Monday was the first day of classes at the University of Arizona, which led to a buzz around campus that hadn’t been felt in months. Brent Brennan is hoping that energy carries throughout the week and into the weekend for the season opener against Hawaii.
“Saturday night is our first opportunity to own the night, which we’ve been talking about all off season,” he said, referring to the UA’s marketing campaign to embrace night kickoffs. “That starts when we get to the start of Wildcat Walk. So for
all of our students and fans and everybody, let’s show up there at five o’clock and let’s make that thing rocking. Let’s make that an incredible atmosphere, because it’s a great opportunity for our guys to engage with the fans. It’s great opportunity for our fans to be close to the players. And to be honest with you, I think it gets them fired up for the game.”
This will be Brennan’s 16th time facing Hawaii. He went 4-3 against the Rainbow Warriors as head coach at San Jose State, winning the last four meetings, and also played them twice while an assistant at Oregon State and six times as a San Jose assistant.
“We really have a tremendous amount of respect for Hawaii football, the state of Hawaii,” he said. “Timmy Chang I’ve known him forever. I’ve known him since he was, I think, a junior in high school. I was a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii, and he was such a good player, and I followed his coaching career. We are friends. We stay close, we talk about stuff from time to time, and I was really, really impressed with their win last weekend over Stanford.”
Here’s what Brennan had to say about the week ahead, the Wildcats’ first opponent and other topics from his first weekly press conference:
On his impressions of Hawaii from its opening game: “I think the biggest thing for me was how they responded. Because I don’t know if you guys all saw the game, but the start of that game was not great for them. And I thought they responded incredibly, and then found a way to win it. In my opinion, and this has been something that I’m talking about here at Arizona Stadium, that home crowd for Hawaii, that thing made a difference there. I played in that stadium lots of times, and I played in it full and I played in it empty, and when that stadium is full, that made a difference for Stanford and for Hawaii late in that game. And that’s exactly what we need our fans here at the UofA to do for us, is to make this the hardest home field advantage in the Big 12.”
On Hawaii QB Micah Alejaho: “He’s tough. I give him all kinds of credit. He took some shots, but the kid kept getting up, kept coming back, kept playing. He made plays when he had to. He made throws when he had to. He looks like an accurate passer, but also has some good ability to use his legs, and so he’s a big challenge. “
On having the season opener the same week as the start of classes: “I think everybody gets hit with this. Some schools, quarter schools, it doesn’t happen until the end of September, but it always shakes up everything. The good news is that most people kind of go through it around the same time, if you’re a semester school. The biggest difference is just that you know how committed we are to our academic process, like that’s the reason these young men are here, is to graduate and go school and get an education and build give themselves a chance to build a life beyond the game of football. And so with that comes academic responsibility. And that’s the difference that they haven’t had the last month. It’s been all focused 100 percent on football. Now that has to get divided a little bit. And for our young men, it’s really important that they have a good plan and that we help them structure their day so that they can accomplish all the things in the daily schedule they need to.”
On having so many transfers listed as potential starters: “I think that speaks to where we’re at in college football right now. I don’t think that’s going to be unique at the University of Arizona, where somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of your starters are all new players. And I would also guess that at other places that might look like 80 to 100 percent, every program is different. That’s what we needed to do to feel like it would give us a chance to field the best football team we could field this season. And so, yeah, the off season was critical. The portal was critical.”
On ignoring the outside noise: “We talk all the time here about what you can control, and that is where we’re trying to live. And for our players, our coaches, our families. What do we control? And what we control is how we carry ourselves day to day. How focused are we on the process that gives us a chance to get the opportunities we want? And that sounds like coachspeak, but it’s really not. Listen to anyone talk, listen to Patrick Mahomes talk. Listen to any great athlete, great team. Everyone is diving so hard into their process, because at this time in the world, the outside noise has never been louder. And so how do we help our players stay out of that and focus on what you’re trying to do? And what do we control? And for us, it’s really simple. I talk about it all the time. What do you know, how hard do you play? What’s your body language? What’s your attitude? Are you a good teammate? Really simple. They have 100 percent control of all those things. And if we are outstanding at those things, we’ll like the way we play football.”
On the mock game last weekend: “The mock game was a great opportunity for us to get into some situational football, because we had a Big 12 officiating crew here, so we were able to do everything from some 2-minute situations, substitutions. One of the challenging things about football teams is just the rosters are bigger. And the game of football, there’s so many stop and start moments, and so many moving pieces at the same time. So, giving ourselves a chance to do that with a Big 12 officiating crew, being able to work the mechanics of going through halftime. We wanted it to feel exactly like game day. With 61 new players, like there’s a lot of guys that have never come out of the tunnel in Arizona Stadium on a game day. They don’t know what that feels like, they don’t know what that process is. So giving everybody a chance for a, for lack of a better word, dress rehearsal of what this Saturday is going to be when we play Hawaii.”
On Dick Tomey’s connection to both Arizona and Hawaii: “Coach Tomey was such a special guy at both places. And so I think the fact that we have our Pacific Islander heritage game here, I think that’s really special, just considering the connection both teams have through Coach Tomey. Pver the years, we’ve gotten a lot of players from the state of Hawaii that have been really, really impactful here at the U of A. I have as incredible amount of respect for Timmy and the program he’s building, And I’ve been watching that, because we played them every year when we were at San Jose, so I’ve been watching this process. And so I love the fact that we’re getting this opportunity to bring them over here.”
On Ka’ena Decambra’s quick study as a center and offensive leader: “I think for KD, the thing that makes him special is that he is tough and he knows what to do. And he’s not afraid to say something when we’re in the middle of practice, and it’s not going well for the offense or whatever. He’s not afraid to be vocal and to bring those guys together and kind of rally and say, hey, let’s get back in track. And I think he’s been able to do that in a short amount of time, and which has been impressive.
On Michael Wooten’s improvement since moving to guard: “I think one of the benefits, and we’ve talked about it before, is that when you do have people go through some sort of injury or some sort of unavailability, it gives a chance for someone else to play. It gives a chance for someone else to show you what they can do. And I think we found that Michael does a really nice job inside there, and then we’re excited about what he’s going to be as a guard.”
On Michael Salgado-Medina listed as starter at punter and kicker: “That was not the plan going into the season, but that’s how it played out in training camp. So everything that we do is decided on the field, and that’s how it played out in training camp. So credit to Michael. Now, he better kick some ass on Saturday night or someone else will get a chance, because that’s the way this game goes. But credit to him, he did a really nice job in camp, and so did the other guys. Isaac (Lovison) did a nice job on the ball, he’s coming along. And then also Tyler (Prasuhn) did a nice job with his place picking. So I think the good news is, is that we do have competition there, which is going to keep the pressure on those guys continue to achieve and continue to compete.”
On the relationship between Decambra and QB Noah Fifita: “The quarterback center relationship is unique, maybe in all of sport, and the amount of time that they have to spend together, the amount of communication that is required to for them to both effectively operate their responsibilities in the scheme, they have to spend time together. And so seeing them go through this offseason, knowing like what they put in, in the times when the coaches weren’t here with PRPs, and all the time and effort they put in together, I think that’s why you see them have such good connection. They also socially are comfortable hanging out together, which I think matters. I think teams that hang out together are connected teams, and that’s a big part of how Noah and KD kind of interact. And they serve good at bringing the team together. And I think as you see them continue to progress through the year, it’s going to be a lot of fun, because they both have to direct traffic, so to speak. And they’re the two loudest voices on the offense, and so they have to be in lockstep with what they’re doing.”
On what he’s told his players about the new ‘fake injury’ penalty: “It’s a go down situation. If you’re really injured, like, get on the ground. If you can make it off the field then man up and make it off the field. Either way, we’re fine with it, but you can’t do the in between. Oh, I’m hurt, but, like, I’m going to make it off the field, and now I get to the numbers, and I kind of fall. So then you have situation where you have a substitution penalty, or you’re taking time out, or some of the stuff you don’t want to be in the situation for. That was a little bit of a conversation with the officials on Saturday night in the mock game.”
On his favorite memory of playing Hawaii: “I can tell you my worst one, is that better? It’s probably more fun. So we’re in the middle of trying to rebuild San Jose, and we’re in it. We’re really climbing out of the hole. This is my lowest moment at San Jose (in 2018), and we are playing Hawaii, and they’re good. And so they’re at our place, and we go to five overtimes, but in the third overtime, our place kicker, who is a fantastic player, misses a game-winning field goal from the 3. It’s a PAT. And, like everyone thinks he hit it, our fans rush the field, like it was a disaster. Literally after, by myself in the locker room, crying, because I was like, we were there. And it came down to that one thing, and then two overtimes later they beat us, like I was wiped out. It was like the lowest moment ever for me coaching ball, was that moment. After that, we got built and those games went better.”
