A look at five storylines surrounding the Wildcats’ game against the Bison on Saturday night at Arizona Stadium.
Michael Lev The Star presents five storylines of interest as the Arizona Wildcats host North Dakota State on Saturday night at Arizona Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 8 p.m. The game will air on FS1.
Arizona is paying $425,000 for North Dakota State to play in Tucson on Saturday night. The average payout by Pac-12 schools to FCS programs since 2011 is $555,000, according to Gridiron’s database. Making things even better for the UA from a financial standpoint: Approximately 10,000 NDSU fans are expected to attend the game at Arizona Stadium.
"This was the first time that we ever saw the auction function used," Larsen said."We thought internally, this could be an opportunity to get an FBS game. So we said, ‘Hey, let's put a low bid in.’ We did, fully expecting that somebody might come in a little bit lower or maybe Arizona wouldn't want that. Lo and behold, they took it."
"So we figured, we’ll be the guinea pigs. We’ll work with Dave and try to find the cheapest game possible. We went through the process, never expecting that North Dakota State would take low bid. Now Jedd Fisch is stuck with a game that could be construed as a no-win situation for Arizona. The Wildcats are going where most other FBS programs are reluctant to go.The Bison do have two future FBS games on the docket: at Colorado in 2024 and at Oregon in 2028, the latter a makeup of a canceled game from 2020. NDSU will receive $700,000 and $675,000 in guarantees, respectively.
The Turnover Sword is the brainchild of first-year defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen, whose group has taken the ball away five times in two games. Arizona had six takeaways all of last season."We have a big chair up in our meeting room. Whoever the player of the day is, with the most strips, sits there. Well, we have a difficult time taking that on the road. So I came up with the idea with the sword, and the boys just took it over.
Turner, a fourth-year junior from Moreno Valley, California, has raised his overall grade on Pro Football Focus from 51.3 to 86.0 . A lot of that has to do with Turner being involved in two turnovers – an interception and a forced fumble . Fisch also credited Turner’s work with position coach Chuck Cecil, who played safety at Arizona and in the NFL, as well as Turner’s willingness to become a more involved leader.
“I think all of our young kids, collectively, have done a really good job of being able to get ready to play each week,” UA coach Jedd Fisch said. “It’s a big leap. In training camp, you don't have any classes and you're not really competing at, let's call it, a game-day level. Expect 10K fans — and maybe more – from 'frigid arctic'The word"culture" gets thrown around to describe teams that, frankly, win a lot. And North Dakota State, Arizona’s final nonconference matchup of the season on Saturday, has done its fair share of winning.
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