College football bowl predictions: Will Wildcats win out?

Nov 15, 2022, 8:17 PM

Arizona Sports

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Arizona Wildcats have their most wins since 2019.

With a record of 4-6, and remaining matchups against Washington State and Arizona State, the door is still open for the Wildcats to make a bowl game by winning out.

WSU, their next opponent, is already bowl-eligible with a 6-4 record and is 20th in the nation in defensive points allowed per game.

ASU (3-7) lost its bowl eligibility with a 28-18 defeat at Washington State on Saturday. While the Sun Devils have played better since making the switch to Trenton Bourguet at quarterback, they’re 2-5 and allowing 34.4 points per game under interim head coach Shaun Aguano. Bourguet’s status is uncertain after he left the Sun Devils’ matchup against Washington State with an undisclosed injury.

The Wildcats haven’t made a bowl game since Rich Rodriguez coached them to a 7-5 regular-season record and a 38-35 Foster Farms Bowl defeat against Purdue in 2017.

Since then, Arizona has made two head coaching changes and run through several primary starting quarterbacks.

This year, the Wildcats have a borderline top-five offense in the Pac-12. Quarterback Jayden de Laura slingshot Arizona into the No. 2 passing offense in the conference as well as top-five in yards and seventh in scoring.

To put those numbers into greater context, the Wildcats ranked third in passing yards last season but were ninth in total offense and dead last in scoring.

So can they win their next two games to reach bowl eligibility?