When teams go through a miracle win, like Arizona did against TCU, it may be hard to refocus on the following week’s opponent. Add on having FOX’s “Big Noon Kickoff” morning show going live from campus and Wildcats football alum Rob Gronkowski back in town, it may become distractions.
However, for Brent Brennan’s team, it is taking all the recognition and attention in stride.
“I think it’s awesome because it’s just a great opportunity for us to show
off how amazing the University of Arizona is. Our team, our program, the university, our students. It’s such a great thing to have one of these shows come on campus and broadcast from campus, and so I’m optimistic that the Zona Zoo and our students and everybody in the Greek system starts early and gets ready to go and shows up for that moment.”
When it comes to Gronkowski specifically, he sees it as another opportunity for the program’s most famous ambassador to continue pushing Arizona into the national spotlight.
“Gronk’s awesome,” said Brennan. “I really have a ton of respect for him. Just who he is and how he carries himself. He’s been very supportive of me and the U of A since I’ve been here. It’s awesome to get him back again. He’s got such a great way about him. He is one of those people that is authentically himself always, and I think that’s why he’s so endearing to everybody. He really is who you think he’s going to be. A great dude with great energy, and he loves the U of A.”
Back in the spotlight?
With that being said, he does not want the attention to take away from any of the game preparation for the Utah game. He wants his team focused on what it is going to take to stifle the Utes, because up to this point no team has figured out how to walk away with a win.
“I think there’s a process to our preparation,” he said. “There’s a process to the game day. There’s a process to playing good football, and that’s where we have to live. That’s where our team is at our best. That’s the place that’s our focus here. That’s how we operate best within our program.”
Even for fifth year senior Tre Smith, who is coming off his best game of the season with a sack and blocked field goal, it all comes down to who has better attention to detail. If Smith, along with the rest of the Wildcats, can tune in on the details, Arizona will have a shot to pull off the upset.
“I’m gonna be honest, you gotta live in the present because if you make one game bigger than another, then you’re not gonna be yourself and perform how you should,” said Smith. “So, I would say for us, it’s like another day, working on improving the details constantly because that’s never ending. The tedious, monotonous little details. I would say that’s how we go about that.”
Arizona has its work cut for itself. Utah will be coming in as one of the highest ranked opponents the Wildcats will take on inside Casino Del Sol Stadium in recent memory.
Respecting all, fearing none
Aside from Utah being a proven challenge, the Wildcats are facing one of the biggest problems that they have not had an answer to all season. A mobile quarterback.
Devon Dampier has already seen the Wildcats, but that was before he was a Ute. In Brennan’s Arizona opener, he lit the Wildcats’ defense up going 24-42 for 260 yards, three touchdowns, 130 rushing yards, and two rushing touchdowns.
Even though Dampier and New Mexico lost that game, it caught Arizona’s that night and players like Smith know just how dangerous Dampier is. The goal is to keep the Wildcats on the winning side against Dampier, but also against Utah as Arizona has won the last two matchups.
“Obviously, I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s nice,’ and he’s been continuing to do his thing,” said Smith on going against Dampier in 2024. “So, respect all, fear none. He’s pretty versatile, really solid at extending plays. I think they worked well as a team, but at the end of the day, we’re just going to focus on what we have to do because it’s a faceless opponent.”
That respect also applies to the extracurriculars going on around the game. While having a national morning show going live from the UA is always nice, that’s not something that is going to help Arizona earn the win.
It’s about what happens on the practice field and in the locker room. Smith continues to preach to his teammates that they need to focus on what’s important.
“What I mean by emphasizing what’s important, with all due respect, none of that is what got us in this room here,” said Smith. “What has gotten us in this position is us sticking together as players, as a staff, and putting in work.”
Putting in the work does not just apply to the defense. It was evident against TCU that the special teams unit has been putting in the work. Game changing plays came courtesy of special teams.
Special teams, special plays, special players
It’s not just the players putting in the work, but the coaches. Special teams coordinator Craig Naivar walked into the media availability Tuesday wearing a blue-collar style shirt with his name and the word “maintenance” on it.
Wearing the shirt reminds his players that it is a work day. It’s not time for practice but time to put in work.
“It’s a work day, just a reminder that we got to put in the work,” said Naivar. “It’s a blue collar program. It’s a blue collar city. It’s time to work. So every Tuesday, I wear it to practice every Tuesday and it starts the physical work week. It just sets a tone that says, ‘Hey, we’re here to work today.’”
Special teams truly describes how the unit played on Friday against TCU. The word special also applies to the pooch kick and recovery executed by Ian French and Zuri Watson.
“We determined that with the timeouts left, the defensive ability to stop them and get the ball back, that we wanted the field position piece of that and then just based on what transpired, what unit they put out there to just go determine where that kick went and take the opportunity to go get it,” said Naivar. “We had three timeouts to get a stop. The defense is going to get a stop, and we can get the ball back. So the opportunity was there to put ourselves in a better situation.”
The special plays that happened against the Horned Frogs didn’t come down to pure luck but execution from the players. It took execution from special players like French who despite being a true freshman came through when the Wildcats needed him to.
“The placement of the kick was tremendous,” said Naivar. “Ian French is a true freshman. For a young man who is a freshman in that stressful situation to execute, that’s a tremendous job of him, and a great effort of our guys to go down there and get after the football. It’s execution, we talk about it all the time with the redline effort, execution. Our kids play really, really hard. They play for each other, and they play for our head coach.”
