Arizona football won’t be sneaking up on anyone this fall

Arizona fought harder and made more plays to come out with an upset win over the Bearcats and beat another team that on paper should’ve won. A similar result came two weeks later in Tempe when the Territorial Cup game took place.

Tempe has not been a forgiving place for the Wildcats historically so the odds were already stacked against them. Now add in the fact that ASU was riding a three game winning streak with its backup quarterback and it did not look good for Arizona.

However, Arizona was riding a four game winning streak. Not only did Arizona beat the Sun Devils, it dominated the game to take back the Territorial Cup. Time and time again the Wildcats proved the doubters wrong last season.

This season brings a greater challenge. Not only does Arizona want to repeat the success of last season, it now has to do it without the element of surprise and higher expectations. The Wildcats won’t be sneaking up on any of its opponents and will get each team’s best shot.

The good news is that Arizona brings back a Heisman caliber quarterback in senior Noah Fifita. It also retained almost all of its coaching staff, so the continuity and familiarity of how it wants to attack will be there.

When looking at last year’s schedule, the Wildcats were fortunate enough to have seven of its 12 games within the state of Arizona. Six home games and a bus ride to Tempe.

This season’s schedule also gave Arizona that same good fortune. The hitch is that the competition has gotten tougher.

Both BYU and Texas Tech, the two Big 12 championship game teams, will bring the Wildcats into their respective towns. Arizona will also have to go on the road to take on West Virginia and former Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, who will no doubt have his Mountaineers ready to go for that game.

Then there are the teams that will be visiting Casino Del Sol Stadium.

Cincinnati will be looking for revenge from last season. Teams like TCU and Utah hope to be in the conference championship race when they visit in late November, and of course ASU will always bring its best effort as it aims to take the Territorial Cup back to Tempe.

A higher and tougher mountain awaits the Wildcats and it will certainly be a battle to get back to nine wins. Once again, the coaches and the players have no choice but to face it head on. There’s no other way that Gonzales would want it.

“Everybody last year had Arizona written down as a W preseason, and now that means making team 123 as good or better than 122 is gonna be a heck of a lot harder than it was last year, because nobody thought we were gonna be worth anything,” said Gonzales.

The chance for team 123 to be the best in program history starts September 5 against NAU. It will be Native American Heritage night and Arizona will look for its fifth straight season opener win.