Two years ago in Tucson, Rodney Gallagher III caught two passes for 14 yards and added 21 rushing yards in the only football game Arizona and West Virginia have ever played, wearing West Virginia's colors, where he spent three seasons before transferring to Arizona for 2026. Saturday he walks into Milan Puskar Stadium on the other sideline, and he does it as one of the few healthy bodies left in a position group Arizona emptied out while beating Cincinnati 34-7.
That game gave and took in almost the same breath. Giovanni Richardson returned from a two-game absence, ripped off a 19-yard catch-and-run on Arizona's opening drive, and at some point before the end of the game, he, Chris Hunter III and Tre Spivey III all went down with injuries and did not return. A receiver depth chart that has now lost its best slot man twice is a real problem heading into October.
Watch who Fifita looks for first
Here is the thing Arizona has quietly proven for five weeks. The passing game does not seem to care much who is running the routes. Noah Fifita is in his final season having already thrown for 3,228 yards and a school-record 29 touchdowns in 2025, and he arrived in 2026 holding Arizona career marks of 9,183 passing yards and 73 passing touchdowns.
That is reassuring and also the unresolved part. Gallagher has had this audition before. When Richardson first got hurt at BYU, Gallagher finished that night with five catches for 26 yards. Real work, modest results. Arizona has survived by committee.
So the thing to watch at noon ET Saturday on truTV is not whether Arizona scores. It is whether Gallagher, against the only other program he has ever played for, finally looks like the answer. West Virginia ranks 133rd nationally in total defense, dead last among the 68 Power Four programs. If a featured role is going to emerge, this is the schedule slot where it emerges.
Brennan tied the Cincinnati result to something larger. "We talk about it all the time, our commitment to building the best team in the Big 12 and that's how we're going to have to do it in Arizona. I think you saw that today." Week 6 is the unglamorous version of that claim. A short-handed team on the road against a bad defense, favored to win. The model gives Arizona an 81% chance. Win and Arizona's playoff odds sit at 7.2% with conference title-game odds at 5.9%; lose and those alternative branches drop to 2.1% and 0.9%. Nothing about this game is exciting. Everything about it is load-bearing for the rest of the schedule.
Elsewhere in the Big 12
Two late games affect Arizona's path to the conference title game, both by the plainest mechanism there is, beating the teams Arizona would otherwise have to climb past in the standings.
Kansas at Utah: root for Kansas
Saturday's not-happening-often result. Kansas wins this about 11% of the time at No. 12 Utah, but it is the bigger prize of the two. Arizona's title-game odds land near 7.0% if Kansas pulls it off versus about 4.7% if Utah holds serve, a swing of roughly 2.3 percentage points. Utah also visits Tucson in Week 11, so every loss the Utes absorb now makes that November game matter more. Kickoff is 10:15 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN. Enjoy it if it happens; do not plan around it.
Iowa State at BYU: root for Iowa State
More realistic and nearly as valuable. Iowa State has about a 35% shot at No. 8 BYU, and an Iowa State win puts Arizona's title-game odds near 6.1% against roughly 4.3% if BYU wins. About 1.8 percentage points. It kicks Friday night at 10:15 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Full numbers are in the interactive guide, and the simulation details are on the methodology page.