Sep 7, 2024; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Brent Brennan looks at score board against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks during first quarter at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images

Arizona Doesn't Make the Cut in Preseason List

Originally posted on Arizona Wildcats on SI
By Troy Hutchison | Last updated Aug 5, 2025 8:00 AM ET

The expectations for Arizona football coming into the 2024 season were high. The team started the year ranked No. 21 in the Preseason AP Poll with a good number of returning players and stars Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan leading the way.

But, things didn’t go that way for Arizona and new head coach Brent Brennan as the team struggled on both sides of the ball and couldn’t get any consistent play going throughout the year.

The Wildcats finished 4-8 on the year and ended the season on a two-game losing streak and lost seven of the last eight games.

“When we go through a tough season like we did a year ago, you got to find a way to fix what was broken, fix what wasn’t working and put those pieces together,” Brennan said. “And part of those pieces are how we’re going to do things in terms of how we’re going to coach, what we’re going to do schematically and the other part is who are the players that are going to play those roles.”

Although Brennan has mixed things up on his coaching staff and has seen a high number of new faces in the locker room that have come over from the transfer portal and the 2025 recruiting class, Arizona football isn’t projected to do very well this season

Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

As a conference, the Big 12 didn’t have a media poll to project what was going to happen for the 2025 season.

However, the Coaches Poll released its Preseason Top 25 rankings with a total of five Big 12 teams in ASU, Kansas State, Iowa State, BYU and Texas Tech making an appearance in the preseason poll.

Arizona didn’t receive any Top 25 votes in the coaches poll.

When the Preseason All-Big-12 Teams were announced, Arizona was shutout and didn’t have one single player listed.

It is very clear, the expectations for Arizona during the 2025 season are very low in comparison to a season ago. However, the underdog role is something the Wildcats have thrived in throughout its history as a program.

It might be a long time before the Wildcats are in a position to be ranked given that the first two games of the year are against Hawaii and Weber State. Now, if Arizona goes 3-0 in its non-conference games, that would potentially include a Top 25 win over Kansas State at home.

So, there is a shot (slim) that the Wildcats could find themselves in the poll rankings after the non-conference schedule.

This article first appeared on Arizona Wildcats on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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