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Arizona Football Misses Another Preseason List
Nov 27, 2021; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Detailed view of an Arizona Wildcats helmet during the Territorial Cup at Sun Devil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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

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 Preseason AP Poll was released with a total of four Big 12 teams in No. 11 ASU, No. 17 Kansas State, No. 22 Iowa State, No. 23 Texas Tech making an appearance in the preseason poll.

Arizona didn’t receive any Top 25 votes in the AP 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

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

As we get closer to the start of the 2025 season, Arizona continues to be left of rankings, lists and honors. This time, ESPN came out with a list of the Top 100 players entering the college football season and the Wildcats were once again snubbed.

The list featured 11 players from the Big 12 Conference and had five quarterbacks from the conference making the top 100.

Arizona this season will be looking to get back to winning football and players proving that they have been overlooked in preseason lists and honors.


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

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