2021 Season Thread

[Sid]

How many games is Arizona going to win this season? Do you guys think that Cruz will be the starter against BYU to open the season?

Jordan starts against BYU. The same guy you took a selfie with and posted on your Twitter account.

Number of wins? Who the fuck knows, but I’m over the moon that we’re blessed to have a clean slate. I will gladly offer my financial support to this program as my daughter will be a incoming freshman at Arizona. I’m excited for her and can’t wait for parents weekend!

Question for you….does James Bohls see the field this season and if so, what impact will he have?

[BetaCat]

As I post here, the rest of you will learn that I am a hopeless optimist, until facts on the ground prove me wrong. As of now, I expect to “shock the world” this season. What does that mean? Not sure I know - but suffice it to say I believe we will be better than everyone thinks. Mostly I mean we’ll be more competitive than expected, and that may translate to 5 or 6 wins.

[EastCoastCat]

As I post here, the rest of you will learn that I am a hopeless optimist, until facts on the ground prove me wrong. As of now, I expect to “shock the world” this season. What does that mean? Not sure I know - but suffice it to say I believe we will be better than everyone thinks. Mostly I mean we’ll be more competitive than expected, and that may translate to 5 or 6 wins.

How long you've been following Arizona football again?

Just kidding, I think we all desire that but based on where the program is now with talent and recruiting it's hard to objectively say we expect a lot of success next year. I think most of us are resigned to the fact we will be in a "wait and see" mode for at least 1 or 2 recruiting cycles before we can judge this new regime's performance.

Having said that, we are starting from about as low of a base as possible so any positive signals next year - how hard the team plays, better tackling, not giving up so many big plays, better 3rd down efficiency, etc... will be a plus more so than how many wins we rack up.

[Merkin]

The best I am hoping for is the be at least competitive, and don't give up like they did v. ASU. 70-7 v. your rival should never happen.

As I post here, the rest of you will learn that I am a hopeless optimist, until facts on the ground prove me wrong. As of now, I expect to “shock the world” this season. What does that mean? Not sure I know - but suffice it to say I believe we will be better than everyone thinks. Mostly I mean we’ll be more competitive than expected, and that may translate to 5 or 6 wins.

I started being a fan as a freshman in 1981, when the UA was a football school with Larry Smith as coach beating the likes of Notre Dame and the basketball coach was Fred Snowden who was already on the hot seat, then Ben Lindsey came in and destroyed the program. Lute then saved it.

Been waiting for a Rose Bowl for the Cats since then, 40 years ago, and now they are even further away from it than ever. I have no hope of ever seeing the Cats in a Rose Bowl in my lifetime, none at all.

However, with Lute and Miller, I always expected a Final Four, pretty much every season and maybe another natty now and then.

Then the UA president got involved in both the basketball and football programs.

[BetaCat]

As I post here, the rest of you will learn that I am a hopeless optimist, until facts on the ground prove me wrong. As of now, I expect to “shock the world” this season. What does that mean? Not sure I know - but suffice it to say I believe we will be better than everyone thinks. Mostly I mean we’ll be more competitive than expected, and that may translate to 5 or 6 wins.

How long you've been following Arizona football again?

Just kidding, I think we all desire that but based on where the program is now with talent and recruiting it's hard to objectively say we expect a lot of success next year. I think most of us are resigned to the fact we will be in a "wait and see" mode for at least 1 or 2 recruiting cycles before we can judge this new regime's performance.

Having said that, we are starting from about as low of a base as possible so any positive signals next year - how hard the team plays, better tackling, not giving up so many big plays, better 3rd down efficiency, etc... will be a plus more so than how many wins we rack up.

To answer your question, Bob Weber was the coach when I started at the UofA. But I also have experienced Jim Young, Larry Smith and Dick Tomey, so there’s that.

This fan base is too attached to the 7-70 debacle that closed at the year, but remember that same team took USC to the wire. The 2021 team will be somewhat more talented, considerably better coached, will employ better schemes and will be in a much, much different state of mind.

3-0 isn’t likely to start, but it’s not out of the question either. Getting 2 or 3 more out of the remaining nine games is conceivable.

I warned you guys I was an incorrigible optimist. I’ve learned to live with it...

[azgreg]

[Merkin]

Guess I won't be starting up SlingTV anytime early this fall.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/football/ ... CRTK7EQA0U

Here’s what Arizona’s overall 2021 schedule looks with the new info:

Sept. 4 vs. BYU in Las Vegas (7:30 p.m. PT, ESPN)
Sept. 11 vs. San Diego State (7 p.m. PT, P12)
Sept. 18 vs. NAU (7 p.m. PT, P12)
Sept. 25 at Oregon
Oct. 9 vs. UCLA
Oct. 16 at Colorado
Oct. 22 (Friday) vs. Washington (7:30 p.m. PT, ESPN2)
Oct. 30 at USC
Nov. 6 vs. Cal
Nov. 13 vs. Utah
Nov. 19 (Friday) at Washington State (7 p.m. MT, P12)
Nov. 27 at ASU

[DrWildcat]

Damn, I missed the all the Chief - I'm not Chief discussion. The guy that is "too good" for message boards always seems to comes back but does a terrible job disguising himself.

Back on topic, we are going to suck next year but I hope we at least show some kind of promise for the future.

[Carcassdragger]

As I post here, the rest of you will learn that I am a hopeless optimist, until facts on the ground prove me wrong. As of now, I expect to “shock the world” this season. What does that mean? Not sure I know - but suffice it to say I believe we will be better than everyone thinks. Mostly I mean we’ll be more competitive than expected, and that may translate to 5 or 6 wins.

How long you've been following Arizona football again?

Just kidding, I think we all desire that but based on where the program is now with talent and recruiting it's hard to objectively say we expect a lot of success next year. I think most of us are resigned to the fact we will be in a "wait and see" mode for at least 1 or 2 recruiting cycles before we can judge this new regime's performance.

Having said that, we are starting from about as low of a base as possible so any positive signals next year - how hard the team plays, better tackling, not giving up so many big plays, better 3rd down efficiency, etc... will be a plus more so than how many wins we rack up.

To answer your question, Bob Weber was the coach when I started at the UofA. But I also have experienced Jim Young, Larry Smith and Dick Tomey, so there’s that.

This fan base is too attached to the 7-70 debacle that closed at the year, but remember that same team took USC to the wire. The 2021 team will be somewhat more talented, considerably better coached, will employ better schemes and will be in a much, much different state of mind.

3-0 isn’t likely to start, but it’s not out of the question either. Getting 2 or 3 more out of the remaining nine games is conceivable.

I warned you guys I was an incorrigible optimist. I’ve learned to live with it...

Nice to have hope, but we suck very badly and will probably only win one game-NAU.

[BetaCat]

That’s why they play the games. We’ll see.

[Sid]

The beautiful thing is we all want to watch & see. I don’t think I would’ve watched a single game if the drunk was still here. For that I’m grateful. The huge “X” factor will be Jordan and what value he can bring to the team & can our Oline be efficient? Dr. Blitz will have our boys running through walls, that really gets me excited!

I’m hopeful.

[azcat49]

https://www.pff.com/news/college-footba ... ac-12-team

Pro Football Weekly has us at 4 wins which I think is fair

[EastCoastCat]

Generous I would say.

[azcat49]

Have to think we beat a few teams where we might be slight dogs too (BYU and SDST come to mind) I think the vegas O/U will be set at 3 and I like that over

[Merkin]

https://www.pff.com/news/college-footba ... ac-12-team

Pro Football Weekly has us at 4 wins which I think is fair

Conference Championship Appearance Probability: 1%
Conference Championship Win Probability: 0%

So you're saying there's a chance?


But still a 12th place finish.

Don't know these stats, but McCloud was had the 68th highest passing efficiency in the NCAA last season. https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs ... idual/8/p2


Now, they have a murky quarterback room containing Will Plummer (48.6 passing grade on 96 dropbacks in 2020), Washington State transfer Gunner Cruz (nine career dropbacks) and USF transfer Jordan McCloud (sub-60.0 passing grade in his two years on the field).

[azgreg]

15-0 baby!

[azgreg]

[azcat49]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FkG9dj8qJ ... e=youtu.be

Good cats video put out on Twitter. 9 minutes long. #itspersonal

[azgreg]

Looks like Arizona football is getting a lot of love on social media for the camp they just held.

[ASUHATER!]

from the posts up above, 4 wins is very generous and I'd actually be ecstatic with a 4-8 season.

[Carcassdragger]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FkG9dj8qJ ... e=youtu.be

Good cats video put out on Twitter. 9 minutes long. #itspersonal

Wow. A good example of why I appreciate my BDW brethren. Thanks for posting.

[RichardCranium]

Guess I won't be starting up SlingTV anytime early this fall.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/football/ ... CRTK7EQA0U

Here’s what Arizona’s overall 2021 schedule looks with the new info:

Sept. 4 vs. BYU in Las Vegas (7:30 p.m. PT, ESPN)
Sept. 11 vs. San Diego State (7 p.m. PT, P12)
Sept. 18 vs. NAU (7 p.m. PT, P12)
Sept. 25 at Oregon
Oct. 9 vs. UCLA
Oct. 16 at Colorado
Oct. 22 (Friday) vs. Washington (7:30 p.m. PT, ESPN2)
Oct. 30 at USC
Nov. 6 vs. Cal
Nov. 13 vs. Utah
Nov. 19 (Friday) at Washington State (7 p.m. MT, P12)
Nov. 27 at ASU

I'd be happy with a 2-1 start as long as the 1 is not NAU.

After that I don't see much joy until Washington State - but jebus heck, Pullman in late November? No thank you very much.

No idea what A$$U is gonna look like this year, but they are going to be more than insufferable at their house when we get there after last year's debacle.

[OSUCat]

It’s mid June and I’m finding myself excited about the upcoming football season. Its obviously the new coach and new direct excitement versus winning excitement.

I’m looking for to a new style of offense and new style of defense. I hated the last 4 years of offense system and the defense system for the last decade has been worse.

I’m also happy about the coaching staff opening everything. We will get good stories and get to know the players better. It will feed the excitement and connection.

It’s a low bar, but I just hope it doesn’t blow back. Last year was by far the worse football year for me as a fan.

[AV8RCAT]

Both sides of the ball improve, but defense improves dramatically.

5 wins

[Carcassdragger]

Both sides of the ball improve, but defense improves dramatically.

5 wins

No.

[AV8RCAT]

Both sides of the ball improve, but defense improves dramatically.

5 wins

No.

I say 5, you say one.
We'll see who is closer. I personally believe Sumlin's coaching was much worse than our talent, so I start with a higher baseline than what that piece of shit put on the field.

[Merkin]

2.5 per Vegas. Get your bets in.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/football/ ... HT-DIouGr8

[dmjcat]

2.5 per Vegas. Get your bets in.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/football/ ... HT-DIouGr8

If Fisch manages to get anything more than 2 wins he should be voted PAC12 coach of the year..........he has nearly ZERO talent to work with.

[azcat49]

I will definitely play the over. I think they get 3 wins minimum and 4 max

[azgreg]

15-0

[Carcassdragger]

We're the worst D1 program in the country.

[azcat49]

We're the worst D1 program in the country.

Worse than Kansas? Not sure about that. I agree as above that this team has some talent and it was just poorly coached by Sumlin. I will maintain we will beat BYU

[ASUHATER!]

We're the worst D1 program in the country.

No we're not. Kansas is still worse and there's plenty of bad non power 5 teams that are worse. But we are one of the 3 worst power conference teams currently.

[EastCoastCat]

I have this gut feeling we will be a bit better than we think. I have no proof of course, it's just a weird sense I have.

I'm saying 5 wins for the record.

[azgreg]

The problem with prediction this year is people want to base a lot of it off how we finished last year. By the end of the year we were down to about 50 scholarship players due to injury, Covid, and opt outs. I think we'll be better than a lot of people are predicting.

[Carcassdragger]

Hope so.

[Carcassdragger]

...and Kansas didn't lose to their rival by 63 points.

[dmjcat]

We're the worst D1 program in the country.

Worse than Kansas? Not sure about that. I agree as above that this team has some talent and it was just poorly coached by Sumlin. I will maintain we will beat BYU

Some talent??? Are you drinking early this morning???

UA PAC12 recruiting rankings (2017-2021)

2017 10th
2018 11th
2019 11th
2020 11th
2021 11th

Anyone expecting Fisch to produce a winning season for the next 3 years needs to have their heads examined. This isn't basketball. It takes years to restock a depleted roster in football.

[TheCatInTheHat]

The problem with prediction this year is people want to base a lot of it off how we finished last year. By the end of the year we were down to about 50 scholarship players due to injury, Covid, and opt outs. I think we'll be better than a lot of people are predicting.

Basing very much on one of the most abnormal years in NCAA history, where some teams didn't play, some games were cancelled and others were quickly scheduled, isn't a good idea. For example, if you look at the "fabulous" season and numbers BYU put up, it was all driven by the schedule they cobbled together. If we'd have played that schedule, we wouldn't have done nearly as well, but we would have won some games. So, predictions are often based on last year's stock performance, but for this coming season, I wouldn't suggest putting much money on assumptions driven by last year. It's always a safe bet to predict the worst and then be "happy to be wrong." And for those who try to beat down anything that isn't perfectly aligned: We Won't Be A Good Team. We'll beat NAU, and beyond that a hard ceiling (probably fantasyland) would be a total of 5 wins. So, maybe 3 or 4 if we surprise some people with scheme and motivation and get lucky with the bounce of the ball in a close game or two. For Arizona fans, this season should be all about how the eye test of how organized and competitive the team is, and statistical improvement.

[Merkin]

The problem with prediction this year is people want to base a lot of it off how we finished last year. By the end of the year we were down to about 50 scholarship players due to injury, Covid, and opt outs. I think we'll be better than a lot of people are predicting.

Besides that the entire team quit on Sumlin, including Grant Gunnell. I don't expect UA to beat ASU in the near future unless they implode due to the NCAA investigation, but no more 70-7 losses. Good riddance to Sumlin and Gunnell.

[AV8RCAT]

We're the worst D1 program in the country.

Worse than Kansas? Not sure about that. I agree as above that this team has some talent and it was just poorly coached by Sumlin. I will maintain we will beat BYU

Some talent??? Are you drinking early this morning???

UA PAC12 recruiting rankings (2017-2021)

2017 10th
2018 11th
2019 11th
2020 11th
2021 11th

Anyone expecting Fisch to produce a winning season for the next 3 years needs to have their heads examined. This isn't basketball. It takes years to restock a depleted roster in football.

What you have to do in that case is coach up what ya got.
I expect this staff to do a better job of that than we have seen lately.

[azcat49]

Guess we will see how it shakes out. They won’t be great but improved and I think they go over the 2.5 vegas line. If you are so confident take my bet. Saves me a trip to vegas

[azcat49]

Top 50 guy Jake Smith might be coming back to his home state. Keep an eye out. My Texas family said he entered the portal

[Irish27]

[Chicat]

Jedd is really pulling out ALL the stops to get me back on board, and getting the coach of my favorite NFL team to take an interest in the program and to talk to the kids may just have put me over the edge.

[azcat49]

Wouldn’t you really like to crack a beer open with one of the players and talk about the difference between Sumlin and Fisch and the state of the program

[Merkin]

I'd like to talk to the boosters, esp the Davis and Stephens families since they were all pretty upset about the firings (esp CSM) and hirings.

[azgreg]

Wouldn’t you really like to crack a beer open with one of the players and talk about the difference between Sumlin and Fisch and the state of the program

It seems like positive culture and moral are on a whole new level.

[CopaCat]

So far I absolutely love Jedd Fisch as a life coach/motivator/recruiter. The problem still remains whether he and his staff are good on field coaches(sans Brown) and whether they can make us semi competitive. Essentially can Fisch make us at least Stoops year 1 competitive despite the talent disparity? Stoops inherited a terrible team with tons of holes but used his defensive expertise and motivation tools to make us at least look like we belonged on the field with teams like Wisconsin. We had Kris Heavner as our QB, good kid but not a great QB. Very similar situation with Fisch. If he can just do something similar to that in year 1 I will love the guy. If we go 0-12 and aren't remotely in games I think the honeymoon will be over and we all will be wishing we drew up a Prenup.

[PieceOfMeat]

2.5 per Vegas. Get your bets in.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/football/ ... HT-DIouGr8

sometimes, as a non-betting person, i see a vegas line where i think to myself "hey, that might be worth throwing money at"....
and then i remember that there's a reason vegas makes so much money, and instead I keep my wallet closed and spend my money on things like groceries, electricity, etc.