Arizona showed up as a top-5 Big 12 pick this preseason. West Virginia is still digging out of a 4-8 debut under Rich Rodriguez. This one's a measuring-stick game for both directions.
Bush’s Picks
ARIZWVU
ARIZWVU
OverUnder
Best BetArizona
Arizona brings back a senior quarterback who closed 2025 red hot and a staff that's had a full offseason to build on a 9-win breakthrough. West Virginia is still trying to answer a quarterback question in fall camp with a roster that was largely rebuilt from scratch a year ago. Until the Mountaineers prove last season's flashes are the new baseline, backing the more experienced, more stable program on the road makes sense.
Arizona
+Fifita returns for senior year in same offense
+9-3 turnaround in 2025, Holiday Bowl berth
+Preseason pegged as top-5 Big 12 team
−Fewer proven returning skill-position weapons
−Road trip into hostile Big 12 environment
West Virginia
+Top-25 recruiting class, deep transfer haul added
+Signature wins over Pitt and Colorado in 2025
+Full offseason for Rodriguez to install system
−Quarterback job still unresolved entering fall camp
−Offense ranked 110th nationally in scoring in 2025
Noah Fifita is back for his senior year, and that alone changes the math for Arizona. After a rocky start to 2025, Fifita caught fire down the stretch and helped the Wildcats flip a 4-8 season into a 9-4 finish and a Holiday Bowl trip. Now he gets a rare luxury: his second straight year in the same offense under coordinator Seth Doege. West Virginia's answer at quarterback is still unsettled, with Rich Rodriguez refusing to name a starter between sophomore Scotty Fox and Oklahoma transfer Michael Hawkins Jr. as fall camp approaches.
Rodriguez has been open about what last season was: a teardown. He was hired in December, lost a wave of players to the portal, and patched the roster with 70-plus newcomers just to field a team. The result was a 2-7 conference mark and an offense that finished 110th nationally in scoring. He's since brought in a top-25 recruiting class and a much stronger transfer haul, and he's publicly predicted the Mountaineers will be better than people expect in 2026 — but that's still a projection, not a proven product on the field.
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Arizona, meanwhile, arrives with real expectations attached. Preseason polls have the Wildcats penciled in as high as third in the Big 12, and Brent Brennan's turnaround from 4-8 to 9-3 a year ago was one of the bigger stories in the country. The concern for Arizona isn't the quarterback — it's what's around him, with a thinner group of returning skill-position weapons than the roster that carried them through last year's run.
Arizona Wildcats
Oct 2?vs Cincinnati—
Sep 26?@ Washington State—
Sep 19?vs Northern Illinois—
Sep 12?@ BYU—
Sep 5?vs Northern Arizona—
West Virginia Mountaineers
Oct 2?@ Iowa State—
Sep 25?vs Oklahoma State—
Sep 19?@ Virginia—
Sep 12?vs UT Martin—
Sep 5?vs Coastal Carolina—
Recent form.
West Virginia's identity last season was built on moments more than consistency — a Backyard Brawl win over Pitt and an upset of Colorado stood out against a 49-0 home loss to Texas Tech, the program's worst home defeat since 1891. That kind of split personality is what happens when a first-year staff is still figuring out who its players are. A full offseason of Rodriguez's system, plus a healthier and deeper roster, gives Morgantown a real chance to close that gap — but Arizona's floor right now looks a lot higher than West Virginia's.
Arizona Wildcats
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
West Virginia Mountaineers
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
This is a Friday night game under the lights in Morgantown, which tends to bring an extra jolt to the Mountaineers' home crowd regardless of the records involved. For Arizona, it's another Big 12 road test on the way to proving last year's breakout wasn't a fluke. For West Virginia, it's a chance to show fans that the rebuild is actually ahead of schedule.
