Why ARIZONA Football Could GO CRAZY in 2024 (Wildcats Preview)

one of my favorite stories from the 2023 college football season was the rise of Arizona football a few years ago they were considered a dead program and no one thought Jed fish would be able to do anything there after a terrible start Arizona football ended up breaking out completely in 2023 and had a couple of really insane games and really good players as they now head over to the Big 12 Arizona should be a favorite team to finish in the top four of the league and I think they have a chance to be even better than advertised I think Arizona has has a real shot at winning the Big 12 and they can go crazy in 2024 in today's video I want to preview the 2024 Arizona Wildcats go through their roster talk about their schedule expectations and overall just my thoughts on why they could have a really good year this will be another preview video but before we get started if you're a big fan of college football be sure to subscribe to the channel leave a like if you want to support today's video and let me know what player team topic or situation I can cover next now let's get started and preview the Arizona Wildcats to me it's kind of weird that Arizona is getting a preview as usually they're at the complete bottom of my list and I don't even get to cover usually a third of power five teams the fact that Arizona has legitimate hype and is considered an upper tier program this year is pretty cool to me and first we should talk about last season before we talk about this year in terms of going into the 2023 season there was really no reason to believe that Arizona football was going to have the season they had yeah they had a couple of good players returning such as tedo McMillan Jacob coing and Jaden Delora but they had not really shown that much much over the last 2 years and there was really no reason to believe that they would break out the voters ended up picking them to finish eighth out of 12 teams in the Pack 12 but they would end up having a huge season in week one they would take care of Northern Arizona before a huge match up against Mississippi State on the road in this game Jaden Dora was the quarterback and after going to overtime Dora scrambled for a first down and I think they got screwed I still to this day think that Dora got the first down but replay said he didn't and the game would end up ending there in their first loss of the Season would happen I don't know if that enraged the locker room or something but from there Arizona football played insane they played UTEP and destroyed them before they would go on the road and beat Stanford they're now three in one and then they'd have an extremely difficult stretch the first one was a home match up against Washington and this game was actually super close in a battle with a team that made it to the National Championship Arizona only lost by one touchdown sadly though going into their game against number nine USC Jaden delore was now out and iname Noah faita he's the guy who really helped change the trajectory of the Season as faf would have an insane first half against USC and would duel it out with Caleb Williams on the road against the Trojans they' end up going to three overtimes but they would end up losing 43 to 41 at this point they're now three and three and it looked like their season was starting to fall apart but at the same time there was so much positive momentum this is where things get fun after that they go on the road and beat number 19 Washington State 44 to6 and this was the moment when everyone knew Arizona football was different after that number 11 Oregon state would come to town and in a duel against DJ yuang La Noah F beat him and they added a second straight win over a ranked team they'd end up adding a third straight win as they would then beat number 19 UCA before they'd go on the road to Colorado and win by way of a game-winning field goal this was a big deal because Colorado got a ton of hype all year from there they'd play against number 22 Utah at home and Arizona would destroy them not only were they winning these games but they were winning them big they had blowouts against three ranked teams in their last five games and they would carry this into the territorial cup as they would dismantle Arizona State 59 to 23 when Arizona jumped into the polls on November 11th this was the first time they ranked since 2017 it had been a long six years for Wildcats fans but now they're selected to play in the AL bow where they would play against number 12 Oklahoma just like the last few weeks Arizona pretty much controlled this game and they would win 38 to 24 this was a Monumental season for Jed fish as he went Pack 12 Coach of the Year and some thought he had the most impressive season of any coach in terms of how the team did Noah F blew up he threw for nearly 3,000 yards and 25 touchdowns and he had a plethora of running backs helping him out both DJ WIlliams and Michael Wy also had big gears and their former Blue Chip running back rayan Luke also got a chance to get on the field more the wide receiver room was extremely impressive as tedo and McMillan caught 90 passes for, 14400 yards and 10 touchdowns and the former UTEP transfer Jacob coing ended up also catching 90 passes for 848 yards and 13 touchdowns the two of them became one of the best Duos in all of college football and this was pretty insane Arizona also had Jacob Manu who had over 100 tackles on defense and Taylor Upshaw had eight and half sacks as a linebacker Arizona's football season was absolutely insane as they ended up going 10 and3 with a 7-2 record in the Pack 12 and finished ranked number 11 in the country but not everything went perfect for Arizona because fish had so much success he ended up deciding to take the head coaching job at Washington after kayin dbor left for Alabama this came as a shock to some but apparently the Arizona financials and some behind the scenes stuff is really difficult right now plus Washington is a step up so I guess I understand it for a couple of reasons but I wish Jed fish would have stayed who did the cats decide to hire well they went out and got Brent Brennan in my opinion he was one of the more interesting hires from the 2024 Carousel as after playing wide receiver at UCLA he's quickly Rose through the ranks and he spent a ton of time at San Jose State he eventually became the head coach there in 2017 and in total he'd go 34 48 on paper that doesn't sound great he made bowl games in three of his last four years had the team ranked in 2020 and San Jose State does not exactly have a ton of prestige Brennan is a little bit more of an old school coach who takes time to build things and once he has a system it works out really well still though some wonder if he can actually take Arizona to new heights but now he'll have more Talent more resources and more of an opportunity to prove himself going into the 2024 season when you take a look at the Arizona roster they brought in a couple of big names this included two four stars in running backs Jordan Washington and quarterback Deon Williams Jr but sadly both of them would transfer to follow fish at Washington this was a huge loss and the recruiting class kind of fell into shambles after this Brennan did most of his work in the transfer portal as he brought in a couple of big names got an edge rusher from Stanford a corner from Miami an offensive tackle from San Diego State and a former Big Time recruit in Mar kei's Groves kbu who was originally part of that insane Texas A&M class and spent a year at Louis with some sort of weird injury situation for the most part looking at their transfer class they got 24 of them and they're all pretty much three star players I really have no idea how any of them are going to do but it seems like there's a lot of depth here and there could be some hidden gems I got to be honest here I'm not even going to try to project the depth chart as I've done a lot of research but can't really find that much and I'm not going to pretend I know a ton about Arizona I'm just trying to preview the team and we're going to talk about the most important players on this roster though obviously that starts with the quarterback and the guy we need to really focus on is Noah fito fit was only a three star recruit coming out of high school but he has played like a five-star talent in my eyes faf is the best quarterback in the Big 12 this upcoming season he is someone that is just unbelievably fun to watch the team is going to live and die by him and behind him you have Anthony Garcia who transferred him from San Jose State you also can't forget former four-star recruit Braden Dorman and it looks like Brent Brennan has a good quarterback room to work with at the running back spot you're would have jakori crossy Meritt as he ended up trans transferring in from New Mexico I think he was the guy who flirted around with transferring to Old Miss but after putting up over 1,000 yards and 17 touchdowns Meritt should take over as the number one running back on the team another guy who we really need to watch out for is rayan Luke as he went to St John bosow it was nearly a top 200 player in the country they also have a solid third option in quae Conley as he ran for nearly 1,000 yards and 10 scores at San Jose State I like their running back room a lot but I'm really excited for their wide receiver room going over to that spot we first have to talk about tedo McMillan coming out of Hawaii he was nearly a five-star recruit in flip from Oregon Arizona and McMillan has produced in my opinion he's the number one wide receiver in the Big 12 this year and will be a first round draft pick when it's all said and done behind him you have guys like AJ Jones and Montana lonus Craig as they should both have a role on the team as well I'm also expecting Malachi Riley to get a chance to play on the field and then a guy like Devon hayatt is also someone I'm extremely excited to watch part of that is because he's the of Jaylen hayatt switching over to the defensive side of the ball some of the key guys to watch out for are linebacker Jacob Manu who had a breakout season last year Corner tario Davis defensive tackle Bill Norton free safety Gunner Maldonado and linebacker Justin Flo who is a huge deal coming out of high school some of the guys they added who I'm really excited to watch are Maris grow kbu as maybe he will finally live up to his high school status and then also defensive ends Trey Smith and chuba may there's obviously a few more names I left out as honestly I just don't don't know this team that well but those are the guys you need to watch out for so now that you know how they did last year the key players the Personnel changes how is Arizona going to do in 2024 that's the big question many of you guys are probably asking and as we take a look at their schedule it lines up somewhat nicely for him in week one they're going to play against New Mexico at home and that will be a win in week two they're going to play against Northern Arizona and that will also be a win they're going to start out at 2 and 0 before they have a very rude awakening to conference play and this will determine how the season goes first they'll go on the road to Manhattan Kansas to play against Kansas State and honestly I'm extremely high on the wild cats I really love Avery Johnson and I love the running back they got from Colorado and K State's a tough team to beat honestly I don't think Arizona is going to win this as this will be their first tough game of the year and K State's nearly impossible to beat at home this will put them at 2 and one after that they go on the road to play against Utah that's another game that's really difficult to pick here many think that Utah is the best returning team in the Pack 12 and to me it's going to depend on cam Rising if he's as good as advertised then they're going to be fine but if he sucks then I don't know if Utah is more than an 8- win team either way though I can't really see Arizona winning either of these two games and that's going to put them at 2 and two but just like last year after starting out at 500 first they play at home against Texas Tech who in my opinion is just an average Big 12 team and will be stuck in that Log Jam to win six or seven games this game's at home and Arizona will not want to drop three in a row after that they go on the road to BYU and I'm not really high on BYU either as they have another one of those extra year of Eligibility fifth time transfer quarterbacks in Gary Bohanan and I don't even know if BYU makes a bowl so that's another win for Arizona after that they play at home against Colorado and as many of you guys know I think the Buffs are overrated will this be a game I think so but I think Arizona wins that after that we probably get to the third toughest game on their schedule and that is at home against West Virginia the Mountaineers are getting a decent amount of hype as Neil Brown really needs to win big this year and we saw the emergence of Garrett green at quarterback by the end of last season this is another game I think will be close but I also think that Arizona is going to win after that they go on the road to UCF this in my opinion is the biggest Trap game on the schedule as this is a game that's far away from home and it's going to depend on how good KJ Jefferson is Gus mazon's also a good coach but I'm going to say Arizona wins this one after that they come home and play against Houston and I think that's a win and then they finish the year with TCU and Arizona State well I think Arizona is really good I don't know if they're going to be able to win seven straight games I had to determine which team I thought they were to lose to and I'm going to say they drop a dumb one to TCU I don't really know why that's just my gut instinct as I think TCU is going to bounce back under sunny dkes and TCU is going to beat him in some sort of nail bite or crazy finish and that'll give Arizona their third loss after that they'll come home and play against Arizona State and I'm not really much of a believer in Arizona State right now that'll be another win that puts Arizona at 9 and three but honestly I might have been way too hard on them there's a real chance that they could beat both Utah and TCU as well and that would put them at 11 and one I think there's cealing is 12-0 and their floor is 9 and3 But ultimately you never know how the college fo season goes plus it's Brent Brennan now and not Jed fish so I'm going to be a little bit more critical of them and say that Arizona goes 9 and three this would not get them into the college football playoff unless there was some really weird stuff that went on but it would still be a good year for Arizona and a really good first season for Brent Brennan that's just my thoughts though but what do you guys think if you're in Arizona or college football fan what do you think of this year's Arizona team and what player or team should I preview next be sure to let me down below leave a like if you want to support today's video subscribe if you're new and check out all of their videos on the end screen I hope to see you guys again soon but until next time peace