Fox's 'Big Noon Kickoff' to come to Tucson for Arizona-Utah game

Tucson will be the center of the college football spotlight Saturday morning when Fox brings its Big Noon Kickoff pregame show to town for the first live Tucson episode in the program’s history. The two hour broadcast will air from 8 to 10 a.m. local time ahead of Arizona’s nationally televised matchup with undefeated Utah, giving Wildcats fans an early game day event before the teams meet at Arizona Stadium that evening.

The show is expected to add another layer of energy to a major home football weekend. Arizona, ranked No. 22, enters the game with a seven and two record, while Utah is ranked No. 3 and remains unbeaten at nine and zero. The game is scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. kickoff on Fox. Arizona is listed as a two and a half point underdog, despite playing at home and having already defeated Utah on the road earlier this season.

Big Noon Kickoff will be hosted by Rob Stone, with a panel that includes former Heisman Trophy winners Matt Leinart and Mark Ingram, as well as Brady Quinn, Urban Meyer and Chris Fallica. Leinart was a star quarterback at Southern California, while Ingram became one of Alabama’s top running backs before moving on to the NFL. Quinn played quarterback at Notre Dame and later spent seven seasons in the NFL. Meyer has won three national championships as a college coach, including titles at Florida and Ohio State, and also coached the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Tucson appearance follows another Arizona related Big Noon Kickoff broadcast earlier in the season, when the program set up in Provo, Utah, for the Wildcats’ game against BYU. That matchup marked Arizona’s 26th meeting with BYU, a series dating to 1936, and the schools entered it tied at 12 wins apiece with one tie. Arizona has also faced Utah repeatedly since joining the Big 12, helping make the program’s road games in the Beehive State a recurring part of its national television schedule. This week, however, the attention moves to the Wildcats’ own campus and stadium.

Arizona’s recent history against Utah gives the game an especially significant edge. Two weeks earlier, the Wildcats defeated then No. 10 Utah, 23 to 10, producing head coach Brent Brennan’s first victory over an Associated Press Top 25 opponent. It was also Arizona’s first win at Utah since 2014 and the Wildcats’ second consecutive victory over the Utes. Before Arizona’s win, Utah had not lost at home to an unranked team since Washington defeated the Utes in 2018.

The earlier victory was built around an Arizona defense that limited Utah to 10 points. That was the fewest points the Wildcats had allowed to a top 10 opponent since their shutout of No. 10 Miami in the 1994 Fiesta Bowl. Arizona’s defensive performance also fits a broader pattern from this season. In a later loss to Texas Tech, the Wildcats held the Red Raiders to 14 first downs, forced two interceptions and two fumbles, and allowed only 118 rushing yards, but Texas Tech still escaped with a 28 to 22 win.

That loss ended a strong stretch for Arizona and served as a reminder that Utah will present a difficult challenge even with the Wildcats playing at home. Texas Tech pressured quarterback Noah Fifita, intercepted him twice and rallied after Arizona briefly took a 19 to 18 lead in the fourth quarter. Running back Tahj Brooks finished with 128 rushing yards and three touchdowns for the Red Raiders. Arizona is still 10 and two over its last 12 games dating to last season, but the Wildcats will need to avoid the turnovers and missed opportunities that contributed to the Texas Tech defeat.

Arizona’s most prominent offensive threat remains wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan. He had eight catches for 161 yards against Texas Tech, recording the 10th 100 yard receiving game of his career. His career total reached 2,768 yards, leaving him 91 yards short of passing Juron Criner for fourth place on Arizona’s all time receiving list. McMillan leads the Big 12 with 664 receiving yards and ranks fifth among all Football Bowl Subdivision players. Earlier in his career, he also produced a historic game against New Mexico with at least 10 receptions, 300 receiving yards, an average of at least 30 yards per catch and four touchdown receptions.

Kicker Tyler Loop is another Arizona player carrying momentum into Saturday. Loop set a school record against Texas Tech by making five field goals on six attempts, connecting from 47, 40, 30, 37 and 52 yards. He has 299 career points, fourth most in program history, and needs 14 more to pass Ka’Deem Carey for third place. The Wildcats will also look to a defense that has shown it can contain high level opponents, including a Utah offense that scored only 10 points in the teams’ previous meeting.

Fox’s game broadcast will feature Gus Johnson on play by play, Joel Klatt as analyst and Jenny Taft reporting from the sideline. The matchup will also be a “stripe out,” with fans encouraged to participate through the “Stripe the Sol” promotion. For Tucson residents and visitors, the combination of a nationally televised pregame show, a packed home stadium and a game between two highly ranked Big 12 teams makes Saturday one of Arizona’s most visible football events in years. The College Football Playoff rankings are scheduled to be released Tuesday at 5 p.m. on ESPN, adding even more importance to the result for both teams.