HOUSTON at ARIZONA
Saturday, Sept. 9 • 10:30 p.m. • ESPNU
Arizona Stadium (56,029/FieldTurf)
Tucson, Arizona
Television
ESPNU
Clay Matvick and Kirk Morrison
Radio
KPRC-AM 950 (Houston flagship)
SiriusXM 112/203/963 (Arizona feed)
THE GAME
Saturday’s game will be the third meeting between Houston and Arizona … The schools have split the two previous meetings, both in Tucson, as Houston won a 34-17 decision in 1969 and the Wildcats took a 37-3 win in the 1986 season-opener … Arizona went on to go 9-3 and finish the 1986 season ranked No. 11 in the final AP poll.
rv/rv HOUSTON
0-0, 0-0 American
Head Coach
Major Applewhite (Texas ’02)
0-1, first full season
Notes
Houston looks to continue its best run in program history as the Cougars play their first full season under head coach Major Applewhite … Houston has won 22 games in the last two years, trailing only Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State nationally … Houston has lost its last three true road games, but has a 15-game winning streak at TDECU Stadium — the longest active homefield winning streak in FBS … The key player for Houston is DT Ed Oliver, who was tabbed by Sports Illustrated as the nation’s top defensive player following a freshman season in which he was an Associated Press and Sporting News first team All-America choice … Oliver registered 23.0 tackles for loss as a true freshman in 2016 … Applewhite will announce his starting quarterback later in the week … Four starters return on the offensive line.
-/rv ARIZONA
1-0, 0-0 Pac-12
Head Coach
Rich Rodriguez (West Virginia ’85)
37-29, sixth season at Arizona
157-113-2, 24th season as collegiate head coach
Notes
Arizona rolled past Northern Arizona 62-24 in its season-opener as the Wildcats look to bounce back from a 3-9 season … Arizona’s best season under sixth-year head coach Rich Rodriguez was in 2014, when the Wildcats went 10-4, reached the Pac-12 championship game and played in the Fiesta Bowl … The Wildcats rushed for 506 yards in the season-opener against NAU …Arizona had 595 yards of offense and averaged 9.8 yards per play … Six Wildcat players rushed for at least 50 yards, including QB Brandon Dawkins, who had 92 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries … Dawkins also completed 7 of 13 passes for 89 yards and a TD … Nearly 70 percent of Arizona’s roster consists of freshmen or sophomores … The Wildcats have 61 freshmen (true or redshirt).