TUCSON, Ariz. — The Arizona Wildcats open their 2019 home slate with a matchup against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks this Saturday, Sept. 7 at Arizona Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:45 p.m. MST on the Pac-12 Networks.

The Cats offense was potent in week one at Hawai'i, led by quarterback Khalil Tate and running back J.J Taylor who continue to climb up the Arizona career stats leaderboards. The Wildcats look to grab their first win of the season against an NAU squad that they have rattled off 13 consecutive victories against dating back to 1933.

A complete game preview can be found below.

SOME GAME THEMES: After a trip to Honolulu to open the season against Hawai'i and the first of three idle weeks this season, the Arizona Wildcats return to Arizona Stadium for their 2019 season opener...Coach Kevin Sumlin prepares for his eighth game ever at Arizona Stadium as the head coach and does so against a familiar face in NAU head man Chris Ball...While Sumlin served as a graduate assistant in 1989 and 1990 at Washington State under Mike Price, Ball served as an assistant coach for both of those seasons...Sumlin and Ball would have coached together on the Washington State staff in 1990 when the Cougars visited Arizona and lost 42-34...Ball is in his first season as the head coach of the Lumberjacks, taking over for Jerome Souers, who had served as NAU's head coach for the prior 21 seasons...Ball is the first coach other than Souers to bring NAU to Tucson since the two teams met in 1945 when Frank Brickey served as the head coach of the Lumberjacks...NAU opened the Ball era in style last week with a 37-23 win over Missouri State...Quarterback Case Cookus threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns in the win, while Brandon Porter hauled in six catches for 140 yards and two touchdowns...The Wildcats are averaging 49.8 points per game over the last five matchups with NAU and are outscoring the Lumberjacks 49.8-10.8 in those five games...The Wildcats are 13-0 all-time against NAU in Tucson...Offensively, Arizona has been strong at home in recent games...The Wildcats have scored at least 40 points in three straight home games dating back to last season, scoring 44 against Oregon, 42 against Colorado and 40 against Arizona State...Arizona has totaled at least 465 yards of total offense in each of its last three home games...Arizona has scored at least 20 points in 12 straight home games, dating back to the 2017 season...The Arizona offense looked to be in strong form in the opener last month against Hawai'i, totaling 539 yards of total offense...Quarterback Khalil Tate completed passes to nine different receivers and touchdowns to three different receivers...Both Bryce Wolma and Stanley Berryhill caught their third career touchdown passes, while Jamarye Joiner hauled in the first of his career after spending last season at quarterback.

LAST MEETING: The Arizona Wildcats opened the 2017 season in style, topping NAU 62-24 in front of 43,620 fans at Arizona Stadium. The Wildcats used special teams to open the scoring when Shun Brown returned a punt 66 yards for a touchdown less than five minutes in to put Arizona up 7-0. The Lumberjacks answered back and tied the game less than a minute later on a 58-yard run from Cory Young. From there, it was all Arizona. The Wildcats scored six of the next seven touchdowns in the game. Nick Wilson started it with a 46-yard touchdown run. Brandon Dawkins then tossed a 43-yard touchdown to Tony Ellison. Dawkins added two rushing scores and Tyrell Johnson and Zach Green each eventually added one as well, as did Branden Leon and Rhett Rodriguez. The Wildcats were dominant on the ground in the game, rushing for 506 yards and seven touchdowns on 47 carries. The Cats gained 10.8 yards per rush. Dawkins threw for just 89 yards on seven completions as Arizona continually went to the run game. Amazingly, despite rushing for 506 yards, the Wildcats didn't have a single 100-yard rusher in the win. Dawkins led the way with 92 yards and Wilson, Nathan Tilford, Khalil Tate, Green, Johnson and J.J. Taylor all ran for 44 or more yards. Taylor had the most attempts with nine. Current NAU quarterback Case Cookus threw for 306 yards, while Young added 115 yards and two scores on 11 carries. Cookus will be making his third appearance against Arizona in his storied NAU career. In two career games at Arizona Stadium, the NAU quarterback is 29 of 51 for 496 yards with three interceptions and one touchdown.

CHARTING THE CATS (CAREER):

• Running back J.J. Taylor has 2,609 career rushing yards, which ranks ninth all-time at Arizona. Taylor needs 348 yards to pass Nic Grigsby for eighth all-time.. Taylor's 453 career carries are the fewest of any player in the top 10. 
• Quarterback Khalil Tate has passed for 4,725 yards in his career, which ranks 12th-most in program history. He'll need another 365 yards to break into the Top 10.
• Tate has rushed for 1,980 yards. Another 20 yards would make him the 17th player in program history to run for 2,000 yards. With 43 more yards, he would pass Eddie Wolgast for 16th all-time at Arizona in rushing yards. 
• Tate has racked up 6,705 yards of total offense in his career, which currently ranks No. 6 in school history. With 344 more total offense yards, Tate would move up to No. 5, passing Keith Smith. 
• Tate has passed for 46 touchdowns in his career, which ranks tied for fourth all-time with Tom Tunnicliffe. With three more, Tate would tie Anu Solomon for third all-time. Nick Foles and Willie Tuitama share the record with 67 touchdown passes. 
• Cornerback Jace Whittaker, who utilized his redshirt season last year, is tied for ninth in career passes broken up with 28. He's currently tied with Trevin Wade and Randy Robbins and is one away from reaching Brandon Sanders' mark of 29. Whittaker had a pair of interceptions in the opener against Hawai'i. 
• Linebacker Colin Schooler enters Saturday's game with NAU with 35.5 tackles-for-loss in just 26 games. With five more, he'll reach the Arizona top 10 and tie Chris Singleton.

HOME OPENERS: Arizona is 90-19-5 all-time in home openers. The Wildcats had a tough home opener last season, falling to BYU 28-23. Prior to that, Arizona had won 17 straight home openers, which included seven wins over Saturday's opponent, NAU. Arizona's record for points in a home opener is 70, set in 2008 when the Wildcats blanked Idaho 70-0 on Aug. 31. Arizona has won 29 of its past 32 home openers. Future home openers for Arizona include Hawai'i next season, San Diego State in 2021 and Mississippi State in 2022. Arizona has gone to overtime just once in a home opener, beating Toledo 24-17 to open the 2012 home slate. The Wildcats then won their next five home openers by an average margin of victory of 27.6.

TATE IS GREAT: One game into his senior season, Khalil Tate has already established himself as one of the most dynamic players in program history. Tate has thrown for 4,725 passing yards in his career and 46 touchdowns to 22 interceptions. He has also rushed for 1,980 yards and 15 touchdowns. He has averaged 6.9 yards per rushing attempt in his career and has accumulated 6,705 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 1,500 career rushing yards and 4,000 career passing yards, joining Oklahoma's Jalen Hurts, who did all of his previous damage at Alabama.
 

Player (School)	Passing Yards	Rushing Yards
Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma)	5,958	2,152
Khalil Tate (Arizona)	4,725	1,980

EXCLUSIVE CLUB: In the season opener against Hawai'i, Tate threw for 361 yards and rushed for 108 yards. He became just the second Pac-12 quarterback since at least 1996 to throw for at least 350 yards in a game and rush for at least 100. The other? A fellow Wildcat of course in Matt Scott, who accomplished the feat in 2012 against USC. Tate did his in a road game, meaning he's the only Pac-12 quarterback since at least 1996 to go 350+, 100+ in a road game. Additionally, Tate became just the third quarterback nationally since 2000 to have 350+, 100+ in a season-opening game, joining Louisville's Lamar Jackson (2017) and Mississippi State's Keytaon Thompson (2018). Since 1996, only four quarterbacks, Lamar Jackson, Tajh Boyd, Johnny Manziel and Kyler Murray, have done it multiple times.
 

Player (School)	Game	Pass Yards	Rush Yards
Khalil Tate (Arizona)	at Hawai'i, 2019	361	108
Matt Scott (Arizona)	vs. USC, 2012	369	100

Player (Year)	School	Opponent	Stats
Khalil Tate (2019)	Arizona	Hawai'i	316 pass, 108 rush
Keytaon Thompson (2018)	Mississippi St.	S.F. Austin	364 pass, 109 rush
Lamar Jackson (2017)	Louisville	Purdue	378 pass, 107 rush

	Player	School	Total Offense Per Game
1.	Jalen Hurts	Oklahoma	508
2.	Khalil Tate	Arizona	469
3.	Elijah Sindelar	Purdue	449
4.	Alan Bowman	Texas Tech	443
	Kelly Bryant	Missouri	443
6.	Jamie Newman	Wake Forest	437

LATE SEASON FORM TRANSLATES: Tate was especially strong late in the season for Arizona last year. The quarterback missed the Oct. 20 game against UCLA game to rest a foot injury. When he returned, Tate completed 75 of 124 passes (completion percentage of 60) for 1,115  yards and 15 touchdowns to just four interceptions. He averaged 278.8 yards per game. In his first seven games, Tate completed 53 percent of his passes and averaged 202.1 yards per game through the air. He also tossed 11 touchdowns in that seven-game span. It's also worth noting that two of Tate's final four games came against top 20 teams in Oregon and Washington State. The strong string of performances carried over to 2019 when Tate accounted for 269 yards of total offense against Hawai'i. Additionally, Tate has now thrown at least three touchdowns in five straight games dating back to last season.

TOUCHDOWN TATE: Khalil Tate is known for his explosiveness, but even highlight reels may struggle to put into perspective how spectacular his big-play ability truly is. In 2017, Tate accounted for 26 touchdowns. He averaged 47.7 yards on his 12 rushing touchdowns, 28.6 yards on 14 passing touchdowns and 37.4 yards on all 26 touchdowns accounted for. Including his limited action as a freshman in 2016 and his season numbers in 2018, here's a look at Tate's career touchdowns:

    Total Yards on Touchdowns (61): 1,809
    Average per Touchdown: 29.7 yards
    Total Rushing Yards on TD (15): 579
    Average Per Rushing TD: 38.6
    Total Passing Yards on TD (46): 1,230
    Average Per TD Pass: 26.7

"DT": The Arizona Wildcats will honor legendary coach Dick Tomey throughout the season in a variety of ways. That will include wearing a "DT" sticker on their helmets to recognize Arizona's all-time winningest coach. The Wildcats wore the sticker in the season opener against Hawai'i. It's a black circle sticker with a white border that says DT in the middle in white lettering. Tomey's family will be on hand for Saturday's game against NAU and will participate in the pregame coin toss, along with University President, Dr. Robert C. Robbins and the game's honorary captain. The Tomey family will also receive a helmet during an in-game presentation, along with a video tribute to the late coach. Arizona will also honor Tomey later in the season for its Homecoming game against Oregon State.

EXPERIENCE PLAYS: Arizona boasts a total of 212 starts on defense this season and 135 on the offensive side. On defense, Arizona has six players with 20 or more starts in Tony Fields (26), Justin Belknap (25), Lorenzo Burns (25), Jace Whittaker (25), Colin Schooler (22) and Kylan Wilborn (21). Scottie Young Jr., has 19 starts to his credit, starting nine in 2017 and nine last season, before getting the nod in the opener against Hawai'i. Safety Tristan Cooper also has double-digit starts with 12. Offensively, 57 of the 135 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 20 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 22 career starts, while quarterback Khalil Tate has started 21. Running back J.J. Taylor, who was a third-team AP All-American last season, has started 17 games in his career.

IN A RUSH: Arizona led the Pac-12 in rushing last season for the third straight year. The Wildcats averaged 202.4 rushing yards per game last year, marking the fourth straight season the program has averaged 200 or more yards per game. Arizona is one of just eight programs nationally and one of three Power 5 teams to average at least 200 yards rushing per game over the past four seasons. Georgia Tech, Army, Air Force, Navy, Georgia Southern, Oklahoma and Appalachian State have also accomplished the feat. Arizona's ability to rush the ball often ties to the success of the team. Over the past five seasons when Arizona has rushed for 200 or more yards, the Wildcats are 24-10. In games where Arizona hasn't reached the 150-yard mark as a team, it is 4-14. Arizona is 26-8 in that span when it has a 100-yard rusher. Arizona has dominated the Pac-12 rushing scene since the start of the 2016 season and is the only program to top 9,000 yards in that span with 9,270. In fact, only Oregon has topped the 8,000-yard mark.
 

	School	Yards
1.	Arizona	9,448
2.	Oregon	8,402
3.	Washington	7,824
4.	Utah	7,692
5.	Stanford	7,084
6.	USC	6,977
7.	Arizona State	6,417
8.	Colorado	6,402
9.	Oregon State	5,984
10.	California	5,637
11.	UCLA	4,405
12.	Washington State	3,565

PAVING THE WAY: That Arizona has led the Pac-12 in rushing each of the past three seasons is certainly a testament to the offensive line. This year's group returns three full-time starters from a year ago in sophomore left tackle Donovan Laie, redshirt junior center Josh McCauley and redshirt senior right guard Cody Creason. Robert Congel, a transfer from Texas A&M who sat out last season, started at left guard against Hawai'i, while redshirt sophomore Edgar Burrola and junior college transfer Paiton Fears split snaps at right tackle against the Rainbow Warriors. On top of opening up running lanes for Arizona's outstanding rushing production, the offensive line has also been the best in the conference at protecting the quarterback over the past three seasons. Consider that during the same span where Arizona has rushed for 9,448 rushing yards, Wildcat quarterbacks have been sacked just 69 times. That number leads the conference.
 

	School	Yards
1.	Arizona	69
2.	USC	70
	Washington	70
4.	Stanford	78
5.	Oregon	79
6.	UCLA	87
	Washington State	87
	California	87
9.	Oregon State	92
10.	Utah	97
11.	Arizona State	103
12.	Colorado	104

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 missed all of last season with an injury, but now has six interceptions for his career and is just one shy of 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. As a team, Arizona had just seven interceptions last year and only had multiple interceptions one time. It 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.	Arizona	4
	Texas A&M	4
	Eastern Michigan	4

TAYLOR MADE: With 67 yards on the ground in Arizona's season opener at Hawai'i, junior running back J.J. Taylor crossed over the 2,600-yard mark for his career. He now sports 2,609 career rushing yards during his four seasons in a Wildcat uniform, good for ninth all-time in school history. The next player on the list – sitting at No. 8 with 2,957 yards, just 348 more than Taylor – is Nic Grigsby, who played for Arizona from 2007-10. Taylor finished the 2018 season with 1,434 rushing yards, the fourth-most in a single season in Arizona school history and the seventh-most in the nation last year. He became the 14th player in school history to accumulate 1,000+ rushing yards in a single season when he went for 212 yards in an upset over No. 19 ranked Oregon on Oct. 27. Taylor eclipsed the 100-yard mark five times in 2018, four of which came in the Wildcats final five games of the season. He has piled up 100 yards in a game eight times during his collegiate career.

SCHOOL(ER)'S IN SESSION: Junior linebacker Colin Schooler has put together an incredible Arizona career through his first two-plus seasons, racking up 223 total tackles, 35.5 tackles for loss, and 8.0 sacks. 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 during last year's season 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 two-year career in Tucson, Schooler is averaging 8.58 tackles per game and 1.37 tackles for loss per game. He is currently on the cusp of breaking onto a pair of Arizona career leaderboards – He is 27 tackles shy of becoming just the 24th player in Wildcat history to log 250+ tackles, and is 5.0 tackles for loss shy of the Arizona career top-10 (records dating back to 1967).

AT A LOSS FOR YARDS: Schooler's 21.5 tackles for loss in 2018 were the second-most in the Pac-12, tied for fifth-most in the nation, and the fourth-most in a single season in school history. He averaged 1.79 tackles for loss over 12 games last season, and through the Wildcat's opener at Hawai'i has now tallied 35.5 TFL during his career. Schooler's 21.5 tackles for loss in 2018 were the most recorded by a Wildcat player in 24 of the last 25 years, with Scooby Wright's 29.0 TFL in 2014 being the lone exception. He is just five TFL away from breaking into the top 10 all-time in school history.

HAVING A FIELD DAY: Sitting right behind Schooler is another junior linebacker, Tony Fields II, who has logged 198 career total tackles, 13.0 tackles for loss, and 7.0 sacks in two-plus seasons with the Cats. Fields logged five tackles in the Wildcats season opener at Hawai'i, giving him six consecutive games with at least five tackles dating back to Oct. 20 of last year at UCLA. He has registered at least five tackles in 19-of-26 career games. 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. They were 18 tackles clear of the No. 5 duo.

YOUNG IN NAME ONLY: Sophomore safety Christian Young played like a veteran in the season opener against Hawai'i, earning his third career start. Young forced a pair of fumbles, recovered one and finished with six solo tackles. Young was the first Wildcat to force two fumbles in a game since Parker Zellers forced a pair against Grambling State in 2016. Young was the first Wildcat to do it in a road game since Scooby Wright forced three fumbles at Washington State in 2014. Since 2000, just seven players have forced multiple fumbles in a game. Young, Zellers and Wright are joined by Ronnie Palmer (2006), Cam Nelson (2009), Jared Tevis (2012) and Reggie Gilbert (2013). Arizona had just one player – Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles—force multiple fumbles all season last year. As a team, Arizona forced 13 fumbles by 12 different players last year. Young began his Arizona career at cornerback as a true freshman last season, but moved to safety this season.

SMOOTH TRANSITION: In his career debut at wide receiver against Hawai'i, redshirt freshman Jamarye Joiner hauled in four receptions for 72 yards and one touchdown – his four catches in the opener were tied for the team lead with Tayvian Cunningham, while his 72 yards were second-most on the Cats. He converted from quarterback to wide receiver prior to the 2019 season. Joiner is the first Arizona freshman wide receiver to catch a touchdown in the Wildcats season opener since Austin Hill hauled in a score against Northern Arizona in 2011. 

BE-ALL END-ALL: Redshirt sophomore defensive end Jalen Harris, one of the Wildcats most impressive players during fall camp, put together one of the best performances of his young career at Hawai'i. In the opener, Harris logged five total tackles, including a career-high 1.5 tackles for loss, and 0.5 sacks. His five total tackles in the opener were tied for a single-game career high. Across three seasons in Tucson, Harris has 36 total tackles, 5.5 TFL, and 3.5 sacks in 17 games. His collegiate debut came against Saturday's opponent, Northern Arizona, in 2017 – he logged four tackles in that game, three of which were solo stops.