In just three seasons, head coach Jedd Fisch was able to take the Wildcats from a 1-11 finish in 2021 to a 10-3 season in 2023, including a 38-24 win over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl, which was the best postseason win in 20 years for Arizona.

However, after a chain reaction from the shocking retirement of Alabama head coach Nick Saban, Fisch left the Wildcats for greener pastures in Washington, leaving San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan to fill the vacancy left by Fisch. While Brennan also had success rebuilding the Spartan program, he has never won more than seven games in a season, and much like it was for Alabama and Washington, Arizona lost several key players to the transfer portal due to the coaching changes.

Included in that list of transfers was starting running back Jonah Coleman (Washington), starting CB Ephesians Prysock (Washington), starting DE Isaiah Ward (Washington), and starting DT Bill Norton (Texas). Add the losses of several other critical pieces to the NFL, including first-team All-Pac 12 LT Jordan Morgan, Second-Team All-Pac-12 TE Tanner McLachlan, along with 2023 sack leader LB Taylor Upshaw and starting DT Tyler Manoa, this Arizona team looks quite different already this season.

Offense

Despite having several key players depart with Fisch to Washington, the Wildcats were able to bring back three key contributors on the offensive side: Pac-12 Freshman Offensive Player of the Year QB Noah Fifita, Second-Team All-Pac-12 WR Tetairoa McMillan, and Second-Team All-Pac-12 LG Wendell Moe.

Fifita has taken a bit of a step back so far this season, most likely due to the losses of Morgan and Raymond Pulido on the offensive line. Particularly against Kansas State, he was under constant duress. Fifita built his game last season as a high efficiency pocket passer, and he rarely runs the ball. He completed 72.4% of his passes in 2023, and only had 6 interceptions in 333 pass attempts. However, this season, he has seen his completion percentage drop to 63.6% and he has already had 3 passes picked off in just 99 passing attempts.

His favorite target, McMillan, has continued to be outstanding this season. He already has 23 catches for 453 yards and 4 TDs, including a sizzling season debut of 304 yards receiving against New Mexico. Last year, he had 90 catches for 1,402 yards and 10 TDs, including 8 catches for 116 yards and a TD against Utah. However, outside of McMillan, not a single receiver has reached 100 yards yet this season.

In other words, it’s been McMillan or nothing for Arizona in the passing game.

To fill the void left behind from Coleman’s departure at running back, the Wildcats added Quali Conley from San Jose State, who averaged 6.4 yards per carry, had 842 yards rushing, and 9 touchdowns. Also, a solid receiver, Conley hauled in 27 passes for 269 yards, making his total numbers close to the same numbers as Coleman, however, against Mountain West Conference competition. Conley looked great against New Mexico and FCS Northern Arizona, rushing for a combined 202 yards and 3 touchdowns in those games, but when he faced Big 12 competition in week 3, he was held to just 48 yards on 14 carries.

Arizona also brought in another Mountain West top running back, New Mexico’s Jacory Croskey-Merritt, who had 1,190 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns for the Lobos last season. Unfortunately, after exploding for 106 yards on just 13 carries in his Wildcat debut to start the season against his former team, he has been held out since that game due to eligibility issues. That has been a big blow to the Arizona rushing attack, as they were counting on a big year from the senior.

On the offensive line, Arizona now has Moe, redshirt freshman LT Rhino Tapa'atouati, three-year starting C Josh Baker, two-year starting RT Jonah Savaiinaea, and San Jose State transfer Ryan Stewart at RG.

Defense

The Wildcats losses to the portal and NFL especially hit the defense, but they were able to keep First-Team All-Pac-12 LB Jacob Manu, who led the team with 105 tackles last season, including 6.5 for sacks. They also received great news when Second-Team All-Pac-12 CB Tacario Davis withdrew his name from the transfer portal, providing a much-needed boost to the secondary.

As a unit, the defensive line took the biggest hit from last season, and so far, it has been the main weakness for this Arizona defense. Brennan was able to have one of his best defenders from San Jose State follow him to Arizona, DE Tre Smith. He led the Spartans with 6.5 sacks in 2023, and he has already proven to be a great addition this year, logging 12 tackles and a sack so far in the first three games of the season.

However, the rest of the defensive line is made up of first-year starters and USC transfer Stanley Ta'ufo'ou, and through three games they are #97 in the nation in rush yards allowed per game (173). They’ve also struggled to contain opposing quarterbacks, allowing New Mexico QB Devon Dampier to run for a career high 130 yards and Kansas State’s Avery Johnson to run for a career high 110 yards.

Some of that can also be blamed on the linebackers, who are also dealing with some turnover. Manu has done well, as well as Treydan Stukes, but Sophomore Taye Brown has been struggling in his first year as a starter.

Summary

As good as Fifita and McMillan might be, the loss of two key offensive linemen and other offensive weapons has caused all kinds of chaos to this offense. The running game isn’t anywhere near where it was last season with Coleman, which puts even more pressure on Fifita.

But the real story with Arizona this season has been the drop off in defense. The massive turnover of players has caused the defense to go from one of the best of the Pac 12 in 2023 to the bottom of the Big 12 in 2024. Despite playing a soft schedule over their first three games, they are worse in nearly every defensive statistical category this season. They’ve allowed 27 points per game (21 in 2023), they are allowing 173 rush yards per game compared to 118 in 2023, and they are #113 nationally in third down defense, allowing opposing teams to convert 45% of the time.

Despite being able to keep a few pieces from last year’s surprise team, this year’s version of Arizona is much different from the one that beat Utah by 24 points last season. A revenge game is on the horizon.