ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥

After signing 20 players to its 2025 recruiting class, the Wildcats will now look to add players in the transfer portal, which officially opens for business on Monday and closes on Dec. 28.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ head coach Brent Brennan said the Wildcats “continue to have needs for our football team that we’re going to aggressively fill and address over the next month with the opening of the transfer portal on Monday.â€�

The most important part to the transfer portal for ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ is keeping current players from leaving the UA and entering the portal. Player retention “will be always the most important thing for our program,â€� said ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ football general manager Gaizka Crowley. “We want to be a great recruiting operation. We want to recruit great players, but the critical thing to your program is keeping the ones that you have, because we already know them.

“We know their positives, their negatives, we know their families, we know their character. In the portal, you’re always a little bit rolling the dice to a certain extent on these things. Now you try to do your homework, you try to get to know the kid, but the guy that you have in your building is always going to take precedent over the new guy.�

The evaluation period for adding players includes “a lot of tape, a lot of early mornings and late nights,� Crowley added.

“We’ll watch hundreds of kids to offer a handful to sign a couple,� he said.

The Wildcats are emphasizing three position groups: offensive line, defensive line and wide receivers, especially linemen, according to Brennan.

“To compete at a high level, we’re going to have to continue to put in time and resources into the offensive and defensive front,� Brennan said. “I felt like a lot of the teams we faced were bigger than us. Physicality being such a hallmark of who we want to be and it being such an important thing in the game of football, that’s something we had to aggressively address in this recruiting class — and we will continue to aggressively address in the transfer portal.�

As month-long transfer portal period begins, we take a look at the current conditions of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s offensive line, defensive line and wide receivers.

Offensive line

Notable departures: Tackle Jonah Savaiinaea, center Josh Baker, guard Wendell Moe, guard Leif Magnuson, tackle Raymond Pulido

Notable returners: Tackle Rhino Tapa’atoutai, guard Alexander Doost

Incoming players: Tackle Louis Akpa, guard Javian Goo, guard Sione Tohi, guard Losipini Tupou, tackle Jaxon Griffin

The rundown: Savaiinaea officially declared for for the NFL Draft on Sunday and could potentially become a first-round draft pick. Savaiinaea shined at three positions — right guard, right tackle and left tackle — during his three-year ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ career. The 6-5, 336-pound Savaiinaea has the size and traits to have a lengthy NFL career. In the last two offseasons, the Wildcats have lost Savaiinaea and first-rounder Jordan Morgan.

With Moe recently announcing his decision to enter the transfer portal and Baker graduating, the only two returning starters are Tapa’atoutai, who suffered a season-ending knee injury against Colorado, and Doost.

After a season with seven different starting offensive lines, which gave up 28 sacks (third-worst in the Big 12), the Wildcats will have several new faces protecting quarterback Noah Fifita.

The first transfer portal window, a period Brennan and his staff missed last season because they were hired in January, is an opportune time for teams to add offensive and defensive linemen, albeit it’s a challenge for teams like ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to sign top-tier linemen in the bidding war era of college football.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ offensive line coach Josh Oglesby is “super-excitedâ€� about the incoming five freshmen and said, “The body types that we got are ones that we need in the room.â€�

Tohi, a 6-3, 356-pound offensive lineman at Mater Dei High School (California), signed with ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ over Alabama, LSU, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ State, Auburn and Michigan State, among others. Oglesby said Tohi is an “absolute people-mover.â€�

“I think he’s going to provide a lot of size and strength and nastiness in the middle,� Oglesby said. “I’m super-excited about him. He’s a very highly-touted recruited and picked us over a lot of good schools. I can’t speak enough about how much of a people-mover he is.�

Defensive line

Notable departures: Defensive tackle Stanley Ta’ufo’ou, defensive tackle Kevon Darton, defensive end Lance Keneley

Notable returners: Defensive tackle Ta’ita’i Uiagalelei, defensive end Tre Smith, defensive end Chase Kennedy, nose tackle Chubba Ma’ae, defensive tackle Isaiah Johnson, defensive end Dominic Lolesio, defensive end Sterling Lane II, defensive tackle Jarra Anderson

Incoming players: Defensive tackle Mays Pese, defensive tackle Kaleb Jones, defensive tackle Zac Siulepa (junior-college transfer)

The rundown: ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ is currently projected to return a bulk of its defensive line rotation, but it’s conceivable some enter the transfer portal.

The Wildcats return their only two 300-pound interior defensive linemen in Ma’ae and Johnson and they recently signed Siulepa, a 6-7, 365-pound New Zealand native and junior-college transfer.

After adding multiple defensive tackles in the 2025 recruiting class, the Wildcats will likely emphasize edge rushers and defensive ends to complement rising talents in Smith and Kennedy.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ finished the season 12th in the Big 12 in sacks — 14th in rushing defense. The Wildcats look to address that by adding size and athleticism in the transfer portal.

Wide receivers

Notable departures: Tetairoa McMillan, Montana Lemonious-Craig, AJ Jones, Reymello Murphy, Malachi Riley

Notable returners: Chris Hunter, Jeremiah Patterson, Devin Hyatt

Incoming players: Gio Richardson, Isaiah Mizell

The rundown: The Wildcats are about to lose McMillan, one of the program’s all-time most productive receivers, to the NFL Draft and a two-year starter in Lemonious-Craig.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ struggled to find a secondary option in the passing game until Hunter broke through in the final half of the season and finished with 323 yards and three touchdowns.

Even though Hunter has flashed brilliance as the Wildcats’ top receiver, there’s still a McMillan-size void in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s offense, which will be the first time in nearly a decade Fifita will quarterback an offense without McMillan.

With the addition of Richardson, a Chandler native, and Mizell in the ‘25 recruiting class, “one of the elements that we felt like we needed to add to our offense was some more speed and I think that part of it is answered with both of them,� said Brennan.

“Sometimes when you’re evaluating prospects, they can have speed, but maybe they’re not natural pass-catchers or they have speed, but they’re not dynamic with the ball in their hands,� Brennan said. “Both of those guys can do both. Both of those guys are really dynamic and we expect both of them to impact our football team this season.�

However, relying on freshmen in a make-or-break year for Brennan could be risky. Whether it’s this month or the transfer portal period in the spring, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ will have plenty of options to choose from at receiver.

Extra points:

• Several ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ players have already announced their plans to enter the transfer portal on Monday. Those players are cornerback Jai-ayviauynn Celestine, tight end Keyan Burnett, quarterback Brayden Dorman, cornerback Demetrius Freeney, quarterback Anthony Garcia, running back Brandon Johnson, wide receiver AJ Jones, running back Rayshon Luke, offensive lineman Wendell Moe, wide receiver Reymello Murphy and tight end Dorian Thomas.
• Former New Mexico running back and Chandler native Eli Sanders is receiving interest from ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, he posted on social media Friday.
• ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ officially with salaries ranging from $250,000 to $1.5 million. The Wildcats are hiring a new offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator.
• ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ isn’t rushing to hire its new coordinators with the transfer portal opening on Monday. Said Brennan: “I think the most important thing is that we hire the best person we can for the job I don’t want to accelerate that. … The most important thing is that I am diligent about this process to find the best person we can bring in for ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ football. I’m trying to do it on an accelerated timeline but I also understand the portal will be open for a good stretch. We can get done whatever we need to get done.â€�