TUCSON, Ariz. — The Arizona Wildcats (4-1, 2-0), winners of four straight, welcome the Washington Huskies (4-2, 1-2) to Tucson for a Pac-12 Conference matchup this Saturday, Oct. 12. Kick off is set for 8:00 p.m. MST with a television broadcast on FS1 and the Fox Sports Go app.

The Cats improved their conference record to 2-0 with a thrilling, back-and-forth 35-30 victory over Colorado in Boulder last weekend. Quarterback Khalil Tate threw for a career-high 404 yards and three touchdowns in the win.

The Huskies have split their last two conference contests, taking a 28-14 win from USC at home in Seattle before dropping a 23-13 game at Stanford last weekend.

A complete game preview is below.

Arizona Notes & Numbers

• The Arizona Wildcats will welcome Pac-12 North foe Washington to Arizona Stadium for the first time since 2016. The Huskies outlasted the Wildcats 35-28 in overtime in that 2016 matchup. Arizona used a last-second field goal to knock off Washington 27-26 in 2014 when the Huskies visited.
• Arizona enters Saturday's game riding its first four-game winning streak since 2017. The team's 4-1 start this season is the program's best since starting 5-0 in 2014. The Wildcats are also 2-0 in conference play for the first time since 2014.
• Arizona is 3-0 at home this season. The Wildcats haven't started 4-0 or better at Arizona Stadium since starting 5-0 at home in 2009. Coach Kevin Sumlin is 7-2 at home since taking over as Arizona's head coach with the two losses being by a total of six points.
• Quarterback Khalil Tate threw three touchdown passes Saturday at Colorado and now has 52 for his career. He is 15 touchdowns shy of the school record of 67 held by Nick Foles and Willie Tuitama. Tate has 5,452 career passing yards, which ranks ninth all-time in program history.
• Junior linebacker Tony Fields has 30 tackles in his last three games and had a team-high 11 stops against Colorado. Fields had 10 tackles the week before against UCLA. He has started 30 consecutive games, never missing a contest since his arrival in 2017.
• Redshirt senior cornerback Jace Whittaker and redshirt junior Lorenzo Burns each have three interceptions this season and are tied for fourth nationally. Arizona has nine interceptions as a team through five games after having seven all of last season.
• Redshirt junior running back J.J. Taylor has rushed for 2,754 career yards, which ranks ninth all-time in school history. He needs 204 yards to pass Nic Grigsby for eighth.
• Arizona is seventh in the country in total offense at 539.2 yards per game.

404: Senior quarterback Khalil Tate threw for a career-high 404 yards Saturday at Colorado. It was the 18th 400-yard passing game in school history. Tate is the eighth Arizona quarterback to reach the 400-yard mark.

29-3: Arizona has outscored its opponents 29-3 in the fourth quarter over the past three games. The Wildcats haven't allowed a fourth quarter touchdown since Sept. 7 against NAU.

75: Arizona has three different players – Thomas Reid III, Darrius "Bam" Smith and Cedric Peterson – with 75-yard touchdown receptions so far this season. Arizona is one of only seven programs nationally to have three passing plays of 70 yards or longer this season. 

9: The Wildcats have 9 different players with a touchdown catch, which is tied with Oregon and Washington State for tops in the Pac-12. The Wildcats also have eight receivers each with 100+ yards on the season and 10+ catches, both of which are tied for first in the league.

40: Linebacker Colin Schooler enters Saturday's game with 40 career tackles-for-loss. He is .5 away from entering Arizona's top 10 all-time.

SOME GAME THEMES: Winners of their last four games, the Arizona Wildcats return to Arizona Stadium this week to host the Washington Huskies...The Wildcats have been on a roll since a season-opening loss to Hawai'i on Aug. 24...Arizona ranks seventh in the country in total offense at 539.2 yards per game and has already shown this year that it's more than capable through the air and on the ground...Consider that Arizona is one of just two Power 5 teams nationally (Oklahoma is the other) to be in the top two in their conference in both rushing offense and passing offense...Arizona is second in rushing offense at 22.1 yards per game and leads the Pac-12 in rushing touchdowns with 12...The Wildcats are second in pass offense at 318.2 yards per game...Arizona has rushed for just 182 yards the last two weeks and have been held under 100 yards in both games, despite compiling a pair of wins...Arizona was 1-15 in its last 16 games that it rushed for fewer than 100 yards and hadn't won back-to-back games rushing for less than 100 in each since beating California and Iowa back to back in 2010 with 162 combined rushing yards...However, as teams have focused on shutting down the rush, Arizona's pass attack has taken advantage...Over the last two games, Arizona has completed 60 of 85 passes for 756 yards and four touchdowns to just one interception...Those numbers are with true freshman Grant Gunnell starting against UCLA and senior Khalil State returning from injury to start at Colorado...Gunnell threw for 352 yards, while Tate threw for 404, which marked the first time Arizona won back-to-back games passing for more than 350 yards since winning the final two games of the 2011 season against Arizona State and Louisiana...Defensively, Washington ranks fourth in the conference in total defense, allowing 364.2 yards per game...The Huskies rank sixth in rushing defense at 146.0 yards per game and third in pass defense at 218.2 yards per game...Washington has yet to allow more than 23 points in a game this season...Offensively, Washington is eighth in the league, averaging 418.7 yards per game...Having lost its most recent game to Stanford, the Huskies are looking to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time since falling to Utah and Arizona State in November of 2015...The Huskies and Wildcats haven't met since 2016 when Washington narrowly avoided an upset to Arizona, winning 35-28 in overtime, before eventually advancing to the College Football Playoffs against Alabama...The Wildcats have won four of the last five matchups in Tucson between the two programs, winning in 2014, 2012, 2010 and 2008...Over the last 10 games in the series, the two teams are tied at five wins apiece.

LAST MEETING: Jake Browning threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Dante Pettis in overtime to secure a 35-28 win over Arizona in the most recent meeting between the Wildcats and Huskies...The Cats got the ball after Pettis scored, but turned the ball over on downs and fell to the then ninth-ranked Huskies...The Cats forced overtime when Brandon Dawkins hit Josh Kern for a 4-yard touchdown pass with 17 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 28...Dawkins scored on a 2-yard rush with 4:45 left to pull the game even at 21, but Lavon Coleman broke through for a 55-yard touchdown run with 3:25 left to give the Huskies a 28-21 lead...Dawkins rushed for 176 yards on 13 carries and passed for 167...J.J. Taylor rushed for 97 yards on 19 carries before exiting with a broken left ankle that forced him to miss the rest of the season...Both teams rushed for more than 300 yards with Washington totaling 352 yards and Arizona gaining 308...The win by Washington was the first by a road team in this series since Arizona won in Seattle in 2007...Washington went on to win seven of its final eight regular season games and top Colorado in the Pac-12 Championship game to advance to the College Football Playoffs...Arizona finished the year 3-9.

CHARTING THE CATS (CAREER): 

• Running back J.J. Taylor has 2,754 career rushing yards, which ranks ninth all-time at Arizona. Taylor needs 204 yards to pass Nic Grigsby for eighth all-time.. Taylor's 475 career carries are the fewest of any player in the top 10. 
• Quarterback Khalil Tate has passed for 5,452 yards in his career, which ranks ninth-most in program history. He'll need another 271 yards to move into eighth.
• Tate has rushed for 2,133 yards. He is the 17th player in program history to rush for at least 2,000 yards. With 256 more yards, he would pass Jim Upchurch for 13th all-time at Arizona in rushing yards. 
• Tate has racked up 7,585 yards of total offense in his career, which currently ranks No. 3 in school history. He is 1,142 yards behind Willie Tuitama for second all-time in program history. 
• Tate has passed for 52 touchdowns in his career, which ranks third all-time in program history. Nick Foles and Willie Tuitama share the record with 67 touchdown passes. 
• Cornerback Jace Whittaker, who utilized his redshirt season last year, is sixth in career passes broken up with 31. He's currently one behind Devin Ross and Antoine Cason, who are tied for fourth. Kelly Malveaux is third all-time with 35 PBUs. Whittaker had a pair of interceptions in the opener against Hawai'i and then another against NAU. He has seven picks for his career. 
• Linebacker Colin Schooler enters Saturday's game with Washington with 40 tackles-for-loss in just 30 games. With .5 more, he'll reach the Arizona top 10 and tie Chris Singleton.

TATE IS GREAT: Four games into his senior season, Khalil Tate has already established himself as one of the most dynamic players in program history. Tate has thrown for 5,452 passing yards in his career and 52 touchdowns to 25 interceptions. He has also rushed for 2,133 yards and 17 touchdowns. He has averaged 6.8 yards per rushing attempt in his career and has accumulated 7,585 yards of total offense in his three-plus-year Wildcat career. Last season, Tate started all 11 games he suited up for and posted career highs in passing yards (2,530) and passing touchdowns (26). His pass efficiency rating of 149.77 ranked second in the Pac-12 and was the fifth-best mark in Arizona single-season history. Tate is one of two Power 5 quarterbacks with at least 2,000 career rushing yards and 5,000 career passing yards, joining Oklahoma's Jalen Hurts, who spent the first three seasons of his career at Alabama, before transferring as a graduate student.
 

Player (School)	Passing Yards	Rushing Yards
Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma)	7,149	2,525
Khalil Tate (Arizona)	5,452	2,133

Player (School)	Passing Yards	Rushing Yards
Marcus Mariota (Oregon)	10,796	2,237
Khalil Tate (Arizona)	5,452	2,133

AIR TIME: Tate had arguably the top passing game of his career last time out at Colorado. The senior completed 31 of 41 passes for 404 yards and three touchdowns to just one interception. He was nearly perfect in the second half, completing 23 of 27 passes for 229 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. It was just the 18th 400-yard passing game in school history. Tate joined Anu Solomon (two times), Willie Tuitama (two times), Jason Johnson (three times), Matt Scott (two times), Nick Foles (four times), Tom Tunnicliffe, Keith Smith and Bruce Hill as Arizona quarterbacks to post a 400-yard passing game. Tate now joins former Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch as the only quarterbacks in NCAA history to have a 300-yard rushing game (327 vs. Colorado in 2017) and a 400-yard passing game to their credit. After his 404-yard passing game against Colorado, Tate now ranks eighth in the country in total offense at 337.3 yards per game. His 156 plays are the fewest of any player ranked in the top 40. Tate is one of four quarterbacks nationally to have a 400-yard passing game and a 100-yard rushing game already this season. He joins Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma), Brock Purdy (Iowa State) and Jamie Newman (Wake Forest).

GRANT LAND: Freshman quarterback Grant Gunnell made his first career start last month against UCLA, filling in for Khalil Tate, who missed the game due to injury. Gunnell threw for 352 yards and one touchdown against the Bruins. He's just the third true freshman quarterback in the country to throw for more than 350 yards in a game this season. He joins USC's Kedon Slovis and Boise State's Hank Bachmeier. Like Slovis, Gunnell didn't commit any turnovers in his performance and like both, he did it in his first career start. For the season, Gunnell is 38 of 55 for 503 yards and four touchdowns on the season. He's completing 69 percent of his passes. Gunnell is the first Arizona quarterback to throw for at least 350 yards and no interceptions since Anu Solomon did it against USC in 2014. Only five Arizona quarterbacks –Jason Johnson, Nick Foles, B.J. Denker, Anu Solomon and Gunnell – have thrown for 350 yards and no interceptions since 2000. He's the first Arizona freshman to do it since Keith Smith in 1996. Smith threw for 418 yards and five touchdowns at Cal in a 56-55 loss.
 

Player (School)	Opponent	Passing Yards
Hank Bachmeier (Boise St.)	Florida State	407
Kedon Slovis (USC)	Stanford	377
Grant Gunnell (Arizona)	UCLA	352

EXPERIENCE PLAYS: Arizona boasts a total of 256 starts on defense this season and 179 on the offensive side. On defense, Arizona has seven players with 20 or more starts in Tony Fields (30), Lorenzo Burns (29), Jace Whittaker (29), Justin Belknap (26), Colin Schooler (26), Scottie Young Jr. (23) and Kylan Wilborn (22). Safety Tristan Cooper also has double-digit starts with 14. Offensively, 72 of the 168 returning starts come on the offensive line. Cody Creason, who has played all over the line in his career and has started his senior season at right guard, has 24 career starts to his credit. Center Josh McCauley and left tackle Donovan Laie both started all 12 games last year, while Bryson Cain started the first nine games of the season, before suffering an injury and missing the final three. Redshirt senior wide receiver Cedric Peterson leads all returning offensive players with 26 career starts, while quarterback Khalil Tate has started 24. Running back J.J. Taylor, who was a third-team AP All-American last season, has started 20 games in his career.

PICKS APLENTY: Arizona intercepted four passes in its season opener against Hawai'i, securing its highest total since picking off four passes against No. 15 Washington State on Oct. 28, 2017. The four interceptions were the most in a road game by Arizona since 2006 at Oregon. Three players – Jace Whittaker, Lorenzo Burns and Tony Fields II – combined for the four interceptions. None of them had an interception in 2018 after combining for nine in 2017. Whittaker and the Cats were at it again against NAU in the second game of the season. Both Whittaker and freshman Christian Roland-Wallace picked off passes, upping Arizona's season total to six. The Cats again picked off two passes in the non-conference finale against Texas Tech with Burns and linebacker Anthony Pandy intercepting passes. Burns kept the streak alive against UCLA, notching his third interception of the season and giving Arizona nine for the season. Whittaker missed all of last season with an injury, but now has seven interceptions for his career and has already tied his season-high of three set in 2017. Burns had five as a redshirt freshman in 2017, but went without any last year. Fields had one has a freshman in 2017 before picking off his second career pass against the Rainbow Warriors. Roland-Wallace, a true freshman, picked off the first pass of his game. As a team, Arizona had just seven interceptions last year and only had multiple interceptions one time. The Cats have already surpassed both of those totals in five games this year. The season opener marked the first time Arizona had four interceptions in a season opener since also picking off four passes against Idaho in 2008 in a 70-0 win.
 

	School	Interceptions
1.	Florida	12
2.	San Jose State	11
3.	Arizona	9
	Texas	9

FOURS UP: Arizona hasn't allowed a fourth quarter touchdown since its Sept. 7 game against NAU. The Wildcats have outscored opponents 29-3 in the fourth quarter over the last three games, which all went for wins. Two of the wins have been of the comeback variety. Arizona trailed 14-13 heading into the final quarter before winning 28-14 over Texas Tech. Against UCLA, Arizona trailed 17-13, before pulling out the 20-17 win. The Wildcats had lost 25 straight games when trailing after three before the Texas Tech win and have now won back-to-back such games. In the fourth quarter Saturday against Colorado, Arizona entered with a 28-27 lead. The Buffaloes had the ball 2nd-and-3 from Arizona's 18. Colorado then had 1st-and-Goal from the 2-yard line, but Trevon Mason and Colin Schooler came up with back-to-back tackles-for-loss and then Tristan Cooper broke up a pass on 3rd-and-Goal to force a field goal and put Colorado up just two. Arizona responded with a 13-play, 77-yard touchdown drive that made the score 35-30, which held up to be the final. The Wildcats have had touchdown scoring drives of 99, 87, 77 and 75 yards in the fourth quarter of the past three games. On the flip side, opponents have punted twice, turned the ball over on downs twice, missed a field goal and made a field goal in the fourth quarter against Arizona the last three games.

THIRD DOWN TO FIRST DOWN: Arizona is seventh in the country in third down conversion percentage at 53.2 percent. The Wildcats have converted on 41 of 77 chances through five games this season. The 41 conversions are third nationally among teams who have played five games this season. Arizona converted 15 of 21 third downs against Texas Tech, one game after converting nine of 14 chances against NAU. After converting just six of 17 chances against UCLA, Arizona was 8 of 14 against Colorado in the win last weekend.

HOMETOWN HEROES: The Arizona wide receiver room has a strong Tucson feel to it with three local players in Stanley Berryhill III, Drew Dixon and Jamarye Joiner. The three Tucsonans have combined for 37 catches for 509 yards and five touchdowns in the first five games of the season. Adding to the impressiveness of it is that all three players are underclassmen. Berryhill and Dixon are both redshirt sophomores, while Joiner is a redshirt freshman. Dixon had his first career catch against Hawai'i, and then had four catches for 46 yards and a touchdown against NAU. Dixon's four catches against the Lumberjacks tied for the game-high with Berryhill and senior Cedric Peterson. Joiner, who had four catches in the opener against Hawai'i, had one catch for 15 yards against NAU and two catches for 14 yards against Texas Tech, before a four-catch, 68-yard game against Colorado. Dixon and Joiner were both high school quarterbacks, who transitioned to receiver. Both played their high school football in Tucson with Dixon attending Sabino High School and Joiner going to Cienega High School. Joiner and Berryhill each had three catches against UCLA. Dixon had two.

I'M MR. BRIGHTWELL: Junior running back Gary Brightwell currently leads the team with 44 rushing attempts and 286 yards this season, 85 of which he picked up on a career-high 21 carries in the Cats third game of the year against Texas Tech. He picked up two touchdowns on the ground against Tech and added another two weekends ago against UCLA, giving him the team lead with four rushing touchdowns this season. He rewrote the Arizona record books in week two against Northern Arizona – his 94-yard touchdown run against NAU is tied with Nic Grigsby (2009) for the second-longest run in school history, and was just two yards shy of tying the all-time record of 96 yards set by Trung Canidate in 1997. Through three seasons and 135 attempts, Brightwell has amassed 811 rushing yards for the Cats, good for an average of 6.0 yards per carry. His four touchdowns, 6.5 yards per carry, and 57.2 yards per game this season are all career-best marks for Brightwell.
 

Year	GP	ATT	YDS	TD	Long	AVG/A	AVG/G
2017	13	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0
2018	11	91	525	3	72	5.8	47.7
2019	5	44	286	4	94	6.5	57.2
Total	29	135	811	7	94	6.0	28.0

SCHOOL(ER)'S IN SESSION: Junior linebacker Colin Schooler has put together an incredible Arizona career through his two-plus seasons in Tucson. With eight tackles last week against Colorado, Schooler moved his career total to 254, making him just the 24th player in school history to log 250+ tackles. Schooler also tallied 1.0 tackle for loss in Boulder, giving him 40.0 TFL for his career, leaving him just 0.5 TFL shy of the Arizona career top 10 (records dating back to 1967). Schooler has logged at least eight tackles in four-of-five games this year and notched a season-best 13 tackles on Sept. 28 against UCLA. He currently ranks eighth in the conference with 8.0 tackles per game, while his mark of 10.5 tackles per game during conference play is tied for third on the circuit with teammate Tony Fields II. His success has been sustained, too; he finished the 2018 season, his sophomore campaign, with 119 total tackles, good for fifth-most in the Pac-12. Additionally, Schooler's 21.5 tackles for loss last year were second-most in the conference, just 0.5 behind Utah's Chase Hansen. Schooler led the Wildcats in tackles seven times last year, and finished second on the team twice. Over his Cats career, Schooler is averaging 8.47 tackles per game and 1.33 tackles for loss per game.

HAVING A FIELD DAY: Alongside Schooler is yet another experienced, tackle-happy junior linebacker in Tony Fields II. The Las Vegas native started all 13 games of his freshman season in 2017 and hasn't missed a beat since, logging 30 consecutive starts as of last weekend's action in Boulder. Across 30 games, Fields has totaled 232 tackles, 14.0 tackles for loss, and 7.0 sacks. He currently ranks tied for ninth in the conference with an average of 7.8 tackles per game, while his 10.5 tackles per game average during two games of conference play is tied for the third-best mark in the Pac-12 along with Schooler. Fields logged five tackles in the Wildcats season opener at Hawai'i, had four against NAU, led the team with nine tackles against Texas Tech, tallied 10 stops against UCLA, and notched a season-high 11 tackles last weekend against Colorado. His back-to-back double-digit tackle performances to open Pac-12 play gives him 13 such performances in his career. After leading Arizona with 104 total tackles in 2017, Fields finished second on the squad in 2018 with 89. Last season, Fields and Schooler combined to total 208 tackles, the fourth-most by any Pac-12 duo of leading tacklers in 2018.
 

	Player (School)	Class	Solo	Ast	Total	AVG/G
1.	E. Weaver (CAL)	Sr.	22	17	39	13.0
2.	J. Woods (WSU)	Jr.	12	11	23	11.5
3.	C. Schooler (ARIZ)	Jr.	16	5	21	10.5
	T. Fields II (ARIZ)	Jr.	18	3	21	10.5
5.	N. Landman (COLO)	Jr.	17	2	19	9.5

YOU SHALL NOT PASS: Redshirt senior cornerback Jace Whittaker and redshirt junior cornerback Lorenzo Burns are currently tied for fourth in the Pac-12 lead and tied for 20th among all qualified FBS players with an average of 1.40 passes defensed per game. The duo of Whittaker and Burns has combined for six interceptions and seven pass breakups this year. Their six interceptions are more than seven Pac-12 teams have logged all season (STAN/CAL/WSU/UCLA - 3, ASU/OSU/USC - 2). Since 2016, Burns and Whittaker have logged 15 combined interceptions, over 35 percent of the team's total over that stretch.

TARGETING TAYVIAN: Junior wide receiver Tayvian Cunningham has been one of the Wildcats most prolific passing targets this year, hauling in a team-best 233 receiving yards and ranking second on the squad with 20 receptions. Cunningham has averaged 46.6 receiving yards per game, 11.6 yards per catch, and is currently tied second on the team with two receiving scores. He hauled in his first two career touchdown catches with Arizona in game two against NAU – he finished the night with three catches for 58 yards. Cunningham has multiple catches in each of the Wildcats five games this year and has gone over 50 receiving yards three times: at Hawai'i (65), vs. Northern Arizona (58), at Colorado (56).

LIFE OF BRIAN: Junior wide receiver Brian Casteel has quickly emerged as a key component of the Wildcats offense in recent weeks. Casteel has logged seven receptions in each of his last two games (vs. UCLA, at Colorado) with a combined 118 yards. He hauled in his first career touchdown catch last weekend at Colorado, a career-long 33-yard catch early in the third quarter of the back-and-forth affair. He currently leads the Wildcats with 21 catches this year, while his 180 receiving yards rank fifth on the team. Casteel saw limited time as a backup wideout and special teams contributor in 2017 before sitting out the entire 2018 campaign.