So, what happens when a visiting team doesn’t have all of its white uniforms available? The home team, with a “white out” crowd, switches to all-white uniforms.

No. 21 Arizona announced a change to its season-opening uniforms early Saturday morning. After originally planning to wear white helmets, navy jerseys and white pants, Arizona’s signature home uniform combination, the Wildcats opted for an all-white Stormtrooper look after New Mexico had “shipping issues” with some of its white uniforms, a UNM athletics spokesman told the Star.

The Lobos will wear the same Nike uniforms as last season, but some of the modified jerseys did not arrive in Albuquerque in time for New Mexico’s opening game at Arizona. New Mexico brought its silver helmets, red jerseys and silver pants to Tucson.

The last time New Mexico traveled to Arizona State for a regular season game was in 2015, when the Lobos wore the same silver-red-silver combo in a 34-10 loss to Arizona State in Tempe. New Mexico wore charcoal helmets, red jerseys and white pants in the 2015 New Mexico Bowl against Arizona, who wore white helmets, white jerseys and red pants.

Arizona previously wore military-inspired, all-white uniforms for Military Appreciation Day against Utah at Arizona Stadium in 2021. Before that, Arizona wore all-white uniforms in 2014 for their come-from-behind win against Cal, which ended with a walk-off touchdown pass to wide receiver Austin Hill, also known as “Hill Mary.”

This week and for most of fall training camp, Arizona held its practices in the morning, about six hours ahead of last season’s usual late afternoon and evening practice time.

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan said there are “a lot of reasons” why the Wildcats are practicing in the morning instead of the afternoon or evening, which is when they play their games this season.

Earlier workouts give the Wildcats “the opportunity to get optimal sleep, which is one of the most important parts of their recovery,” Brennan said.

“I think it also helps them make good decisions at night. Some kids want to stay up all night and play video games. They can’t do that when you have to be rocking and rolling at seven in the morning.”

Arizona nickel back Treydan Stukes said the “morning workouts have a lot of benefits.”

“It gives guys some time to get their bodies in order, right after practice, go watch a movie and then you have the rest of the night to focus on school. There are definitely a lot of benefits.”

Brennan added: “For the rest of their lives, they’re going to have to get up early and go to work. You wake them up early, you feed them, they work out, their bodies are awake, you feed them again, and then they go to school. In that sense, I think they’re more awake when they go to class, compared to how some of us roll out of bed and drag ourselves to class. These guys are completely awake and ready to face their day.”

“He’s just a kid with an unbelievable attitude and he’s really talented. Someone asked me about Tyler Loop the other day, and I think it was Becca Moros, our football coach, and I said he’s an NFL player. She said, ‘How can you tell?’ I said, ‘Listen when he kicks the ball. It sounds different.’ Michael has that too.” — Arizona coach Brent Brennan, on freshman punter Michael Salgado-Medina

After adding Arizona running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt, defensive tackles Chubba Ma’ae and Kevon Darton, among several other players, to EA Sports College Football 25, we decided to simulate the UA-New Mexico game, which is billed as a rivalry game in the video game.

In the simulation, Arizona, ranked No. 16 in the game, defeated the Lobos 35-7. The Wildcats had 369 yards of total offense. Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita completed 24 of 33 passes (72%) for 277 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, but was sacked four times.

UA star wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan led the Wildcats in rushing with five carries for 35 yards and a touchdown, along with five receptions for 58 yards and a touchdown. Tight end Roberto Miranda led the Wildcats with six catches for 74 yards. Croskey-Merritt, the former Lobo, had a mild five carries for 9 yards against his former team.

Maldonado was the only one to intercept the ball.