Arizona Wildcats football season preview: An in-depth look at the Cats’ dramatic makeover on the eve of the 2022 campaign.
If Jedd Fisch’s multiyear, multistep mission at Arizona could be summed up in six words, it would be those six. The second-year Wildcats coach desperately wants to pack Arizona Stadium. He knows he must produce a consistent winner to make that happen.
Fisch and his staff acquired all that talent, which also features a portal class ranked 27th nationally by 247Sports.com, despite a 1-11 record in Year 1. Fisch masterfully sold hope and opportunity. He also rebranded last season as Year 0 and has dubbed this one — with all its newness, from the remade roster to the remodeled locker room to the resplendent turf at Arizona Stadium — “the first year of the rebuild.
One of the biggest hurdles Fisch faced early on was drumming up enthusiasm — among prospective players and wary fans— for a moribund program. The first thing he did was go to work — hiring coaches, reaching out to players, connecting with alumni, creating a buzz on social media. “I’m going to steal my colleague and partner Ted Robinson’s line. He always says, ‘When a team loses hope, that’s when change needs to be made.’ That was the biggest challenge,” Roth said.
The transfer portal provided the best opportunity to acquire players. The staff took a two-pronged approach: address needs and bring local kids back home. The three battled deep into August. Cruz won the job, played well in the opener, then faltered. Both he and McCloud eventually suffered season-ending injuries. No one gave Fisch confidence that he could stand pat at the position.
Selling a bold but attainable vision of the future — and placing particular emphasis on the idea of helping make the change happen — Fisch and the staff attacked recruiting. They sought, in the simplest of terms, an elite mix of tangibles and intangibles. “Go find winners,” Fisch said. “Go find guys that have celebrated a lot of victories in locker-room postgames so they know what it feels like to work to get to that point.”
Everyone wanted UTEP receiver Jacob Cowing after he entered the transfer portal. The Wildcats got him. But WSU was undergoing staff changes. On Dec. 8, the Cougars hired Eric Morris as their offensive coordinator. Morris had been the head coach at Incarnate Word. The next day, Incarnate Word’s breakout quarterback, Cameron Ward, entered the transfer portal. About a month later, he signed with Washington State.
Arizona’s additional signees back in February 2021 included walk-on Ammon Allen, an athletic safety from Gilbert who had multiple scholarship offers but none from a Power Five school. Allen earned a scholarship this summer and has developed into a rotation player at linebacker.
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