Arizona Football: Three bold predictions for Week 3

Arizona football opens up its home slate with a cupcake game against struggling FCS Southern Utah. It’s a much needed “gimme” game for the Wildcats.

The Arizona Wildcats (0-2) head back home to take on FCS opponent Southern Utah. It has been an incredibly rough start to the season for the Wildcats, suffering a tough loss to BYU in the opener and getting pummeled by Houston in week two.

Dynamic quarterback Khalil Tate has struggled mightily through the first two games, completing just above 50 percent of his passes and throwing more interceptions (two) than touchdowns (one). He has only 15 rushing yards and was bludgeoned by Houston’s defense last week.

Expectations and optimism was high before the season, with new head coach Kevin Sumlin combining with Tate to try and build off a successful 2017. That hasn’t been the case and Arizona desperately needs a reset in week three to try and get righted before its Pac-12 schedule begins.

Southern Utah (0-2) has had a similarly rough start to the season, losing to FCS Independent North Alabama and Pac-12 foe Oregon State. The Thunderbirds are replacing All-Conference quarterback Patrick Tyler and junior Chris Helbig has played well in the early season action. The defense has not held up its end of the bargain, allowing over 600 yards per game.

Here’s three bold predictions for this match-up.