Arizona
Arizona vs. BYU is a battle of elite defenses. Which one is better?
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By almost every statistical measure, the three best defenses in the Big 12 Conference so far this season belong to Arizona, BYU and Texas Tech.
Two of those teams happen to be facing each other on Saturday, Oct. 11, at Arizona Stadium.
Which one actually has the better defense?
That’s what we’re going to explore in this week’s “Cats Stats.” The answer might surprise you.
At first blush, one would give the edge to the Cougars. They’re first in the league in total defense (239.6 ypg) and second in scoring defense (12.2 ppg). The Wildcats are third (244.8) and fourth (15.6), respectively.
Even if you adjust the latter to account for the pick-six against Arizona last week, the Wildcats are still two points worse per game than the Cougars.
But we like to dig beneath the surface here at Cats Stats Inc. Other numbers better illustrate the effectiveness of the UA defense under Danny Gonzales.
The statistic most often cited to measure a defense’s worth is yards per play. Arizona has the edge in that category — over everyone else in the conference.
The UA has allowed 3.92 yards per play. Texas Tech is second at 3.94. BYU is third at 4.06. No one else is under 4.50.
If you separate run and pass defense, you can argue that the advantages each side has basically cancel each other out. But we would argue that the gap between BYU and Arizona against the run is narrower than the gap between the Wildcats and Cougars against the pass.
BYU allows 92.2 rushing yards per game and 2.8 per attempt; Arizona is at 96.6 and 3.0. Not much of a difference.
The Wildcats have the No. 1 pass defense in the conference in terms of yards allowed per game (147.2) and per attempt (4.9). The Cougars are barely behind them in the former (147.4). They’re nearly a full yard behind in the latter (5.8).
Arizona also has a sizable edge in completion percentage allowed (51.3% vs. 57.0%) and sacks per game (2.6 vs. 2.0). Overall, the Wildcats spend more time in the opposition’s backfield, averaging a league-best 8.60 tackles for loss per game. BYU is sixth at 6.20.
Conversion case
Still not convinced? Let’s dig deeper.
Two areas that are critical to team success are third-down and red-zone efficiency. Arizona’s defense has been better than BYU’s, both through five games.
The Wildcats have allowed opponents to convert 25.7% of their third downs. Only Texas Tech, at 25.4%, has been better in the Big 12. BYU is third at 29.7%.
(In a related development, Arizona has been slightly better at first-down prevention. The UA has allowed 13.2 first downs per game, tied with Texas Tech for the fewest in the Big 12. BYU is third at 14.8.)
Arizona is No. 1 in the conference at keeping the opposition out of the end zone once it crosses the 20-yard line. The Wildcats have allowed a touchdown on only 42.9% of opponents’ red-zone opportunities. The Cougars are tied for fourth in the league at 50%.
Who’s better at taking the ball away? Again, at least so far, it’s been Arizona.
The Wildcats average 2.2 takeaways per game, second in the conference behind Texas Tech (2.4). The Cougars are fourth at 1.8.
Even if you include fourth-down stops — Gonzales classifies those as takeaways, worthy of footballs being punctured by the Turnover Sword — Arizona has the edge. The Wildcats have 18 combined takeaways and fourth-down stops, an average of 3.6 per game. The Cougars have 15, or 3.0 per game.
BYU has been better at preventing big plays, but the difference is negligible. The Cougars have allowed 13 plays of 20-plus yards, per cfbstats.com, or 2.6 per game. The Wildcats have allowed 14 — 2.8 per game.
The real deal?
Both defenses have been elite at almost all of the above. BYU has a more extensive track record; the Cougars finished first in the Big 12 in total defense and yards allowed per play last season.
As such, it’s reasonable to believe that what BYU has accomplished so far on defense is real — and wonder whether Arizona is due for some regression. The Wildcats are new to this shutdown business, after all.
Skeptics also might question Arizona’s schedule so far. “U of A hasn’t played anybody.” About that …
We looked at three websites that calculate strength of schedule: ESPN, Sagarin and Massey. Arizona’s average SOS on those sites entering this weekend was 91. BYU’s was … also 91.
Both have faced an FCS opponent from the Big Sky Conference — Portland State (BYU) and Weber State (Arizona). Both have faced a Group of Five foe — East Carolina (BYU) and Hawaii (Arizona). Both have faced a Power Four opponent — Stanford (BYU) and Kansas State (Arizona). Both have played two conference games.
BYU has played one more road game; the ECU contest was in Greenville. Counterpoint: Arizona blew out Hawaii, which defeated Stanford the previous week. And although Stanford has a better record (2-3) than Kansas State (2-4), KSU is considered superior by most metrics. For example, ESPN’s FPI ranks K-State 43rd and Stanford 86th.
BYU coach Kalani Sitake, for one, doesn’t need any convincing. He believes Arizona’s defense is legit.
“Danny’s done a great job with the defense,” Sitake told reporters on Oct. 6. “They tackle well. They’re aggressive.
“Danny’s done a great job everywhere he’s been. He’s from that same lineage as Rocky Long, Bronco Mendenhall and them. So we’re very familiar with the defense.
“But the way he’s able to combine their base coverages with the pressures — he calls a really good game, and he can make things really difficult for any offense. So we’re going to have to be at our best.”
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The two Republicans running for Arizona attorney general faced each other Thursday in a debate that devolved into insults and name-calling.
State Senate President Warren Petersen is running against military attorney Rodney Glassman in the Republican primary. The debate turned chaotic as the candidates clashed.
“Are you asking the questions, Steve?” Petersen said.
The moderator attempted to regain control. “Gentlemen, we’re going to reset,” he said.
Candidates clash over experience
The debate was the last before early voting begins next month. In between the name-calling, the two candidates argued over their resumes.
Glassman said Petersen does not have the legal experience for the job.
“Warren is just full of information, you can call them lies. He received his law license in December 2023, 28 months ago. He has never filed a lawsuit as a lawyer. He has never prosecuted a criminal as a lawyer,” Glassman said.
Petersen has had a law license for less than three years. He said he worked on cases in Scottsdale while earning his degree. Petersen said his experience as the current state Senate president also counts.
“I have done more in three years than Rodney Glassman will even get done in his life because he’s a trust fund baby who’s just looking for a place. He’s been running for 15 years and he’s lost six elections in a row,” Petersen said.
History of campaigns
Glassman has not won an elected office since he served as a Democrat on the Tucson City Council in 2007. Glassman is an Air Force attorney with 17 years of experience.
Democratic strategist Matt Grodsky said the real winner was the incumbent, Kris Mayes.
“I thought it was entertaining television. I’m glad Arizona got to see up close why these two individuals should be nowhere near the AG’s office,” Grodsky said.
Voting in the primary begins June 24.
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The Arizona man known as the “QAnon Shaman” said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s new Anti-Weaponization Fund is an abuse of power by a would-be “king.”
Jacob Angeli-Chansley – the face of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot with his red, white and blue face paint and horned fur headdress – denounced the $1.776 billion program as a “slush fund” for Trump to reward his loyalists.
The Justice Department announced the fund on Monday as part of a settlement with Trump, who had sued the IRS for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns. The settlement included an assurance that the IRS will drop all audits and claims for back taxes against Trump, his family and businesses.
“You think I’m gonna take a f—ing dime from Trump and the government after he’s using this thing to cover him and his family in perpetuity for all of their crimes?” he told Cronkite News by phone. “You think I’m gonna take a dime of that blood money?”
Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people who participated in the Jan. 6 riot the day he returned to the White House in January 2025. Many had been convicted of assaulting police officers.
Cronkite News reached out to 17 of those defendants with Arizona ties. None besides Angeli-Chansley responded.
Thirteen were convicted or pleaded guilty to crimes related to the attack. Four of the cases were dismissed after the pardon. The charges included assault on federal agents, physical violence at the Capitol and seditious conspiracy.
See our previous coverage of the Anti-Weaponization Fund and “QAnon Shaman” in the video player above.
Angeli-Chansley pleaded guilty to a charge of obstruction of an official proceeding. He served 27 months of a 41-month sentence. He was released from federal prison in March 2023.
During the riot, he carried an American flag fastened to a spear and used a bullhorn to call other rioters to the dais in the Senate chamber.
“He stated that ‘Mike Pence is a f—-ing traitor’ and wrote a note on available paper on the dais, stating, ‘It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming,’” according to prosecutors.
At a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the compensation fund, saying it will be open to anyone victimized by a politically motivated prosecution, not just Jan. 6 defendants.
“It’s not limited to Republicans. … It’s not limited to the Biden weaponization. It’s not limited to, in any way scope or form, January 6 or to (targets of special counsel) Jack Smith. There’s no limitation on the claims,” Blanche said.
He rejected Democrats’ assertions that the fund is a massive, taxpayer-funded attempt by Trump to whitewash the assault on democracy.
“I think it’s telling that everybody on the left and … the liberal side of the media immediately says it’s a slush fund for President Trump’s friends,” Blanche said. “If anything else, that’s an outright admission that they know that the people that really had this Department of Justice weaponized against them were President Trump and his friends. But … that is not what the AG order that I signed yesterday says.”
Blanche, who served as Trump’s private attorney in several cases – prosecutions over election interference and classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago and allegations of hush money paid to an adult actress ahead of the 2016 election – faced strong criticism from Senate Democrats.
“You are acting today like the president’s personal attorney and that’s the whole problem,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who also noted that a huge banner with Trump’s portrait was draped over the front of the Department of Justice building in February.
At a homeland security committee meeting Tuesday, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego called for legislation barring establishment of a fund of the sort proposed by the Trump administration.
He called it outrageous to provide compensation to “traitors who attacked the Capitol.”
“No president, Republican or Democrat, should be able to use the federal treasury as a personal checkbook,” he said.
Angeli-Chansley now refers to himself as the “American Shaman.” He was heavily involved in the QAnon movement, which centered on a conspiracy theory that Trump was fighting a cabal of Satan worshippers who engage in child sex trafficking.
He was a strong MAGA supporter when the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, interrupting congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Angeli-Chansley has since become disenchanted with Trump. He has also repudiated the QAnon movement.
In a rambling phone conversation with Cronkite News, he repeatedly cited Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting federal trial for trafficking young women and girls for sex.
He reiterated his anger with Trump for resisting the release of the Epstein files.
And he criticized Trump for attacking Iran and supporting Israel, among other things.
Angeli-Chansley sued Trump for $40 trillion in September 2025, asserting he is the true leader of the free world and vowing to use the sum to wipe out the national debt. The lawsuit was dismissed. He later filed a lawsuit against the CIA, FBI, World Bank and others in Maricopa County.
He urged fellow Jan. 6ers to “reject that … money.”
If courts allow the fund to operate, Angeli-Chansley said, it would mean that Trump “can do whatever it is that he wants.”
Teacher unions call for board member’s resignation after ‘Nazi salute’
Teacher unions call for District Boardmember Kimberly Fisher’s resignation after she made a “Nazi salute” during a public meeting on May 26, 2026.
Provided by Deer Valley Unified School District
School teacher unions are calling for the resignation of a Deer Valley Unified School District board member after she made a “Nazi salute” and said “heil’ at the end of a public meeting on May 26.
Boardmember Kimberly Fisher stretched out her arm, making the salute motion and repeating the word “heil” twice after the board president called for a vote to adjourn the meeting.
Fisher defended her actions in a Facebook video after the meeting, stating she made the gesture because she felt that the board had been under a “dictatorship” led by Board President Paul Carver and the district’s superintendent.
“All I could think of tonight was Hitler, so that’s why I said heil or whatever,” Fisher said in an eight-minute-long video.
Prior to the motion, Fisher and the board members were speaking on scheduling future meetings to discuss changes to district boundaries. Superintendent Curtis Finch stated they could not discuss the topic because it was on the meeting’s agenda. Then Carver quickly called for a vote to end the meeting, which prompted Fisher to make the salute.
The board members did not immediately react or acknowledge Fisher’s salute at the May 26 meeting.
This was not the first time Fisher has recently come under scrutiny. In October, she was slammed with a violation of Open Meeting Law by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, The Daily Independent reported.
Fisher could not be immediately reached for comment.
How the community is reacting to Fisher’s Nazi salute
The local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, an organization focused on advocating against antisemitism and hate, denounced Fisher’s use of the salute.
“We unequivocally condemn this behavior that glorifies Nazis and Hitler. Regardless of intent, these actions instill fear in the community and are unbecoming of officials entrusted with educating children,” said Sarah Kader, the deputy regional director of ADL Desert, in a social media post.
The Arizona Education Association and the Deer Valley Education Association are calling for Fisher’s resignation.
“Kimberly Fisher should apologize to the DVUSD community and step down,” the state union group wrote on X.
The local teacher union wrote in a Facebook statement that they were “horrified and disgusted” to see Fisher’s actions.
“Any leader who uses a Nazi salute during a School Board meeting is unfit for public service. There is no justification for this behavior,” the union wrote.
Boardmember Stephanie Simacek, in a statement, said “this is what antisemitism looks like when people get comfortable” and called for an “immediate censure.”
“I am calling for accountability. And I am calling on every parent, educator, and elected official Republican or Democrat — to stand up and say clearly: THIS HAS NO PLACE HERE,” she wrote in the statement.
Simacek is also a house member in the Arizona State Legislature and is running for a state senate seat.
She wrote, “What happened in that room was not a joke.”
The school district “does not condone, support, or endorse gestures or language associated with hate, discrimination, intimidation, or violence in any form,” said Kayla Pologa, a spokesperson for Deer Valley, in a written statement.
“As an elected official, Mrs. Fisher speaks and acts independently,” Pologa wrote.
She said Fisher’s views don’t reflect nor should be attributed to other board members or members of the school district.
Who is Kimberly Fisher?
Fisher has been a Deer Valley School District parent for 24 years, according to her biography on the district’s website. She had two children graduate from the district and her third is being homeschooled in his final year, her biography states.
She had previously served on the board from 2015 to 2018.
In 2017, Fisher was the school board president and was criticized for a social media exchange with a teacher.
She was reelected in 2020. Fisher’s current term ends in 2028.
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