TUCSON, Ariz. — After the team’s loss to the Oregon State Beavers, the Southern Utah Thunderbird football team will travel south to face another Pac-12 team, the Arizona Wildcats.
T-Bird junior Chris Helbig solidified his place as starting quarterback playing the full game against the Beavers. He put up 340 total yards and went for 2 touchdowns while throwing no interceptions. Helbig played a good game even though the team came up short in the end.
Helbig used a wide range of receivers throughout the night, completing passes to 10 different T-Birds. Frank Harris III and Jay Green Jr. came up with a touchdown a piece with a combined 3 touches.
Arizona heads into the matchup 0-2 after losing their opening game to BYU and suffering a 45-18 blowout loss to the University of Houston.
Junior quarterback Khalil Tate struggled offensively against the Houston Cougars, throwing for two interceptions. Redshirt junior Shawn Poindexter had a big game averaging 19.1 yards per catch totaling 134 yards on the night.
Head Coach, Kevin Sumlin, hopes to not only deliver the Wildcats their first win of the year, but is hoping to do so on home turf. He has been with the team for less than a year and is hoping to make improvements especially on the offensive side of the ball.
The Wildcats are coming off of a bit of a rough patch as they are in a coaching transition. The Thunderbirds are looking to gain their first win of the year, and Head Coach DeMario Warren would definitely like another shot at a Pac-12 upset.
The Thunderbird defense needs to come up big to upset the fast paced Pac-12 offense. In the season opener, it was the defense that had the stop on Northern Alabama, and would have solidified the win if it weren’t for a few controversial officiating calls the end the game
Although Tate was getting a lot of Heisman buzz in the preseason, he hasn’t had the ideal start to a season. The T-Bird secondary needs to capitalize on this and make it difficult for the Wildcats to convert third and longs.
Kickoff is scheduled for 9 p.m. on Saturday evening. Saturday’s game will be aired on the Pac-12 Network and streamed online at pac-12.com/live.
Story by: Cade Higbee for SUU News
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Photo by: Easton Bowring
