2025 season thread

[azcat49]

Saw some early odds on winning the XII and not surprising the cats are the longest odds at +6500 (by comparison Houston at 15th was +5000). Just very disappointing to see this but we know ASSU had some long odds and they won the conference

[Merkin]

16th here too. https://athlonsports.com/college-footba ... 16-arizona

[Carcassdragger]

That's because we suck.

[pc in NM]

16th here too. https://athlonsports.com/college-footba ... 16-arizona

Great!! We're not gonna under-perform next year like we did this year!!!

[PHXCATS]

That's because we suck.

[Chicat]

Saw some early odds on winning the XII and not surprising the cats are the longest odds at +6500 (by comparison Houston at 15th was +5000). Just very disappointing to see this but we know ASSU had some long odds and they won the conference

We are going to shock the world and finish 12th.

[Merkin]

“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”
― NCAA football sports prognosticators


Wilner says 13th although he says the bottom 3-4 teams could be interchangeable: https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/01/28/ ... na%20State

[Carcassdragger]

I think Wilner is right. Fighting for the best of the worst teams.

2026 might be better.

[AZCatGirl]

Schedule reveal show on tomorrow morning:

[azgreg]

2025 Arizona football schedule
8/30 Hawaii
9/6 Weber State
9/13 Kansas State
9/20 BYE
9/27 at Iowa State
10/4 Oklahoma State
10/11 BYU
10/18 at Houston
10/25 BYE
11/1 at Colorado
11/8 Kansas
11/15 at Cincinnati
11/22 Baylor
11/28 at ASU (Friday)

[Merkin]

Apparently the ASU date, and others are not set in stone.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/football/ ... 6uR9mBPHDQ

The Territorial Cup could be played on Friday or Saturday, a decision yet to be made. Additional date changes could come, such as moving a game to a Thursday or Friday after a bye.

[Fishclamps]

Weird that home and away is almost split outside of those 2 stragglers near the end

[Merkin]

Pretty funny look at the schedule.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/486062074538402

[TheCatInTheHat]

That's pretty funny...very creative. (I particularly like the savate-trained bear.)

[Carcassdragger]

5-7. At best.

[azgreg]

According to Brian Pederson we will have 53 new players in camp this year. That's over half the roster.

[azgreg]

[PHXCATS]

5-7. At best.

Okay....

[azcat49]

It’s reasonable to conclude that we won’t improve much given the losses we have had to transfers and the NFL.

That said, with the portal it’s impossible to know what we have (see ASSU).

[Merkin]

The one bright spot next season will be the offense under Doege. Pretty confident he can get Fifita back into the form he had 2 seasons ago, assuming Brennan stays hands off.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Everybody can, and usually does, assume the worst for football and then be "pleasantly surprised" if they do any better than that. I get it; we've never had the necessary continuity in administrative and financial support to avoid the roller coaster effect, so it makes sense to be skeptical, to say the least. And I was as discouraged and disgusted by last year's product as I was at the end of Mackovic's term.

That said, I think there were three factors that resulted in our success in 2023.

A lot of that was defensive line size, led by the transfer in of Bill Norton, but also some others. If you can stuff the run and pressure the QB without blitzing all the time, it changes everything. Last year, we were back to our traditional undersized/understaffed line getting overwhelmed and worn down. This year, we've got some returnees, but we're also bringing in nine large transfers there, which is unprecedented in my over 50 years of following Arizona football. People understandably scoff at the transfers' schools or their ratings. But you can't teach size or numbers, and it's nice to be in a position to have enough appropriate bodies to pick the fastest and most motivated and rotate them in.

Fifita's performance was another factor. But he needs everything to be right to perform at his best. So we've added four or five transfer OLs, which may be a "meh." But the right system can minimize blocking deficiencies by using space and keeping the defense guessing.

Which gets to the third factor. Fisch is rightly vilified as an opportunist carpetbagger and poacher; but he's a good OC. Last year, we were complete crap in that department. It'll take Doege a while, especially with all the new players. But, if he's the real deal, remember what RichRod was able to do in his first year while also installing a radically different offense.

There are lots of ifs, so it's certainly safer to fold 'em. But even the wildest optimist isn't predicting more than a grand total of 6 or 7 wins, which is at least theoretically reachable if things fall right. In any event, I can't complain about what's been done in the offseason, and it's provided some reason to be hopeful, which beats the alternative.

[Carcassdragger]

Again. Worse roster and better coaching staff. We'll improve

To 5-7.

[PHXCATS]

Again. Worse roster and better coaching staff. We'll improve

To 5-7.

Roster wise you are looking at it like the podcasters with agendas

You can say the starters seem to be not as talented sure. But players 23-85 are significantly better in 2025 than 2024 as of now on paper

[AZCatGirl]

The loss of T-Mac will be big. And Brennan still needs to prove he knows what he's doing. Unlike Tommy his team didn't improve at all last year.

[azgreg]

The loss of T-Mac will be big.

True, but it has the possibility of being a positive as well. Fifita has lost his security blanket, now he must learn to use the receiving squad as a whole.

[TheCatInTheHat]

I agree with both points. The hope is that a qualified OC can utilize an undersized, but experienced and talented QB behind a (hopefully) marginally adequate O-line and implement a system to get the ball to (what looks like) a reasonably talented group of WRs and RBs in space with some rhythm and confidence. That, rather than run our backs into a brick wall, have Fifita run for his life, and force everything to T-Mac. Too bad Doege doesn't have him for one more year in a more balanced approach. My only thought on Brennan is to assume it's the Herm Edwards CEO/PR approach with most things delegated and the staff re-shuffling and personnel changes can address some of the worst deficiencies. But it's not wrong to be very skeptical until better results are shown.

[CatsbyAZ]

2025 Arizona football schedule
8/30 Hawaii
...
11/22 Baylor

Will aim for going to one of these two. The Hawaii game has the advantage of getting a game in before hope is potentially lost later in the season. For the Baylor game, will already be heading into town around that time for Thanksgiving week.

[azgreg]

[AZCatGirl]

Glad the rivalry game is back where it belongs. Never felt right on any other date.

[Merkin]

No more spring football game?

https://arizonawildcats.com/news/2025/3 ... wcase.aspx




TUCSON, Ariz. – Arizona Football presents the Spring Showcase on April 19 at 6 p.m. MST at Arizona Stadium.

The Wildcats are ready to host their fans for the Spring Showcase on Saturday, April 19 at 6 p.m. inside Arizona Stadium. The football program will celebrate the end of spring with a free evening full of family fun events like a kid zone, egg hunt, skill challenges, fan involvement, beer garden, and post-game movie on the field.

The Spring Showcase is free to attend and will be highlighted by the following events.

Spring Showcase
Gates Open at 5 p.m.
Bear Down Takeover
Live music
On-field Kid Zone opens at 5 p.m. MST
Face painting
Inflatables
Balloon artist
Caricature artists
Egg hunt
Yard games
Spring Showcase begins at 6 p.m. MST
Skills challenges
On-field beer garden
Post-game movie on the field selected by a fan vote.

The Pride of Arizona, the spirit squad, and Wilbur and Wilma will attend the Spring Showcase to celebrate the end of camp.

Arizona Athletics Reporter Mackenzie Hamilton will conduct live interviews throughout the Showcase.

Make sure to meet with our marketing and ticket sales representatives at the Spring Showcase, or click here to renew your season tickets for the 2025 campaign.

The Wildcats open the 2025 football season on Aug. 30 against Hawai'i at Arizona Stadium.


Been reading several schools are dropping it.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... me-changes

[TheCatInTheHat]

I used to argue with a guy about injuries from too much hitting in practice. You just hate to hear that a key guy is lost from practicing, but if you "practice like you play", there's more chance in practice than in a game, because of more practice time than game time. His argument was that you can't limit hitting ever, or you'll be a poor tackling team, and he cited Tony Mason's teams as an example of his ideal approach. I argued for a medium ground of some full contact, but tapering off at times to keep people healthy, which was more like Larry Smith. Hard to say what the perfect approach is, but we were certainly a poor tackling team last year. Outside of the big Southern teams, making a big deal out of spring games is a relatively recent phenomenon. I like them, as I think it helps build and sustain fan interest, and the more it resembles a real game the better. You can break up the teams for balance, just like in hoops and baseball, and you can put in rules to take it a little easy just for one "friendly." Tomey didn't care a whit for them, treating them like a practice with fans, and UCLA could never draw flies. So I'm a little concerned that, after making a terrible first impression, the judgment of UCLA/Tomey product Brent Brennan now seems to be to have a kid's easter egg roll replace what had been the growing tradition of Arizona's Spring Game.

[Merkin]

The Pigskin Classic debacle is a perfect example of what happens when you don't have tackling practice.