As Arizona heads into its next game week after the second bye of its season, the Wildcats will open Pac-12 play on the heels of a positive performance for the team's defense. Defensive coordinator Marcel Yates came under plenty of fire from the fan base for his group's showing through the first two games of the season, but it was the defense that helped seal an important win over Texas Tech to help UA enter its bye week with a 2-1 record.

Now the Wildcats will begin the conference portion of the season against UCLA this Saturday and that will mean needing to slow down an offense that found a rhythm against Washington State over the weekend finishing a high-scoring game with 67 points.

The Bruins were able to pull off an improbable comeback with the help of their offense and it could present another difficult challenge for Yates' group. Against Texas Tech, the end result was 14 points for the Red Raiders in a performance for Arizona's defense that was equally as surprising as UCLA's offense exploding for over 65 points.

When looking at the two performances and figuring out which of those groups will actually show up this Saturday night at Arizona Stadium it is best to look at what parts have been consistent.

For Arizona, the cornerback unit has been its best regardless of the opponent or contest. Veterans Jace Whittaker and Lorenzo Burns have provided the group with some of the best individual performances this season while freshmen such as Christian Roland-Wallace and Bobby Wolfe have proved themselves to be impact players in their first seasons.

The cornerback group was a big part of the win over Texas Tech and will be part of the solution to keep the momentum on defense moving forward into conference play.

"We helped our guys out with a lot more zone coverage playing some people over the top" Sumlin said after the victory over the Red Raiders two Saturdays ago. "Our corners, they have been pretty good. People have attacked us inside in some three-by-one sets or two-by-two against our safeties, so we switched up a little bit more tonight with a little bit more zone coverage to kind of protect it and I thought our disguise was good.

"And, it gives us the opportunity to do some things. ... Our corners have played very, very hard and well. When you're on an island, like they've been sometimes, that happens. It's part of the business, right? But, I thought we did enough today to mix up the coverage, give them help at times and play a little bit more zone."

As the Wildcats figure out how to best utilize the entire group of cornerbacks one of the adjustments that was made during Hawaii in the season opener and has carried over to the last two games is how the defensive staff is using senior Jace Whittaker. The starting cornerback has been used more like a safety to help the Wildcats take away some of the opportunities in the middle of the field that were being exploited by opposing offenses.

The move puts Whittaker on slot receivers a lot more and has had plenty of success in that role. He currently is still tied for the most interceptions among all FBS players and the move from his typical cornerback spot has been a positive one.

"We moved him a round a little bit," Sumlin said after the win over Texas Tech. "You've seen that in the last couple weeks when we've moved him inside. It took them a while, they figured it out, and then they got [T.J.] Vasher over there singled up. ... Jace is a really good player and he's a coach on the field and he gives us some flexibility in coverage.

"We gotta move him around a little bit just like everybody else is moving receivers around. It's what we do on offense. Try to make people play left handed if we can. We did that tonight."

As Arizona moves ahead this season the hope is that what was shown against the Red Raiders is the norm and not an anomaly. The group could be tested this week, but overall the unit feels confident that it can start to change the narrative about its defense.

"I think tonight we showed a lot of people that they could be wrong about how we play and how our future's gonna look," junior linebacker Colin Schooler said.

At the center of that change in opinion about the UA defense will be the cornerback unit that has been among the bright spots all season long.