’t have a whole lot of depth as we look to the future.

To address the need, an offer went out to Colin Schooler, a product out of Mission Viejo, California. He checks in at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds, and holds offers to Fresno State, Nevada, and New Mexico. He is also hearing from UCLA, Utah, and USC could be on the verge of offering as well.

“Coach (Marcel) Yates has come to my high school a few times and he is the main guy who started to recruit me,” Schooler said about his communication with the staff. “He said he liked my film and liked the way I played. Said he liked my game a lot.”

When I spoke to Schooler, it had been just a few days before he was officially offered. When we spoke he said that he is hopeful to see an offer during an unofficial visit he is planning to take in January.

“I really like Arizona because it is a college town,” he explained of what draws him to Tucson. “It’s the only show in town, not like Phoenix, no pro football, hockey, basketball or baseball.”

The family has also been interested in the program as well. Schooler’s older brother, Brenden, was waiting for an offer from Arizona last year, but it never came his way. Instead, he took an offer to Oregon where he started ten games as a true freshman, leading the team in interceptions with four and finishing third in tackles with 74.

The younger Schooler’s recruitment has been heating up ever since his high school season ended. Now with the dead period in full effect, he’s going to have to move quickly before National Signing Day. He has a few visits that he is trying to set up right now.

“I am looking for the right fit,” he said about his decision process. “The feeling that I could spend the next 4-5 years of my life there. This is what is going to set the rest of my life, so I don’t want to just go anywhere because of a name or anything like that. I am looking forward to the interaction with the staff and meeting the players to ask them what they think of UA.”

Schooler will be in Tucson on January 14 for his visit and he will make a decision after he takes his final visits before National Signing Day.

At Mission Viejo, Schooler carried the ball 101 times for 1,161 yards and 19 touchdowns. On defense, he finished with 77 tackles, two sacks, and two interceptions.

And how does U of A stack up against the rest of the conference?

With the departure of Donte Williams to Nebraska, the subject of how much Arizona Wildcats assistant football coaches has been kind of a hot topic recently.

Luckily for us, USA Today released their assistant coach salary database. Here’s a look at how much Arizona’s coaches make, and how they rank in the entire NCAA:

Williams obviously now makes more than what is listed here. He will now make $400,000 a season, which goes up to $425k/year in Feb. 2018.

When talking about Arizona’s ability to compete year in and year out, it kind of starts with how much money is available for assistant coaches, and if those coaches will actually get multi-year contracts moving forward.

So let’s compare how the $2,834,900 figure compares to the rest of the Pac-12 (USC and Stanford do not have to release these numbers, so they don’t):

Arizona is being outspent by just about everyone in the South except for this year’s division champion, Colorado.

In the individual coach ranks, Calvin Magee is the 7th-highest paid assistant in the conference. Marcel Yates is 11th. So Arizona is paying its coordinators about on par with the rest of the conference, but the other assistant positions are much lower (Vince Amey is among the worst-paid coaches in all of the Power Five conferences).

This also gives a pretty good idea of why Williams left Arizona after just one year for bigger and better things at Nebraska. There wasn’t a lot of future for him in Tucson, so he got an opportunity to move up in the coaching ranks by taking the exact same job he had at UA. He also has better job security thanks to a multi-year contract. If you’re criticizing him for that move, then you’re living in some sort of alternative reality.

If Arizona wants to seriously compete in the Pac-12 each and every year, a few things need to change, but near the top of the list is the structure of assistant coach contracts. Both the years need to be increased, as well as the yearly salary. Whoever the head coach is won’t be able to bring in the best of the best because they will be handcuffed by the amount of money available, and by the fact most of these coaches are on year-to-year deals.

A lot of recruiting updates as we enter the offseason

With programs being eliminated from conference championship games and bowl season, we’re going to start to see a huge flurry of recruiting as we approach the dead period, which begins in mid-December.

Coaches will be flying out to schools to visit kids, schedule in-home visits, and offer scholarships. The Arizona Wildcats have already been making their own rounds to check in on their commits as well as some potential new additions.

People have been concerned, and for good reason, that the class is going to see a heavy wave of decommitments after this 3-9 season. The class still has 26 commitments, only losing Elijah Watson after the staff decided to part ways due to off-field issues.

While gray shirting could force recruits to look elsewhere, other programs could also start decomposing Arizona’s recruiting class. Decommits happen to every program no matter what, so one could still slip by for Arizona. However, this class will not see the huge wave of decommitments that hit last cycle.

Tony Dews visits DE/OLB Kylan Wilborn

One of the first commits of the class, Kylan Wilborn, got a visit from Tony Dews. Wilborn mostly played running back this season for Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks, California), but will come in as a hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker. He’s also a standout track and field star, making state finals in shot put last season and recording a throw of 61 feet, 11.75 inches.

Tony Dews and Washington State visit 6-foot-5 wide receiver Warren Jackson

Arizona doesn’t have a whole lot of sized lined up at wide receiver right now, with USF walk-on transfer Zach Benjamin and Shawn Poindexter as the only returning wide receivers over 6-foot-2.

The staff will be adding 6-foot-5 Warren Jackson, who is still a raw wide receiver that has enormous upside for Rich Rodriguez and his offense.

You’ll notice a Washington State trend coming, and it seems as if the Cougars are just trying to poach every Arizona commit here.

Washington State visits defensive tackle commit Kurtis Brown

An interesting event here, as Washington State heads to California to visit Kurtis Brown, who is recovering from a torn meniscus. Both Arizona and Washington State desperately need size on the defensive line.

I believe Brown is still firm on his commitment, however there could be a situation where the staff asks to gray shirt him, which has happened before with defensive line commits at Arizona and is a terrible, sketchy part of recruiting.

Washington State also visits defensive tackle commit Austin Faoliu

A few weeks ago, I brought up the impact of Austin Faoliu’s offer from Washington State. He acted extremely quick on his Arizona offer and committed to join his teammate Xavier Bell. Together, the two were trying to help recruit another teammate, Fa’avae Fa’avae, who isn’t likely to receive an Arizona offer.

Now, Fa’avae has committed to Washington State and is actively recruiting Faoliu to Pullman. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out and should be something to keep an eye on with the Cougars staff trying to poach two Wildcat defensive line commits.

Joshua Brown is visited by Marcel Yates and Donte’ Williams

It’s probably a big deal when you get both of these coaches in your living room. Joshua Brown had a stellar senior season at Long Beach Poly and his commitment should not be questioned.

He was recently selected for the US Football National Team.

Brian Casteel gets a visit from Tony Dews

Wide receiver coach Tony Dews has certainly made his rounds over the last few days. He went to check on what I believe is going to be an ultra-productive receiver similar to Nate Phillips and Samajie Grant....just a little taller.

Coaching staff visits Arizona Western

Arizona’s coaching staff was out at No. 1 ranked Arizona Western recruiting some guys. Among those would be current 6-foot-7 defensive end commit Matt Leo, who just picked up an offer from Mississippi State.

Another guy who I feel like the staff could round this class out would be Patrick Macon, the leading tackler for the Matadors and a mid-year enrollee. I spoke to him a few weeks ago and he had positive things to say about Arizona. I feel good about Macon, given the lack of depth in Tucson and what he had to say, and a Crystal Ball pick to Arizona seems likely for me.

Coaching staff visits Mountain Pointe

The 6A State Runner-Up has a lot of talent on their roster. While the staff has really only talked to 4-star safety Isaiah Pola-Moa, a guy who I never thought was too serious about Arizona, I would think the staff went to check out 2018 prospects. Wide receiver/safety Kenny Churchwell is included in that group, who I have coming to Arizona in my Crystal Ball.

Commitment from defensive tackle Sione Tuefahema could come soon

I spoke to 6-foot-3, 320 pound defensive tackle Sione Taufahema of College of the Canyons this week and overall this is a recruitment I feel really good about. I have my Crystal Ball prediction for Arizona.

Vince Amey wants him to plan to take an official visit next weekend.

Darrian McNeal will officially visit this weekend

Arizona’s three-star Florida wide receiver Darrian McNeal has informed me that he will be taking his official visit this weekend. Recruits can use up to five official visits during their senior season, but McNeal will only be needing one. His commitment has been one that should cause no panic.

3-star defensive end Matt Leo picks up new offers

The 6-foot-7, 265 pound defensive end had three offers when he committed to Arizona, with Iowa State and UCF in his back pocket. Now, he has picked up offers to Mississippi State and Oklahoma. He is a mid-year enrollee for Arizona.

I’ve been told that Leo is 100% on his commitment to Arizona.

4-star LB Antjuan Simmons decommits from Ohio State

A long-time Ohio State commit has parted ways with the Buckeyes. 4-star linebacker Antjuan Simmons, ranked No. 298 overall and No. 16 among outside linebackers, apparently has his eye on the Arizona Wildcats now.

Michigan State, Arizona, and Notre Dame are expected to come into play. He took a Michigan State visit a few weeks ago without telling the Ohio State staff. The Buckeyes are also picking up steam on 5-star linebacker Baron Browning. Notre Dame recently lost 4-star linebacker Pete Werner, who is leaning hard for Ohio State.

Arizona does offer some intrigue compared to Simmons’ other schools: out west with warmer weather in the Pac-12, immediate contribution possibilities, and ties to Chris Singletary in the Michigan area. I’m not sure how legitimate this is for Arizona, but it’s something I’ll look into.

A handful of recruits continue to power through playoffs

The 2016 season is over for the Arizona Wildcats, and the offseason is in full swing. It starts with this top-20 recruiting class, which is filled with commits still playing for championships across all levels and divisions.

Here’s your run down on everything that happened this past weekend, as well as what to look ahead to this upcoming weekend.

Rhett Rodriguez, Catalina Foothills overpowered by Saguaro

Saguaro is loaded with Division-1 talent, including a trio of three-star Arizona State commits: Four-star safety KJ Jarrell, three-star Donovan Dalton, and two-star Brandt Casey. Meanwhile, Catalina Foothills has Rhett Rodriguez and Max Michalczik, Arizona and NAU commits respectively.

CatFoot lost 42-14, trailing 35-0 at the half. Rhett finished the game with 105 passing yards and 72 rushing yards.

Drew Dixon, Sabino fall in 3A State Championship

Dixon did about all he could for Sabino this season. He finished 8-for-18 passing with 77 yards and two late interceptions, eight rushes for 33 yards and a touchdown, plus six receptions for 65 yards.

Sabino lost 14-31 to American Leadership Academy.

Hawkins advancing to CIF Los Angeles City Section Championship

The No. 1 seed Hawkins will be heading to El Camino College to take on No. 2 seed Los Angeles. Hawkins is one of the most talented high schools in the nation and there’s really no stopping them.

Through three playoff games, Arizona commit Greg Johnson has 13 carries for 176 yards, one reception for 10 yards, and a pick-six. Johnson left the last game with an injury.

Helix and Scott Young continue to roll

Helix is rolling in the CIF San Diego Section and Scott Young has been a pivotal piece. In their last playoff game, Young recorded 122 receiving yards on six catches and a touchdown. His touchdown came on a 72-yard catch-and-run. Helix will be taking on Cathedral Catholic for the championship.

Austin Faoliu and Xavier Bell maintain No. 1 ranking for Mater Dei

The No. 1 team in the nation has been cruising through the CIF Southern Section bracket and will play St. John Bosco in the Championship, who is currently ranked No. 4 in the nation.

Safety Xavier Bell and defensive tackle Austin Faoliu have played strong, contributing roles for the Monarchs.

Mobile Christian advancing to first State Championship in school history

Mobile Christian will be playing in the Alabama 3A State Championship for the first time in school history.

Troy Young, who will come in as a safety, has exclusively been playing running back through this playoff run. He has 389 rushing yards on 71 carries.

Young also took an unofficial visit to Alabama this past weekend. He is a two-star prospect who held offers to Mississippi State and South Carolina prior to his commitment to Arizona.

Bishop Gorman still on pace for championship

Malik Hausman is nursing an ACL injury. Still, Bishop Gorman is on pace to capture their eighth-straight State Championship. Despite not playing a down this season, Hausman climbed the recruiting rankings quite a bit. He went from just inside the top 1000 to now being ranked No. 729 overall.

Braxton Burmeister thriving in playoffs

La Jolla Country Day has been on a tear in the playoffs thus far. The No. 5 seed Torreys will take on No. 3 seed Santana for the Division IV CIF San Diego Section Championship.

Through three playoffs games, Burmeister is 63-for-99 for 833 yards, eight touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also has 283 rushing yards on 33 carries and four touchdowns.

Tony Fields and Edgar Burrola capture Nevada 4A State Championship

A few weeks old, but while in the spirit of talking championships, it’s worth re-visiting. Desert Pines went on to win the Nevada 4A State Championship.

Tony Fields had three touchdowns for Desert Pines (46-yard reception, 17-yard reception, and a 1-yard rush). Edgar Burrola has been out with a shoulder injury.

Garden City and Arizona Western square off for NJCAA Championship

Arizona currently has two junior college commitments in Matt Leo and Delshawn Phillips. The two will be playing for the NJCAA National Championship.

Phillips has had a standout season, leading the No. 1 ranked team in tackles with 84. Matt Leo has accumulated 17 tackles (6.5 for loss) and 3.5 sacks.

A running back to keep an eye on for this 2017 class

There’s not a lot of good depth on the Arizona Wildcats’ roster at the moment, which undoubtedly includes the running back position. Nick Wilson is likely out for the season, Orlando Bradford was dismissed, and J.J. Taylor suffered a broken ankle in the first Pac-12 game of the season.

That forced Rich Rodriguez to move Samajie Grant to the backfield and left Zach Green as the lone scholarship running back available. The staff would like to have five scholarship running backs, which means that Arizona is in the market for one more, as Nathan Tilford is already committed for the 2017 class.

There aren’t too many available running backs that Arizona is targeting, and there are a few who are off the board. 3-star running backs Drake Beasley and Chris Brooks tell me that they have not talked to the staff in quite some time.

But there is one running back who the staff has on hold, 5-foot-9, 190 pound Miles Reed out of Centennial (Corona, CA).

Arizona snatched Taylor out of Centennial last recruiting cycle, and he lived up to the playmaking hype during the time in which he was available. Now, his former teammate is a guy that is on Arizona’s radar.

Reed currently holds offers to Montana, Hawaii, and just picked up Washington State in October. He is also receiving attention from Arizona State, Nebraska, Oregon, and USC. He was also recently named a Blue-Grey All-American.

The coaching staff hosted quite a few satellite camps this summer, one of which was at Centennial High School, where Reed first came into contact with the staff.

“My first communication came over summer when they hosted a camp at Centennial. I met with Coach (Miguel) Reveles and kind of stayed in touch here and there,” Reed said about the camp. “Me and Coach Reveles are cool.”

Reed has been to campus before on an unofficial visit, and tells me that the Arizona offer is one that he is really looking for.

“I took an unofficial there and I loved the facilities,” he explained. “The coaches were great, the fan atmosphere is like no other, and I could see myself in a program like Arizona's.”

The Centennial running back still communicates with his predecessor, who has also been helping with his recruitment.

“We talk fairly frequently,” Reed said about his relationship with Taylor. “I know he's also been trying to help out my recruitment so we talk a lot about U of A. Positive things. Usually about his recovery, how my seasons going or about school and how he is liking it.”

Taking over the running back duties, Reed took on 206 carries for 1,626 yards and 27 touchdowns. He averaged 7.9 yards a carry, with over 162 yards per game.

He is currently unranked by all recruiting services, but with these numbers at the No. 7 ranked high school in the nation, you shouldn’t need rankings to evaluate him.

You can watch his senior year highlights below.

It will be interesting to see who Arizona truly targets at the running back spot. There aren’t too many options that I am aware of, with O’Maury Samuels, a Michigan commit, being one the main targets. You can also expect Arizona to look for some running backs after the season, making a big push before National Signing Day.

For now, it seems as if Reed is an option they are looking into, and feel as if he is a guy that would commit immediately if he received the offer, which I think would be the case.

What do the Wildcats face when trying to take down the Utes again?

After another frustrating loss to the UCLA Bruins, the Arizona Wildcats will head to Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Utes. The Utes are coming off a tough loss of their own against Cal in Berkeley. This is a pivotal game for both teams as the Pac-12 South race heats up.

Utah will enter this contest ranked 24th in both polls, and opened as nine-point favorites in Vegas. Here’s a quick look at the Utes so far this year:

2016 Record – 4-1 (1-1)

Key Games – Week two win versus BYU 20-19, Week four win versus USC 31-27, Week five loss at Cal 23-28

Key Offensive Players – Troy Williams (QB), Zack Moss (RB), Tim Patrick (WR), J.J. Dielman (Center), Andy Phillips (PK)

Key Defensive Players – Lowell Lotulelei (DT), Dominique Hatfield (CB), Reginald Porter (CB), Pita Taumoepenu (DE)

Last year, Utah was a bit of a surprise with their 10-win season. They won their first six games and climbed as high as third in the rankings. The second half of their season was a much different story, though. After that 6-0 mark, they finished the season 4-3 including their win over BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl.

This season, they are again one of the more surprising stories in the conference. They lost an incredible amount of offensive production in Travis Wilson (QB), Devontae Booker (RB), Kenneth Scott (WR) and Bubba Poole (WR). Also, standout freshman Britain Covey (WR) has temporarily left the team while he completes his LDS Mission.

Coach Kyle Whittingham likes to dominate the line of scrimmage and establish the running game. Booker and Wilson combined for 1,751 yards on the ground last season, which was good for more than 73 percent of their rushing yards.

The passing game relied heavily on Covey, Scott, Booker and Poole. These four combined for 143 receptions and 1,439 yards, which accounted for nearly 64 and 62 percent of the team’s respective totals!

So you’re probably asking yourself, “How in the world are they 4-1?” There are theories such as a soft non-conference schedule and a down year for the Pac-12. These may be valid, but I think the biggest reason is quarterback Troy Williams.

Williams is a former Washington Husky and transferred to Utah from Santa Monica College. He is a legitimate dual-threat, which fits right in with the conference. Through the first five games of the season, the Utes have a combined total of 2,153 passing and rushing yards, and he has accounted for more than two-thirds of it.

It appears there is a more balanced approach to the offensive scheme as Utah has opted to pass 169 times versus 217 rushes. The 2015 Utes were more run-heavy, running the ball approximately 62 percent of the time as opposed to 56 percent this season.

Another advantage for Utah is Whittingham will almost always put stout defensive linemen on the field. As I mentioned earlier, he loves to dominate the line of scrimmage, which applies to both sides of the ball. He is doing it again this year with players like Lowell Lotulelei, Pita Taumoepenu and Filipo Mokofisi. Their scoring defense is ranked 20^th in the country with 18.2 points allowed per game.

Lotulelei is nursing a shoulder injury that was suffered during the USC game. His availability against UA is undetermined but it’s safe to say Whittingham has solid backups ready in the wings.

The Utes haven’t had much luck against Rich Rodriguez-coached UA teams as they’re 0-4. Arizona will be playing as Utah’s homecoming opponent, so the stadium energy should be extra high. However, this is a winnable game for the Wildcats. We’ll see how the backfield situation shakes out during the week but definitely winnable as Whittingham usually has a tough time defending Rodriguez’s scheme.

Saturday’s game is set to kick off at 7 PM PT on Fox Sports 1.

Arizona and BYU join the growing trend of early-season neutral site games with the Cactus Kickoff Classic in Glendale. So what do we make of this fad? And what will the Wildcats need to show us on Saturday? Let’s discuss!

Jason Bartel: Are you a fan of these early-season neutral site games?

Gabe Encinas: It depends. Overall, I feel like this is an okay neutral site game with two comparable programs. The only problem I have with neutral site games is when it’s like Alabama vs. Wisconsin in Texas, Boise State vs. Ole Miss in Georgia, etc.

This was technically supposed to be a road game for the Wildcats, but it still ends up being closer for Arizona fans. I’m really not that concerned that BYU has been outselling either, simply because it’s not a huge game that really entices the Tucson folk to drive up for the game, and a lot of Phoenix area fans would probably rather drive down for Washington, USC or Stanford anyways. Apparently BYU students are outselling Arizona students too, which is funny only because Arizona invades Las Vegas for Labor Day, meanwhile BYU kids will use the weekend for a road trip to Arizona.

Drake Horner: A neutral site game in Glendale isn’t the worst way to start the year. I’m a fan of them if it benefits both teams and with BYU having a big alumni base in Arizona and the game being played in Arizona, I feel like it benefits both sides.

Steve Apter: I'm a fan. It’s exciting to start the season with a little change of scenery. Cal - Hawaii in Australia was rather amazing; can you imagine getting passports for 75 college kids and arranging travel, equipment, etc.? The opportunity to showcase football internationally or the chance for stateside fans to see teams they normally wouldn’t is good for the game.

Alec Sills-Trausch: I like neutral site games overall. What I’m not a huge fan of is how early this game was played. Now I understand the necessity of it with the time change and all, but it seems weird there was a football game, on a Friday, an entire week before the regular season. However, it helped land the Pac-12 a TV deal so I guess that’s not so bad. (Sorry to the DirecTV people for still not being able to watch Pac-12 football)

Brandon Combs: I am a fan of them. Luckily for BYU they have a large fan base in the Phoenix area plus the game is in Arizona so it benefits both sides. Games like Florida vs. Georgia in Jacksonville on the other hand doesn't make much sense.

Ryan Kelapire: I don’t really like neutral site games in any sport, since I like the home crowd atmosphere, but in this case, I don’t mind it. I’d rather have Arizona play a good program on the road than host a team like Grambling State or Hawaii. It’s also cool because it gives Arizona fans in Phoenix a chance to see the Wildcats play locally (though it doesn’t appear as if they’re taking great advantage of it).

David Potts: I’m not a big fan of the neutral site generally speaking, but I like the idea of a game in Phoenix. It gives local alumni (read: me) an opportunity to see a game in-person without needing to trek to Tucson. Despite the slow ticket sales, many of the Arizona alums I know in Phoenix are going to be there on Saturday, and I hope they set up a game like this in Phoenix every few years.

JB: What’s the biggest question you want answered by this team on Saturday?

GE: How the defense attacks and gets pressure. That’s all we’ve heard this past spring and fall camp and the defense seems to have a new energy about it. I’m curious to see which safeties are rotated throughout and how Dane Cruikshank debuts after a redshirt year and strong offseason. Marcel Yates led a Boise State defense that was among the best in creating turnovers and Donte’ Williams had the first and second ranked passing defense in each of his last two seasons at San Jose State.

DH: Can the defense contain Taysom Hill? We really don’t know how the defense is gonna look and with the emphasis put on creating pressure and turnovers it’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out. Taysom is elusive and if he gets out of the pocket, it could cause some trouble.

SA: How will Cam Denson do on offense? I’m pulling for him to make some big plays.

AST: Pass rush. The defensive line is quite questionable going into this game and if the team is going to have any success this season, they are going to need to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks. My second-tier question is how Anu Solomon (I’m assuming he starts) responds to the first real in-house competition he’s faced in his two years at Arizona. He’s always had some trouble with overthrowing the deep ball so I’m hoping he’s gotten that under control..

BC: Pressure, pressure, pressure. I believe the secondary can handle the receivers but I want to see how the d-line stacks up against big o-lines. Will the line be able to get pressure on the QB and/or disrupt plays in the backfield? The name of the game this fall has been aggressive, attacking defense. I believe they can and now I want to see it on the field.

RK: No matter who the quarterback is, I think the offense will be just fine. Therefore, the defensive side of the ball is where my questions are. And the one I think is of the most interest is how will Marcel Yates be able to manufacture a pass rush? The Wildcats don’t have a lot of pass rushing talent, but the expectation is pre-snap movement and changes in playcalling/schemes can overcome that to some degree. But will it actually happen? That remains to be seen.

DP: Can the defensive line hold up? Arizona’s defensive line has been the defensive unit that worried me the most in the Jeff Casteel era, and the switch to a 4-2-5 puts even more pressure on those guys up front. I don’t expect them to suddenly become the best unit on the field, but I’d like to see some potential on Saturday.