Arizona
Arizona football at Utah score predictions
Welcome to the Big 12, Arizona! Your first assignment: hit the road to take on the preseason favorite, which also happens to be a team you often struggled to beat while in the Pac-12.
The Wildcats (2-1) begin their first season in the Big 12 with a visit to 10th-ranked Utah, where they haven’t won since 2014. Arizona beat the Utes (4-0, 1-0) last season in Tucson but have dropped three straight in Salt Lake City.
How will Arizona do in its first Big 12 game? Our staff makes its predictions.
Kim Doss — Utah wins 35-21
Like Arizona’s game against Kansas State, this one looked like a loss coming into the season. Also like the last game, nothing has happened since the season started to make that early prediction seem unlikely.
Utah is giving up about 20 points per game to its brethren in the Big 12. Arizona is averaging 30 this season against lesser competition. The 20-point neighborhood seems far more likely for the Wildcats in this one.
The Utes have averaged 33 points per game, about seven more than Arizona has allowed. With the Wildcats’ defensive struggles, Utah should be able to get their average.
Ezra Amacher — Utah wins 38-21
The optimist in me wants to say that Arizona spent its bye week fixing its woes on offense and will come out Saturday with a great game plan to against Utah’s vaunted defense. The realist in me knows that whatever progress Arizona may have made on the offensive side of the ball won’t translate in any real way. It’s important that Arizona shows some level of competitiveness and not a repeat of what we saw against Kansas State. If not, fans are going to turn on the coaching staff in a hurry.
Adam Green — Utah wins 37-24
Going into the season, back when there was great optimism for Arizona, this one was penciled in as a loss. Utah was bringing back an excellent team and figured to have Cam Rising at QB, with the veteran’s 24 seasons of experience proving valuable to the Utes’ cause.
Unfortunately the Wildcats haven’t done much over their first three games to make you think they can go to Utah and win, even if Rising doesn’t actually play. The Utes are incredibly tough in the trenches and will be motivated to return the favor after Arizona beat them up pretty good in Tucson last season. The guess here is the Wildcats will play their best game of the season, lose, but have us feeling better about their chances the rest of the way.
Brandon Combs — Utah wins 45-31
I believe that Arizona will be improved coming off the bye week. That said, it is hard going into Salt Lake City and winning on the road. Utah’s lines on both sides of the ball are stout. If Cam Rising is playing, it’ll be up to the UA d-line to get enough pressure on him. If it’s Isaac Wilson, the defensive line will have to contain. The defense has yet to prove it can do either effectively or consistently. Couple that with we have no idea what the offensive line will do. Still, I do expect to see improve from Arizona, just not enough to overcome the Utes in SLC.
Juan Serrano — Utah wins 38-24
Arizona is facing the second part of their early season test. They failed the first part in their loss to Kansas State. Now heading to Utah, they will be pushed to the brink. The offense needs to find itself again, and the defense needs to show that they can handle the physicality that Utah is going to bring. Noah Fifita took all the blame this week for the offensive struggles. I believe the offense is not going to stay in this rut that they’re in and is going to be in sync this week.
However, Utah is an established program. They are a team that performs well at home. A black-out at Rice-Eccles Stadium and a lot of physicality from the Utes will be too much for Arizona to handle. Utah gets revenge from last season.
Devin Homer — Utah wins 31-24
There could be some bad blood after last seasons Arizona win over Utah, 42-18. UA threw a deep pass down the sideline and added a garbage time touchdown, which I’m sure Utah will remember. Arizona will be looking to get back on track after its last loss to Kansas Sate, luckily for UA it didn’t count for a conference game and its conference record is a clean slate.
Utah at home will be tough to beat and you add on UA hasn’t shown enough throughout the first three games to give me confidence that an upset will be possible.
Brian J. Pedersen — Utah wins 30-16
This is both the best and worst time for Arizona to be playing the toughest opponent on the 2024 schedule. It’s great because the Wildcats are coming off a bye, and thus were able to presumably get healthy while also address the many issues that have popped up over the first three games. But it’s bad because this was a likely loss going into the season, even before cracks started appearing in the dam. It may be hard for the UA to show progress while also losing, but the No. 1 goal in this game should be to keep it competitive and not look like a team that hasn’t learned from its mistakes.
Arizona
2026 NFL draft: 3 potential trades back from No. 3 for Arizona Cardinals
Since the Arizona Cardinals want to trade back from the No. 3 picks, here are three deals that could work.
The Arizona Cardinals have the third pick in the 2026 NFL draft, which begins this week on Thursday. All the reports coming out are saying that they want to trade out of the pick to acquire more draft picks.
But what does a trade look like and who could be involved?
The Kansas City Chiefs are involved in talks at some level. ESPN’s Adam Schefter expects trade talks to heat up this week.
NFL teams use a variation of a trade value chart when it comes to draft picks. Now, what a team actually is willing to give up can be influenced by potential competition with other teams, but we can’t count on that.
Here is the general trade value chart teams use.
Here are some potential deals that could be done.
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs have two first-round picks, which would be appealing to the Cardinals, who reportedly want to make a move for quarterback Ty Simpson, and the 29th pick might be just the spot to get him.
The third overall pick is worth 514 points.
The Chiefs’ picks at No. 9 (387 points) and No. 29 (202 points) together are worth 589.
To make up the difference, the Cardinals could give up No. 65 (78 points) for a total of 592 points.
One deal could be:
- Cardinals receive get No. 9 and No. 29 (589 points)
- Chiefs receive No. 3 and No. 65 (592 points)
Another could be:
- Cardinals receive No. 9, No. 29, No. 74 and 2027 third-round pick (653 points + value of future third-round pick, which is 36-78 points)
- Chiefs receive No. 3 and No. 34 (689 points)
The Cardinals keep their third-round pick and the Chiefs essentially move back five spots from No. 29.
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys have the 12th and 20th picks but no pick in the second round.
Pick No. 12 is 347 points and No. 20 is 269 for a total of 616.
This deal is close:
- Cardinals receive No. 12, No. 20 (616 points)
- Cowboys receive No. 3, No. 65 (592 points)
New Orleans Saints
The Saints are perhaps a dark horse to move up, although they do not have two first-round picks. They have the No. 8 pick, worth 406 points. Their second-round pick, at No. 42, is worth 142 points.
This deal could work:
- Cardinals receive No. 8, No. 42 (548 points)
- Saints receive No. 3, No. 104 (547 points)
Then the Cardinals could use their two second-round picks to then move back into Round 1 to get Ty Simpson.
They could trade No. 34, No. 42 and No. 65 (395 points) for No. 28, No. 38 and No. 106 (398 total points).
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Arizona
Dust returns to Phoenix area after hazy weekend – KTAR.com
PHOENIX — Breezy winds kicked up a blanket of dust across the Valley on Sunday, and forecasters say more is on the way this week.
Visibility in Phoenix became so bad on Sunday that Sky Harbor airport stopped flights for over an hour
The wind and dust peaked Sunday afternoon and gradually improved into the evening, said Michael Graves, an air quality meteorologist with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
“You might’ve seen the mountains a bit obscured in the distance,” Graves told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Monday. “A lot of haze in the air.”
By Monday morning, skies had largely cleared and dust levels near the ground had dropped significantly.
Expect more gusty, dusty days this week
The relief may be short-lived.
ADEQ is watching for increased afternoon breezes Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, this time from the west and southwest. Though the winds are expected to be weaker than Sunday’s, Graves said forecasters cannot rule out dust.
“I wouldn’t say windstorm,” Graves said. “I would just say we’ve got some waves coming in. They’re going to increase our afternoon breeziness.”
It’s enough to kick up dry, exposed dirt, which could create pockets of dust. There is a slight chance of broader regional dust transport, Graves said.
It will impact people with asthma, COPD or respiratory conditions the most. Graves advised those with issues to monitor conditions and stay indoors during the dustiest hours.
“If you’re going to be outside, be outside during the times when it’s less dusty or hazy,” Graves said.
Graves noted that spring weather systems typically pass to the north of the Phoenix area, delivering wind and slight temperature drops but little to no rain, a pattern likely to continue.
KTAR News reporter Kellen Shover contributed to this report.
Arizona
Trying to beat the heat: Addressing rising temperatures in Southern Arizona
The University of Arizona and Tucson are known for yearlong warm weather, but when is it too much? With temperature reaching record highs in March, the city of Tucson has already reported increased temperatures for this year.
In the wake of the third annual Southern Arizona Heat Summit, integrating voices throughout the City of Tucson, community stakeholders and experts from UA gather to speak about possible solutions and policies to address rising temperatures and extreme heat.
The summit strives to ensure that the lived experiences of Southern Arizona residents are voiced. The first summit commenced in 2024, in response to the declaration of an extreme heat emergency in Arizona by Gov. Katie Hobbs, as part of a larger plan called Arizona’s Extreme Heat Response Plan.
With representation from organizations such as the American Red Cross, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, Arizona Jobs with Justice, Tucson Indian Center and many more, the summit emphasized the importance of the perspective and concerns of stakeholder groups throughout the community.
The summit included a variety of UA experts, including faculty representing the School of Geography, Development and Environment; the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy; the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture.
One particular project, led by Ladd Keith at the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning, is a part of the Southwest Urban Corridor Integrated Field Laboratory, which is funded by the United States’ Department of Energy to explore extreme heat throughout Arizona. SW-IFL works in collaboration with other national laboratories including those at ASU and NAU.
The team works to analyze extreme heat in the southwest and rural areas, and how communities deal with heat by conducting interviews. The team has also prescribed policy to Pima County and the City of Tucson regarding more effective strategies to combat rising temperatures, such as green stormwater infrastructure.
Anne-Lise Boyer, a post-doctoral researcher with the Climate Assessment for the Southwest, shared that the team particularly analyzed extreme heat in three parts: heat mitigation, heat management and heat governance.
Mitigation deals with prevention through strategies such as green infrastructure and planting trees, while management includes cooling sensors and heat warning systems. Governance allows these measures to be enacted through policy.
In Tucson, some of the most meaningful work the team has engaged in has been drafting the City of Tucson’s Heat Action Roadmap in 2024, which outlines goals to mitigate and mandate extreme heat and its impacts while prioritizing community voices.
The goals of the roadmap include informing and educating citizens of Tucson on the adverse effects of extreme heat and cooling people’s homes and neighborhoods by incorporating heat risk in regional planning. These steps are essential to practicing heat management, especially as the city of Tucson grows.
“I think the most interesting thing about being based in Tucson is that because the heat has been here for a long time, it’s like a laboratory in itself,” Boyer said. “We have all this research and all this collaboration happening with local actors because it’s a pressing issue in Arizona.”
As the annual heat summit recurs, new ideas and perspectives continue to be shared throughout the community. Boyer shared that this year, the Southern Arizona Heat Summit focused on the youth perspective, highlighting middle school and high school students and how heat impacts their everyday lives. Many students spoke about how heat shaped their lives at home, school and sports.
“That’s one of the goals, to have community members participate and give their input in how they wish the city will deal with the heat,” Boyer said.
Boyer and Kirsten Lake, a program coordinator for the SW-IFL team, also shared how the impacts of extreme heat impact some neighborhoods and communities in Tucson more than others, and that their research often evaluates these factors to determine where heat management efforts would make the greatest impact.
“Its important when you’re putting into effect some of these measures, that you make sure you put it where it’s going to make the biggest difference,” Lake said.
The work of the SW-IFL team is not just locally known. The Brookhaven National Lab based in New York deployed a specialized truck to Tucson to collect information on the atmosphere and rising temperatures. The SW-IFL team hosted the Brookhaven team.
Additionally, Keith’s work has led to a guidebook called “Planning for Urban Heat Resilience” which focuses on the adverse effects extreme heat poses to marginalized communities across the country.
“It is so different from place to place and neighborhood to neighborhood because you have to take the whole context into account,” Boyer said. “They recommend first to document the heat impacts in your communities.”
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