Record: How Arizona Wildcats football looks under coach Brent Brennan

The offseason is here, with all Arizona sports done for the 2023-24 season and the 2024-25 campaigns still a short distance away.

Which makes this a great time to take a step back and see how all of the Wildcats’ programs are doing, especially with the impending move to the Big 12 Conference.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at each of the UA men’s and women’s track and field programs to see how they’re doing and what their outlook is for the near future. We’ll break down each team and evaluate its performance under its current coaching staff, looking at the state of the program before his arrival and comparing it to now, while looking at the upcoming Big 12 debut and beyond.

First: of Brent Brennan football team

What it looked like before

Arizona put together one of the best seasons in school history in 2023, winning 10 games, including the Alamo Bowl against Oklahoma. And with most of the team expected to return, the sky was the limit for the Wildcats heading into the Big 12.

Then, in a seeming moment, everything changed. Jedd Fisch he left for Washington, taking his entire offensive staff as well as several key players and a host of notable recruits. Arizona acted quickly, considering Brennan as Fisch’s replacement after seven years at San Jose State.

Brennan had to hit the ground running, first convincing most of the team to give him a chance and then trying to fill out a roster that had more than 20 scholarships available for spring ball. He has also assembled a coaching staff that includes a veteran defensive guru Duane Akina and a pair of coordinators who have head coaching experience.

Where things stand now

Considering how bad it could have gone, Arizona is still in a pretty good spot heading into 2024. Most super early rankings still have the Wildcats ranked in the Top 25, and they should be among the top teams in the poll of the Big 12 preseason.

Spring ball went well with no significant injuries other than the projected first round NFL draft pick Tetairoa McMillan right leg injury and underwent “a small procedure” that is expected to heal in time for fall camps. Since then, UA has added more than a dozen players through the NCAA transfer portal.

As for Brennan, he’s been a part of every stop the Arizona athletic department has made on its nationwide Wildcat welcome tour, meeting fans and answering questions about the program. He doesn’t have to make nearly the same kind of sales that Fisch did three years ago, but uncertainty will remain about him until he coaches his first game.

What life should be like in the Big 12

After finishing third in the Pac-12 last year but never winning the conference and representing it in the Rose Bowl, Arizona is heading into a new league up for grabs. Traditional Big 12 powers Oklahoma and Texas are moving to the SEC, which leaves just six schools with a total of 15 conference title game appearances, and one of those is fellow Pac-12 Colorado.

UA will actually play 10 Big 12 opponents this fall, with a mid-September trip to Kansas State considered a non-conference tilt. The Wildcats will visit BYU, TCU, UCF and Utah while hosting ASU, Colorado, Houston, Texas Tech and West Virginia, with upcoming games against Baylor, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas and Oklahoma State.

The Big 12 title game is in Arlington, Texas, the first weekend in December.

A great question

Will the changes kill the momentum? T-Mac and Noah Fifita are back, as are four starting offensive linemen, the Pac-12’s leading tackler in 2023, nearly the entire secondary and one of the best kickers in the country. On paper, that’s a significant amount of returning talent that should be more than enough to make Arizona a Big 12 contender.

But they returned many times Kevin Sumlin took over in 2018, inheriting a roster that included a Heisman Trophy contender Khalil Tate, Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year JJ Taylor and stud linebacker Colin Schooler, among others. But it took less than one game to see how much Sumlin and his staff, especially the offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone— wanted to do things differently, and that signaled the start of the program’s rapid decline.

Brennan and his staff have committed to not changing too much, at least in the first season, to maximize the upside of his best players. We’ll see if that is indeed the case when the Wildcats host New Mexico on August 31st.