This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

(This is the fifth in a series of spring updates about Pac-12 football programs) Arizona will have an advantage in the 2015 Pac-12 football championship game, if the Wildcats can win another South division championship. But that quest will be complicated by the same scheduling factor that would help Arizona at that stage. The Wildcats play 12 straight weeks, prior to having a bye in the last week of the regular season. When Utah visits Tucson on Nov. 14, for example, the Wildcats will be playing for the 11th week in a row.  "That's going to be a difficult thing to deal with," said coach Rich Rodriguez, who never has tackled such a schedule in nearly 30 years in the profession. Last year, most teams had two open dates, because of the way the calendar worked.  The compressed schedule will test the Wildcats, whose high-tempo offense already increases the workload for their defense. Arizona's defense has improved "incrementally" in Rodriguez's first three seasons, he said after spring practice, and he's still trying to build more depth on that side of the ball.  He would like to be able to rotate between 18 and 20 players on defense, up from 13 or 14 last season, when the Wildcats ranked 10th in the conference in total defense by allowing 451.0 yards per game. Eventually, Rodriguez hopes to play 22 or more athletes on defense, with varying schemes and alignments.  Amid their defensive improvement, the Wildcats were overwhelmed by Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game and by Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, as they finished 10-4 overall after going 7-2 in conference play.  The Pac-12 South's defending champs will be able to ease into the 2015 schedule somewhat, again facing the league's least demanding nonconference schedule. The Wildcats open the season Sept. 3 against Texas-San Antonio, before visiting Nevada and hosting Northern Arizona. Their Pac-12 opener is challenging, though, with UCLA coming to Tucson on Sept. 26.  – Kurt Kragthorpe