PROGRAMMING NOTE: I will be back writing a few times a week about the Arizona Wildcats this season at
@PHNX_Sports
. But before I dive into any of that, I had to come to peace with this:
Noah Fifita, Tetairoa McMillan and Jacob Manu are set to do something special at and for Arizona football. They decided that THEY were the culture. Not the former coach.
They stayed.
And they just might become legends.
Story at
@PHNX_Sports
⬇️⬇️
What a day:
➡️Bobby Wade returns to UA as WR coach
➡️Fifita, TMac lead wave of returning players
➡️Cats storm back to beat UCLA
➡️Duane Akina lets it rip on twitter
➡️And one valuable lesson: Never, ever, EVER piss off Humberto Lopez
Have a great Sunday!
NOAH FIFITA, folks.
Five career starts, all against ranked teams, the last three victories:
➡️ Passing: 140 of 185 (75.7%)
➡️ Yards: 1,463
➡️ TDs: 14
➡️ INTs: 4
#ArizonaWildcats
➡️Player A: 86 catches, 1,212 yards, 9 TDs
➡️Player B: 90 catches, 1,402 yards, 10 TDs
Player A is No. 15 on ESPN's list of top 100 cfb players
Player B is not ranked.
Player A is Mizzou's Luther Burden III
Player B is Arizona's Tetairoa McMillan
➡️ Seven-game winning streak for first time since 1998
➡️ Fourth season with 10+ wins in school history
➡️ Potential top 10 final AP ranking
➡️ 2024 preseason Big 12 favorites
Your Arizona Wildcats
Arizona Wildcats sophomore Tetairoa McMillan:
➡️90 catches for 1,402 yards in 2023 (20 yards shy of school record, Dennis Northcutt)
➡️Finished with four consecutive 100-yard games (38 catches, 649 yards, 3 TDs)
➡️Needs 1,248 yards to set UA career record (3,351, Bobby Wade)
I was there as a reporter when Mike Candrea's Arizona softball team went from afterthought to Tucson's darlings. Same thing is happening here with Adia Barnes' program. Just the beginning.
TOTALLY RANDOM.
I stumbled upon video today (thanks, Utah digital library!) of the legendary 1968 Arizona-Utah "snow game" in which the Wildcats rallied from a 15-0 4Q deficit in a blizzard to win 16-15 on a 27-yard FG by Steve Hurley. It looked like this:
"He is one of the greatest coaches in all of sport for what he's done. The guy is the best. That's best with a capital B-E-S-T and 25 exclamation points." -- Josh Pastner, in 2008, on Lute Olson
Kevin Sumlin is serious about his Arizona alumni outreach. He shows up with Dick Tomey at huge gathering of ex-Wildcats on Friday night in advance of Warner Smith memorial service tomorrow. Smart, classy move.
Tedy Bruschi was a special advisor to Arizona football under Jedd Fisch. Will he have a role under Brent Brennan?
“I left him a voicemail yesterday. So I'm just waiting to hear back now,” Brennan told
@PHNX_Wildcats
today.
Stay tuned!
Trung Canidate ran for 288 yards on 18 carries in Arizona’s wild 50-42 win over ASU in 1998, scoring from 80, 66 and 48 yards.
➡️ One of my favorite UA stats: Canidate’s season average on 10 TD runs was 51.5 yards!
Photo: the 1998 backfield of Kelvin Eafon (left) and Trung.
Noah Fifita in his first four starts (all vs. ranked teams, and the past two being victories):
➡️He has completed 111 of 149 passes (74.5%) for 1,152 yards, with 11 TDs and three INTs.
#ArizonaWildcats
Tetairoa McMillan's 1,242 receiving yards are fourth in
#ArizonaWildcats
single-season history. Here's who he is chasing in a bowl game:
➡️ 1,422, Dennis Northcutt, 1999
➡️ 1,389, Bobby Wade, 2002
➡️ 1,364, Austin Hill, 2012
It's over. Arizona's record-setting day from Noah Fifita (527 passing yards) helps Arizona to its biggest-ever win in Tempe (35 points) with a 59-23 final. That's six wins in a row and a 9-3 record in the regular season. Amazing job by Jedd Fisch and the Wildcats.
I'm clearly no coach, but I would give the ball to Khalil Tate, tell him to have fun, play his best backyard ball and try to go out in a blaze of college glory.
Arizona Wildcats sophomore Tetairoa McMillan:
➡️90 catches for 1,402 yards in 2023 (20 yards shy of school record, Dennis Northcutt)
➡️Finished with four consecutive 100-yard games (38 catches, 649 yards, 3 TDs)
➡️Needs 1,248 yards to set UA career record (3,351, Bobby Wade)
Arizona had called its final timeout. There were 12 seconds left, the Wildcats down four points. Coach Dick Tomey’s message to his quarterback was clear.
“Don’t get sacked,” he told Ortege Jenkins. “If you run, you better make it.”
October 3, 1998: The “Leap by the Lake.”
@ArizonaFBall
QB
@OrtegeJenkins16
literally flips over three Washington defenders to score the game-winning TD w/ :04 left to give UA a 31-28 win in Seattle.
I just got an email reminder to vote for the three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award by tomorrow. It allows for write-in candidates. I know what I have to do.
#TMAC
A lot of new Noah Fifita chatter nationally today, so just going to drop this story from before last week's games:
I looked at all the top 40 QB recruits from the 2022 class. Especially after putting up 527 vs. ASU, who's doing better than Fifita?
Story:
I don't know how you sum up a man like Dick Tomey with one quote. But I think this, from a 2017 interview with me, comes close to capturing what he was all about.
In a stretch of five consecutive games against ranked teams, Arizona allowed only four touchdown passes:
0 -- Washington
1 -- USC (in triple OT)
0 -- Washington State
2 -- Oregon State
1 -- UCLA
You're looking at almost 50% of Arizona's 52 TDs from 1998.
All-time great Dennis Northcutt, captain Kelvin Eafon (16 TDs for
@krocdesertstorm
!) and Holiday Bowl hero Brad Brennan, now part of the first family of Wildcats football.
(2018 photo)
To paraphrase something UA legend (and huge hoops fan) Terry Francona said recently on
@EyeTucson
about this Arizona basketball team: I think we all skipped right past "like" and went right to "love" with this team. Tommy Lloyd brings the joy.
Something I have said a lot over the years: Arizona football needs a coach who knows how to do more with less, not one who just came off doing less with more.
"The last thing Dick Tomey would want us doing is sitting around wallowing in tears, sulking about his passing. He would be like, let's hug each other, celebrate the good times. Celebrate what we have. Keep it going. Pass it on."
.
@Wildcats1290
Love my old radio family, but what the hell are you doing with this Arizona postgame show? No phone calls? Airing audio "highlights?" Talk about topic No. 1 -- Sumlin -- and throw open the phone lines. Be there for the fans.
Welcome back to all the uncertainty.
Welcome back to the “We can’t have nice things” stage of Arizona Wildcats football.
Say goodbye to Jedd Fisch.
Story at
@PHNX_Sports
⬇️⬇️
This after Sean Miller says he wants to give his players more confidence. Sitting Hazzard for the entire half after his best week with Arizona because of one mistake, on a night the team had 18 turnovers (and didn't hit a 3 after halftime?
Sean Miller says he benched Max Hazzard in the second half, because he took a quick shot before halftime, which led to a Remy Martin layup w/ 2 seconds left.
“What team are you playing for? You take the last shot. That’s disciplined, that’s how you win basketball games.”
Sure, the young Arizona beat reporters get to cover Noah Fifita, but I had
@OrtegeJenkins16
and
@K12Elite
, and two is better than one 🤣🤣 (Photo from 2018)
Happy No. 1 day to all who celebrate.
The first time Arizona was No. 1 by the AP, in Dec. 1987, Congressman Mo Udall -- a former UA basketball player -- sent a congratulation telegram to the team hotel. Times have changed, but not the ranking.
Story: ⬇️
I don't know how Jedd Fisch envisions his long coaching journey, but not many head coaches will be in a better position than him with Arizona in 2024. If he's hot now, he'll be in name-his-own-job territory a year from now.
Since most are here looking for Arizona sports coverage, it's only fair to give you a life-change alert: I joined the Pima County Communications office last week, and I'm eager to get rolling with that new chapter. Will I still chime in on the Cats? Most definitely...
Reunited 🎶
Many of the old Tucson Citizen sports crew got together for lunch and laughs today. We always had a fun, talented newsroom. And it’s always a delight to see the great Corky Simpson!
Heath Bray wasn’t an All-American, or all-conference, or anything like that. But loud and lovable and passionate about all things Red and Blue, he’s forever on any All-Wildcats team.
Gone toon soon from the Arizona football family at 54.