Current and former ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Wildcats are making news. We’ve got views.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥: The UA football team returns from a bye and visits No. 10 Utah on Saturday.
Views: Just three games into his tenure, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ coach Brent Brennan can do no right, at least in the court of (online) public opinion.
Fans on social media and don’t like the way he coaches, what he wears on game days or how he interacts with the media.
Just three games into his tenure, people are questioning whether he’s the right man for the job.
It’s the most preposterous overreaction I can recall since I started covering and closely observing ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ athletics in December 2015. But I understand where it comes from.
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Brennan is battling the burden of expectations. The Wildcats went 10-3 last year. They brought back Noah Fifita, Tetairoa McMillan, Jonah Savaiinaea, Jacob Manu and Tacario Davis, among others. They finished last season ranked No. 11 and started this one at No. 21.
Elevated expectations warped reality. We — and I include the media in this — largely glossed over the team’s significant losses and potential flaws.
Has ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ been disappointing so far? For sure. The Wildcats’ record is exactly what I expected it to be, but they were ineffective on offense against NAU and didn’t do much of anything well at Kansas State. If they were 2-1 with a blowout win over NAU and a close loss at KSU, the discourse would be completely different.
Brennan understood the situation he was entering. Tamping down expectations was at least one of the reasons the program barely promoted itself in August, including failing to hold an open scrimmage for fans/returning students.
“That’s hard for anyone to handle — a ton of praise or a ton of negativity,†Brennan said last week. “Both can be dangerous for young people. That stuff doesn’t ever get shut off for them because it all comes directly to their phone.
“Back in the day, when we played, it might be in the newspaper. But your college friends don’t read the newspaper. They weren’t going to give you a hard time about dropping a pass or missing a tackle. But now you drop a pass or miss a tackle, and 10,000 people might blow you up on Twitter and say a bunch of really hard stuff to hear. That’s part of their life that they have to deal with and that we have to help them try and deal with.
“Just watching college football the last couple weeks, there’s a lot of people dealing with managing expectations and playing to the level they’re capable of playing. For us, we haven’t had those kind of expectations coming into a season before.â€
Brennan praised the team’s leaders and said the squad would “lean on†them to battle through this, adding: “No one has higher expectations than the players and the people in the building.â€
That might be true now. I’m not sure it was as recently as a month ago.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥: Seven former Wildcats participate in NFL games in Week 3.
Views: The NFL is hard (unless you’re , apparently). Only a select few can sustain a career in pro football. The average career length for an NFL player is about 3.3 seasons.
Six active former Wildcats have reached or approached that threshold. They fall into two categories: established vet (to whatever extent “established†truly exists in the league) and fringe/back of roster.
Kicker Nick Folk (Titans) is still going strong at 39-going-on-40. Linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles (49ers) has pushed his unlikely NFL journey into a fifth season. Defensive tackle Roy Lopez is starting for the Cardinals.
Running backs J.J. Taylor (Texans) and Gary Brightwell (Browns) landed on practice squads to start this season. They were elevated to active duty this past week because of injuries. Neither is with the organizations that originally drafted or signed them.
Linebacker Tony Fields II — who started for three years at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ before finishing his career at West Virginia during the pandemic season of 2020 — belongs in the first group. But he’s currently on injured reserve after suffering a foot injury in Week 1 vs. the Cowboys.
Four other former Wildcats are NFL rookies. The most decorated among them, offensive lineman Jordan Morgan (Packers), is also hurt, having reinjured the shoulder that cost him time (and his starting spot) in training camp. Morgan played 48 snaps the first two weeks off the bench. Assuming he can stay healthy, the first-round pick from Marana High School has a long career ahead of him.
Receiver Jacob Cowing (49ers) has appeared in all three games, exclusively on special teams. He has played 10 snaps and returned four punts for 24 yards.
Tight end Tanner McLachlan (Bengals) has yet to appear in a game.
Defensive back Christian Roland-Wallace — who started for four seasons at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ before finishing his college career at USC — has played 44 snaps on special teams for the two-time defending champion Chiefs. Not bad for an undrafted free agent.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥: The UA women’s basketball team conducts its first official practice Monday afternoon.
Views: The men are underway too. Now that coaches can work with players during the offseason, the start of the season isn’t as hyped as it used to be. “Midnight Madness†has gone the way of the VCR.
Women’s coach Adia Barnes met with the media before the players hit the court, and one of the subjects she addressed was the Wildcats’ . It’s not exactly a murderer’s row.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ plays eight of its 13 noncon games at home. Five are against teams that finished 265th or worse in the final (Tarleton State, Chicago State, Seattle, CSU Bakersfield, Weber State).
Only one is guaranteed to be against a team that finished in the top 30 (UNLV, No. 28). It could be two if the UA ends up facing Michigan State (No. 22) in the Acrisure Classic in Palm Springs, California. (No. 61 Cal is the alternative.)
Last year, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ faced only one team that finished worse than 234th in NET (Seattle, 313). Barnes’ freshman-filled, injury-riddled squad played four teams that finished in the top 35: Ole Miss (34), UNLV, Texas (3) and Gonzaga (14).
Barnes said last year’s preseason schedule was “too hard†before amending that to “very challenging.†She also implied that the Wildcats’ overall strength of schedule didn’t help them as much as she had hoped.
Those experiences are invaluable for now-sophomores Breya Cunningham, Skylar Jones and Jada Williams. But despite facing the Rebels (times two), Longhorns and Bulldogs — plus seven Pac-12 teams that finished with NET ratings of 33 or better — ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ still ended up as an 11-seed and First Four designee in the NCAA Tournament.
“I think if we had a little easier schedule in the nonconference, we probably could have won another game in the tournament,†Barnes said. “I didn’t think it would be like that.â€
Women’s basketball will use to evaluate teams’ NCAA résumés for the first time this season. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ is likely to end up with a lot of Quad 3 and 4 results.
So, will Barnes’ strategy backfire? We’ll see.
My advice: Win as much as possible and leave no doubt.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥: The UA baseball team begins fall workouts.
Views: Remember that bit about expectations? They’re deservedly high at Hi Corbett Field.
Chip Hale and his staff have assembled their best roster yet, in my estimation. Almost every significant position player is back, a year older and (in theory) a year better. That group includes All-Pac-12 outfielder Brendan Summerhill, whom recently ranked as the for the 2025 MLB Draft.
The pitching is a big question, of course. But it was last season, too. Kevin Vance and John DeRouin worked their magic and transformed the group into one of the nation’s better staffs. They’ve already begun that process for ’25.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ isn’t lacking for talent on the mound. The additions this season include in-state arms Mason Russell and Smith Bailey, two highly-rated prospects who improbably made it through the draft and into UA uniforms.
We’ll get to see the squad for the first time in a public setting next Thursday in the Mexican Baseball Fiesta at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium. Can’t wait.