Arizona Wildcats history against AP top 2 opponents ahead of Utah matchup

When the Arizona Wildcats face Utah on Saturday, it will be only the 18th time in program history the school has faced a team ranked in the top 2 of the AP Poll.

In those games, the Wildcats hold a 5-12 record.

Their last time playing a team ranked in the top 2 came all the way back in 2014, a win in Eugene, Oregon, against Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota and the Oregon Ducks. (The Ducks later defeated the Wildcats in that year’s Pac-12 Championship Game before winning the first-ever College Football Playoff game and appearing in the national title game.)

Of the 17 times Arizona has played a team ranked in the top 2 of the AP Poll, Saturday’s matchup marks just the third time the Wildcats will also be ranked for the tilt, where the Wildcats have a 1-1 record.

Here’s a look back at those games, including a closer look at the five victories, ahead of Saturday’s matchup, which will pit No. 22 Arizona vs. No. 2 Utah.

Arizona’s wins against AP-ranked No. 1 and No. 2 opponents

The Wildcats’ first win against a top-2 team came in 1980, when unranked Arizona upset No. 2 UCLA at Arizona Stadium, 23-17.

Led by head coach Larry Smith in his first season, the Wildcats knocked off the No. 2 team in the nation on a wild day where top-ranked Alabama lost 6-3 earlier to Mississippi State.

Arizona walk-on punter Sergio Vega continually pinned the Bruins back deep and broke the school record in the process with a 54.9-yard punt average, including punts reaching 80, 51, 56 and 42 yards in the second half.

The following season, the Wildcats won their first game against a No.1-ranked opponent, taking down the USC Trojans, 13-10, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Arizona entered the matchup as 21.5-point underdogs and fell behind 10-0 before the Wildcats rallied to win one of the most historic games in school history.

It was a homecoming of sorts for Arizona quarterback Tom Tunnicliffe, who grew up around Los Angeles and passed for 293 yards and the go-ahead touchdown by way of a swing pass in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

Arizona’s next win over a top 2 team in the polls came more than a decade later, when the No. 12 Wildcats beat the No. 1-ranked Washington Huskies, 16-3.

Coming off a loss to No. 1-ranked Miami in South Florida a month prior, the Wildcats’ “Desert Swarm” defense stymied the high-powered Huskies’ offense and snapped Washington’s 22-game winning streak.

Arizona kicker Steve McLaughlin redeemed himself after missing a last-second 51-yard field goal in the aforementioned game against the No. 1 Hurricanes, which would have won the game.

McLaughlin was perfect on the day, with three field goals vs. the Huskies, and Arizona scored the low-scoring affair’s only touchdown late in the fourth quarter to pull off the upset.

Arizona had to wait a quarter century until their next win over a top 2 team.

In a year billed as the “Curse of the No. 2,” where the No. 2-ranked team lost seven times in the final nine weeks of the season, the unranked Wildcats upset No. 2 Oregon, 34-24 in 2007.

Dennis Dixon tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the first quarter, dashing the quarterback’s hopes of the Heisman Trophy and the Ducks’ hopes of a first national title.

Arizona’s Antoine Cason had one of the best single-game performances in program history, as he took an interception 42 yards to the house for a score and later returned a punt 56 yards for another touchdown.

The Wildcats’ most recent game against a top-2 opponent came 12 years ago, a 31-24 victory over No. 2 Oregon that was the onset of a college football weekend where 11 ranked teams lost, including three of the top 4.

It was Arizona’s second win over Mariota and the Ducks in a row, and the Wildcats, who were 24-point underdogs on the occasion, stormed into Eugene for their third win over a top 5 Oregon team in an eight-year span.

Freshman Nick Wilson had two touchdowns on the ground and one through the air before Scooby Wright stripped the ball from Mariota and recovered the fumble to seal the win.

Arizona’s games against AP-ranked No. 1 and No. 2 opponents

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