While the game between the Wildcats and Lumberjacks does not project to be too close, there are a few players that fans should keep an eye on.
Anthony Gimino of the Tucson Citizen takes a look at three players for this weekend:
WR Dan Buckner
Arizona, so deep at receiver, can have a great corps of pass-catchers without Buckner, but the plan all along has been to have Buckner and senior Juron Criner as unstoppable 6-foot-4 bookends on opposite sides.
At his best, he's the insurance against defenses over-scheming to take away Criner. At his worst, he'll be just another guy, not showing enough consistency, except for how much his mouth runs while he's on the field.
Buckner reportedly had some attitude issues while playing at Texas in 2009 -- a program he left last season before making his way to UA -- and we have to hope they won't affect his play. While talented, no one wants to deal with a bad teammate. Hopefully the receiver has a big game Saturday and gets his Wildcat career off on a good note.
The sophomore steps in as a starter for the injured Jonathan McKnight, and Arizona is lucky to have a third cornerback as talented as Richardson. That said, there was a reason why McKnight and senior Trevin Wade were running with the first team.
Richardson sometimes struggled in deep coverage during practices, and Stoops often has lamented how his team gave up too many big passing plays last season.
Seeing as Richardson probably didn't see himself getting too much playing time at the start of the season before McKnight's injury, it will be interesting to see how the former-UCLA Bruin performs in his first game as a starter. He displayed flashes of brilliance last season, but playing the entire game is a whole different animal. NAU does not present too much of an attack through the air, but they will likely look to exploit the sophomore corner early and often with Trevin Wade on the other side of the field.
Salazar didn't really wrestle the starting position away from Alex Zendejas in camp. It was more like Salazar just picked it up off the ground after Zendejas dropped it.
Salazar, a transfer from Trinity Valley Community College in Texas, says he wants to be "100 percent from 45 yards and in." Arizona fans would be ecstatic if he was 100 percent from 19 yards and in, converting all his extra points.
Honestly, Salazar can't be much worse than Zendejas at this point. As Gimino mentions slightly farther down in the article, a bad performance from the new place-kicker may lead to serious questions regarding whether Arizona should start going for it on fourth down inside of the 40-yard line.. Depending on the outcome, I probably wouldn't be opposed to the idea.