This is the Depth Dossier: the Arizona Wildcats, Week 9.

Noah Fifita put up 417 passing yards and it still wasn't enough, because Arizona lost to Texas Tech, 34 to 26, after getting outrushed by 316 yards.

Fifita was brilliant. He went 33 for 45, threw a 94-yard touchdown to wide receiver Isaiah Mizell, and kept Arizona in it deep into the fourth quarter. But the running game never showed up. Arizona finished with 12 net rushing yards as a team, and everybody not named running back Kedrick Reescano combined for negative yards on the ground. That meant Fifita had to drop back 75 times behind a line that allowed five sacks, and a fourth and one overthrow near the goal line in the final minutes sealed it. Texas Tech, meanwhile, ran for 328 yards and simply wore Arizona down.

That rushing gap, 316 yards in Tech's favor, explains almost everything else. Reescano scored twice on short yardage work, but his nine carries only netted 18 yards, and the rest of the backfield was in the negative. An offense averaging less than half a yard per carry isn't helping Fifita, it's putting the whole game on his arm.

And that workload caught up with Arizona in the fourth quarter again. The Wildcats led at halftime and watched it slip away, which is now back-to-back weeks of the same story. With no ground game and a leaky offensive line, the offense ran out of answers late.

The explosive plays actually favored Arizona. Mizell's 94-yard score and a 55-yard catch from wide receiver Giovanni Richardson on the third play of the game were both huge. But boom-or-bust football without a running game underneath it means the busts end up costing you, and that's what happened late.

The real gut punch of the day had nothing to do with the scoreboard. Wide receiver R.J. Mosley went down with a left leg injury late in the third quarter, was placed in a cast on the field, and was carted off to a hospital while teammates and Fifita prayed over him. Play stopped for a long stretch, and by every account it shifted the entire mood on the sideline in a one-possession game.

Now let's get into how the roster is shifting, because there's plenty to track.

Mosley's injury is the story to follow this week. It was serious enough to require a cast and a hospital trip, and Arizona hasn't given any further update. His availability has to be considered very much in question until we hear more.

On defense, the bigger changes came up front and at linebacker. Defensive lineman Julian Savaiinaea took on a bigger rotational role, while Dominic Lolesio's snaps shrank, a swing worth watching given how little resistance Arizona's front line got against Tech's rushing attack. At linebacker, both Jabari Mann and Dash Fifita dropped into spot duty, which is notable for a group that had Fifita living in opposing backfields just two weeks ago.

The secondary saw real promotions. Cornerback Dwight Bootle and defensive back Cam Chapa both moved into every-down roles, while Quinn Olson's workload shrank to spot duty. That's a changing of the guard in the back end, and it connects to a question from last week about whether cornerback Jay'Vion Cole's absence pushed this group into bigger roles that are now sticking.

On offense, nothing is official yet, but Richardson's return gave an immediate lift with 90 yards on six catches, and Mizell has cemented himself as the top vertical threat. With Mosley's status unclear, that passing game pecking order is the one to watch heading into next week.

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