Hi, hi, hi, Wildcat family! Inez Paloverde here, prickly-pear lemonade in one hand, my old piccolo in the other, and a sunset over the Catalinas that I would rate a perfect ten if I didn't have to save some points for the road. Before you say it: yes, it's still warm in Tucson. It's a dry hype.
We had a bye last Saturday, so this is an honest two-week report. First, the last real game we played, which was gorgeous. Then the week off. Then a very warm desert welcome for Iowa State, a program whose mascot is a bird because, and I am not making this up, a tornado was too hard to sew.
Part 1: The Bye, and the Game Before It
Let me be clear so nobody writes in: Arizona did not play on Oct. 17. Our last game was Oct. 10 at West Virginia, and we won 52-31 in Morgantown. We're 5-1 and No. 25 in the AP poll, and AP noted it's our best six-game start since 2014.
And we did it without our top three wide receivers. Tre Spivey, Giovanni Richardson and Chris Hunter III were all out after getting hurt the week before against Cincinnati. We wish all three a full and speedy recovery, and that's all I'll say about it. Then a sophomore named Isaiah Mizell walked onto that field like the band had just started his song.
Mizell had entered the game with 176 receiving yards for the season. He left it with six catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns, both career highs. The first was a 14-yarder in the first quarter. The second was a short throw over the middle that he turned into a 72-yard touchdown with 13 seconds left in the third quarter. In marching-band terms, that's a soloist stepping out of the formation and hitting every note. Even AP sounded impressed.
Noah Fifita was surgical: 16 of 23 for a season-high 341 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. The third touchdown came on a trick play, a 42-yard toss to Brandon Phelps. Quincy Craig ran 40 yards for a score, Kedrick Reescano punched one in from 8, and Antwan Roberts Jr. added a 30-yard touchdown run to finish it. Lee Molette III scooped up a fumble on a pitch that went behind the runner and took it 32 yards for a touchdown. Cam Chapa made 15 tackles.
Honesty time, because I love you. West Virginia outgained us 522 to 482 and held the ball for 35:50. We won because we made fewer mistakes and took our chances. That's the cactus defense in a nutshell: it doesn't look like much from across the yard, and then you try to grab it.
Then came the bye. A week to heal, rest the legs and let Mizell's highlight reel play on a loop in my kitchen. We've now won four straight: Northern Illinois, Washington State, Cincinnati 34-7 and West Virginia. Our only loss was 28-17 at BYU, and BYU is currently the No. 2 team in the country, so I'm choosing to call that a scheduling compliment.
Part 2: Iowa State Comes to Tucson
Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Eastern, on ESPN2, Iowa State (3-3) visits No. 25 Arizona. It's the Cyclones' first trip to Tucson since 1966. The last time they were here, Arizona won 27-24. Welcome back, Cyclones. We kept the porch light on for 60 years.
The series is Arizona 4, Iowa State 2, with one tie. I will be gracious: Iowa State won last year's meeting 39-14 in Ames, and I have not forgotten one single yard of it. My piccolo remembers. My piccolo holds a grudge.
The Forecast in Ames Has Been Cloudy
Iowa State also had a bye last week, and its last game was Oct. 9 at BYU. It lost 24-10. The Cyclones finished with 200 yards of offense, which AP said was their lowest single-game output since 2018. They had 49 yards before halftime, their fewest since 2017. They went three-and-out on three straight second-quarter drives, and in that quarter BYU allowed them six yards. Six. I've marched farther than that during a halftime show while playing "Bear Down, Arizona."
Jaylen Raynor threw for 98 yards that night. On the season, Iowa State ranks 118th in FBS in passing yards (178.2 a game) and 127th in third-down conversions, at 31%. When your weather-loving friends in Ames talk about a "Cyclone warning," friends, that warning appears to be for third and seven.
Now, to be fair, because Mama Paloverde raised a polite piccolo player: Aiden Flora is a real runner. He has 680 yards and six touchdowns on 90 carries, and Iowa State runs for 181.5 yards a game. And the Cyclones have scored on every single red zone trip this season, which leads FBS. So the plan is simple: don't let them get there. Make them throw it on third down. Repeat until sunset.
Arizona's Offense Is a Fireworks Show
Fifita has 1,756 yards, 16 touchdowns and four interceptions, and he's completing 73.3% of his passes. Arizona throws for 306.7 yards a game, 10th in FBS, and scores 35.7 a game. Mizell leads us with 19 catches for 359 yards and four touchdowns, and remember, 183 of those came in one afternoon. Reescano leads the ground game with 262 yards and four scores.
On defense, linebacker Chase Kennedy has four sacks and Taye Brown leads the team with 39 tackles. We allow 19 points a game, 32nd in FBS. Iowa State's defense allows 21.7 a game and 198.5 passing yards. Fifita against that secondary is where my binoculars are going first.
One honest worry: we're minus-3 in turnover margin, 99th in FBS, and Iowa State is plus-3. If we hand them the ball, they'll take it. So hold on tight, boys. Desert rules: you never leave your water bottle or your football unattended.
About That Mascot
Iowa State became the Cyclones after a run of tornadoes, then called cyclones, tore through the area in 1898. Wonderful, dramatic name. Then somebody had to build the costume. According to the history of Cy the Cardinal, a cyclone was too hard to depict, so they picked a cardinal, from the school colors. So the Cyclones are represented by a small red bird. That's like naming your band "The Thunderstorm" and sending a wind chime out to play the solo.
Our mascots are Wilbur and Wilma Wildcat. They are cats. Our team is the Wildcats. You see how that works, Ames? Branding is so much easier in the desert.
Desert Dispatch: A Tale of Two Towns
You knew it was coming. Every football weekend is a town weekend, so let me show our guests around.
Tucson. We are the Old Pueblo. We are the second-largest city in Arizona, with 542,630 people at the 2020 census. And in 2015, UNESCO made Tucson the first City of Gastronomy in the United States. The first one in the whole country, friends. Not some trendy coastal place. Us. We have Saguaro National Park on both sides of town, East and West, so the cacti literally have us surrounded. And above it all is 'A' Mountain, Sentinel Peak, with its big letter watching over the city.
And "Bear Down" is ours. It comes from John "Button" Salmon, our student-body president and quarterback, who was gravely injured in a car accident after the first game of the 1926 season. His last message to his teammates, passed along by coach Pop McKale, is the one we still say every week. We say it with love and respect.
Ames. Ames is a lovely college town about 30 miles north of Des Moines. The Campanile is beautiful, and I mean that. But let's look at the paperwork. Ames was named after Oakes Ames, a congressman from Massachusetts. Iowa's town is named after a man from New England. And Ames is the biggest city in Story County, but it isn't the county seat. The county seat is a town called Nevada, 8 miles to the east. So in Iowa, even Nevada is closer to the action than Ames.
Ames had 66,427 people in 2020. Tucson has more than eight Ameses. We could host the whole town in our stadium, which holds about 50,800, and still have to borrow a few thousand guests from Nevada, Iowa. The real one, I mean. The one with the courthouse.
I'll add that our visitors are coming from a place with real autumn into a desert evening. Bring sunglasses for kickoff, friends, and then stay for the sunset. On my road-stadium Sunset Rankings, Ames hasn't been rated yet. Tucson rates itself, and it never loses.
The Final Drill Chart
Here's how I see it. Arizona has the stronger passing game by a mile, a hot receiver who just introduced himself to the country, and two weeks of rest. Iowa State has a good running back, a perfect red zone record and an offense that managed exactly 200 yards in its last outing. If our cactus defense keeps Flora in front of it and forces Raynor into third-and-long, the Cyclones will be stuck in the dry season.
Get to the stadium early. Wear red, wear navy, wear sunscreen. Watch the sky turn orange over the Catalinas. And Iowa State, welcome to the desert. It's a dry hype, and it's all ours. Bear Down, friends.
My call: Arizona Wildcats 30, Iowa State Cyclones 21.