How to watch, storylines, predictions

Colorado (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) vs. Arizona (3-3, 1-3)

When/where: 2 p.m. Saturday, Arizona Stadium

TV/Radio: KDVR/850 AM

BetMGM Line: CU +3, O/U 58.5

Weather: Partly sunny, 71 degrees at kickoff.

Series history: CU leads 16-10 (last meeting: Arizona won 34-31 in Boulder in 2023)

Three storylines

WR depth test: Four Colorado wide receivers left last week’s 31-28 loss to Kansas State with injuries. Buffs coach Deion Sanders says two-way star Travis Hunter “should play, for certain,” and Jimmy Horn Jr. is also expected to play. But Omarion Miller is out for the season after having surgery, and Terrell Timmons will sit out Saturday. All that means more opportunities for transfers LaJohntay Wester and Will Sheppard. Wester — who caught Shedeur Sanders’ Hail Mary vs. Baylor — was second in the country last year with 108 catches for Florida Atlantic. With CU, he’s caught 26 passes for 318 yards and seven touchdowns. Sheppard led Vanderbilt in receiving for two years before coming to Boulder, where he’s caught 22 passes for 330 yards and two touchdowns. True freshmen Drelon Miller and Kam Mikell could also see some action.

Shutting down Shilo?: “I’ve been seeing everybody turn on me,” sixth-year safety Shilo Sanders said on Tuesday after he struggled against Kansas State and DJ Giddens in “the worst game of my life.” Coach Prime said his middle son played “horrible.” It’s possible the younger Sanders, returning from surgery after being injured against Nebraska, was just rusty. Or maybe he wasn’t quite ready to get back on the field. If Shilo can get it together — he was confident Tuesday that he could — there’s no issue. But if he misses multiple tackles against Arizona like he did against K-State, Deion could have a difficult choice to make. The coach is big on accountability. He even benched Shilo in the SWAC championship game for being late to a meeting at Jackson State. And with a combined 13 tackles against CSU, Baylor and UCF, Carter Stoutmire looked pretty good in Shilo’s absence.

Midseason vibe check: At 4-2, the Buffs have the same record they did at this point last season — but the vibes are much different. A 42-6 drubbing at Oregon and an agonizingly close 48-41 loss to USC at home felt like the beginning of the end after a 3-0 start. CU went on to beat Arizona State 27-24 on the road before crashing out with a six-game losing streak and falling short of bowl eligibility. This season, the highs haven’t been quite so high (remember the hype after that Nebraska win?) and the lows, at least so far, haven’t been all that low. This evened-out CU program mirrors the relatively flat Big 12 hierarchy this year, where any team could conceivably beat any other team. (Even 1-5 basement dweller Kansas came within one score of beating Illinois, UNLV, West Virginia and Arizona State.) If undefeated BYU and Iowa State falter, the Buffs could climb those standings pretty quickly.

Predictions

Sarah Kelly, deputy sports editor: CU 31, Arizona 24

Colorado has the better quarterback in Shedeur Sanders (2,018 passing yards and 17 touchdowns with a 72.6% completion rate vs. Noah Fifta’s 1,636 yards, eight TDs, 58.9%) and boasts the Big 12’s best red-zone defense (No. 7 nationally). Wildcats wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan is a bit of a nightmare, and his stats reflect that: He’s put up 100 or more yards three times this season and leads the league with 742 receiving yards (third in FBS). And Arizona’s defense will be welcoming back leading tackler Jacob Manu, who was somewhat controversially ejected in the first quarter last week against BYU. Both teams can get a little sloppy. The Wildcats are averaging 62 yards per game in penalties (92nd in FBS), and the Buffaloes are averaging 53 (98th), so the team that plays with the most discipline will likely come out on top. Ultimately, the K-State loss galvanizes the Buffs going into Tucson.