Many Football Bowl Subdivision teams have been unprepared and unfocused when going into a game against a Football Championship Subdivision opponent, which has led to countless upsets over the years. The Wildcats are looking to get back on the winning column against FCS teams as they prepare to face FCS powerhouse North Dakota State.

Jedd Fisch has had early troubles against the FCS as a head coach after Arizona fell to Northern Arizona, 21-19, last season marking the first loss to the Lumberjacks since 1932.

NDSU has not shied away from playing FBS in the past, beating Power Five teams such as Iowa, Iowa State and Kansas State in the last 10 years. The win against Iowa came in 2016 when the Hawkeyes were ranked 13th in the country.

The Bison head into Saturday's game as the top-ranked team in the FCS and are a different caliber of FCS team than Arizona is used to seeing having won the championship in 2021.

That means Arizona will have to be prepared for a different type of challenge this week.

North Dakota State will offer a more traditional look for Arizona’s offense than what the Wildcats have seen so far this season, operating a 4-3 defensive scheme. Offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll mentioned how his offensive unit will prepare against the Bison’s respective defensive group.

“They’re really quick, they’re really active, those guys have been running that scheme for a long time,” Carroll noted. “They’re gonna expect to win when they come in here, so they’ll be ready to go."

The idea of a trap game against an FCS team and repeating history of last season's upset loss is not in the script for Carroll as he stated that he expects the team to focus on winning rather than who they are playing.

“We’re playing every game like it's a championship game and it doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” Carroll added. “We’re trying to win the game and play as well as we can so it doesn’t really matter who we’re playing… if you change your mindset week to week, it may look different so we’re trying to be consistent.”