MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A wounded West Virginia football team looking to get back to the winning side of things will face Arizona Saturday at Arizona Stadium in Tucson.
 
The game will kick off at 7 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally on FS1.
 
The Wildcats (3-4 overall and 1-3 in Big 12 play) have dropped three straight to Texas Tech, BYU and Colorado after their 23-10 upset victory over then-10^th-ranked Utah.
 
First-year coach Brent Brennan took over an Arizona program led by Jedd Fisch that posted a 10-3 record and defeated Oklahoma 38-24 in last year's Alamo Bowl. Fisch was part of the Nick Saban fallout after Kalen DeBoer replaced Saban at Alabama and Fisch took DeBoer's old job at Washington.
 
"They are a team that had a tremendous year a year ago," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "They finished in the top 10 in the country with a lot of players back from that. They are very similar to us. They need a win in the worst way, and it's going to be a great matchup out in the desert. It's a tough place to play, and we've got several guys on staff that have been out there. We have a lot of respect for that staff and for those players."
 
Following the move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 Conference this season, the Wildcats were predicted to finish fifth in the preseason media poll behind Utah, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Kansas. But Arizona has fallen on tough times once the calendar turned to October, losing 28-22 to Texas Tech, 41-19 at 14^th-ranked BYU and 34-7 last Saturday against Colorado.
 
Against the Buffaloes, Arizona had trouble protecting quarterback Noah Fifita, who was sacked seven times, and the Wildcat ground game managed just 107 yards in 34 attempts.
 
Overall, Fifita has been sacked 13 times so far this season.
 
When he has time to throw, the 5-foot-10, 188-pounder has got one of the best pass-catching targets in the country to throw to in 6-foot-5, 212-pound junior Tetairoa McMillan.
 
The Waimanalo, Hawaii, resident ranks first in the conference with 47 catches for 780 yards and four touchdowns. He caught 11 passes for 138 yards against Kansas State and had eight catches for 161 yards in the Texas Tech loss. His best career game came last year against rival Arizona State when he caught 11 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown.
 
Considering West Virginia's issues defending the pass this year, slowing down Fifita and McMillan will be a major concern.
 
Fifita is completing 66% of his 609 career pass attempts for 4,771 yards and 35 touchdowns heading into Saturday's action. His career-best performance was during the same game McMillan went off against Arizona when he completed 30 of his 41 pass attempts for 527 yards and five touchdowns.
 
He threw for 422 yards and four touchdowns in the season-opening win against New Mexico, but managed just 138 yards, one touchdown and a pick in the 27-point homecoming loss to Colorado last Saturday.
 
Senior Quali Conley, listed as a co-starter on Arizona's depth chart next to senior Jacory Croskey-Merritt, who has been dealing with eligibility issues, is putting together a nice season for the Wildcats when he's gotten room to run.
 
Conley leads the team with 500 yards and six touchdowns while averaging 5.4 yards per carry. He ran for a career-high 155 yards last year against San Diego State and he ran for a season-high 112 yards in a win against Northern Arizona earlier this season.
 
The Wildcats' other spotlight player is senior placekicker Tyler Loop, who has connected on 63 of his 75 career field goal attempts including a long of 54 yards in the opener against New Mexico.
 
Former Syracuse head coach Dino Babers is now in charge of Arizona's offense.
 
Defensively, Brown says Arizona will mix up its fronts but operates out of a base 4-2-5 scheme. In the backend, new defensive coordinator Duane Akina employs an aggressive, attacking style with lots of man coverage.
 
Linebacker Jacob Manu, Arizona's leading tackler with 47 stops, was injured against Colorado and is lost for the remainder of the season, as is offensive lineman Rhino Tapa'atoutai.
 
Defensive back Treydan Stukes was lost for the year after getting injured against Utah, while safety Gunner Maldonado has been out since Texas Tech. Defenders Isaiah Johnson and Tacario Davis were also injured against Colorado, but Brennan did not provide updates on them during his weekly press conference.
 
Sophomore Kamuela Ka'aihue is expected to replace Manu at Mike linebacker.
 
West Virginia, too, is dealing with the cumulative effects of injuries, exacerbated during last Saturday night's loss when offensive starters Garrett Greene, Wyatt Milum and Jahiem White did not play in the second half.
 
Brown is not sure of Greene's and Milum's status, but he was more optimistic White will be ready to go on Saturday. White (416 yards) and CJ Donaldson Jr. (412 yards) are second and third on the team behind Greene's 471 rushing yards.
 
If Greene cannot play, sophomore Nicco Marchiol will get his second career start and his first this season. Marchiol replaced Greene in the first quarter of last year's Pitt game when Greene went down with an ankle injury, and started the Texas Tech game the following week, a 20-13 Mountaineer victory.
 
So far this year, Marchiol has appeared in five games and has thrown touchdown passes against Oklahoma State and Kansas State. Last Saturday, he completed 6 of his 13 attempts for 58 yards and a touchdown.
 
If Milum is unable to play at left tackle, freshman Johnny Williams IV will be his replacement.
 
Senior T.J. Jackson II left Saturday's game against Kansas State, but Brown did not rule him out for this weekend's game. The only defensive player Brown definitively ruled out was senior safety Aubrey Burks, whose last game was against Iowa State.
 
This Saturday could come down to both teams' depth charts.
 
"Most of the guys on defense will be back, with the exception of Aubrey Burks, and on offense, the guys that missed the second half, it's going to be more touch and go, and we'll know later in the week who exactly is going to be available," Brown noted.
 
Arizona ranks 100^th this week in scoring offense, generating just 23 points per game. The Wildcats also rank low nationally in passes intercepted, passing efficiency, turnover margin, fourth-down conversions, penalties and punt return defense.
 
The Wildcats rank 94^th in scoring defense allowing 27.6 points per game and are 70^th in total defense giving up 362 yards per contest.
 
West Virginia ranks 70^th in scoring offense (28.4 ppg.), 98^th in scoring defense (28.7 ppg.), 55^th in total offense (406.7 ypg.) and 86^th in total defense (382.0 ypg.).
 
WVU is permitting 254.3 yards per game through the air, which ranks 110^th in the country this week.
 
After defeating Oklahoma State 38-14 in Stillwater on Oct. 5, West Virginia (3-4, 2-2) has dropped consecutive games to 11^th-ranked Iowa State 28-16 and to 17^th-ranked Kansas State 45-18.
 
"We played really well on special teams the entire game (versus Kansas State)," Brown said. "I thought our run defense was really good against one of the better rushing attacks in the country. We held them under 115 yards because our D-line and our linebackers played really well.
 
"The things we've got to improve on is we've got to cut down on the turnovers, and we've got to get takeaways on defense," Brown said. "We've got to throw the ball better offensively, and we've got to defend the pass better. Those are the things we've got to improve to have a chance to win when we go out to Arizona."
 
This will be the first-ever meeting between these two schools, although West Virginia has played once in Arizona Stadium in 1998 when it was the host venue for the Insight.com Bowl. The Mountaineers dropped a 34-31 decision to Missouri that night.
 
Brown said the team will fly out of Pittsburgh instead of Clarksburg on Friday afternoon and will return to Morgantown following the game.
 
FS1's announcing team for Saturday is Alex Faust and Robert Smith.
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage begins at 4 p.m. ET with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into regular network coverage at 6 p.m. with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.