Anonymous Big 12 coach reveals best-case scenario for Arizona in 2025

Arizona has, over two seasons, gone from one of their best records in program history to a coaching change, a lot of roster turnover, and less than half the wins in the year after. Now, unless something changes, the Wildcats could have similar struggles in 2025.

The recent season preview from Athlon Sports included anonymous quotes from coaches, with it featuring ones from those in the Big 12. The ones regarding Arizona were pessimistic, although realizing the work it has taken for Brent Brennan to replace Jedd Fisch as head coach.

“It looks like they’re on the decline,” one said. “It was a tough ask for anyone to keep that level of success Jedd (Fisch) built at the end, but they’ve lost a ton of guys over the last two seasons.”

After going 10-3 in 2023 under Fisch, Arizona went 4-8 in 2024, including 2-7 against the Big 12, in their debut both in the league and under Brennan. That’s with each of their units finishing out the Top-100 nationally, and among the worst ones in the conference, in putting up 21.8 points and 354.5 yards per game on offense and allowing 31.8 points and 413 yards a game on defense.

With that, the Wildcats have seen several changes on the roster on top of the staff. They’ve specifically seen 115 transactions, 51 additions to 64 subtractions, over the past two cycles in the NCAA Transfer Portal. That’s not to mention their best player being a top-ten draft pick. They’ve then also not only changed head coaches but are now on their third offensive coordinator in as many seasons with Seth Doege replacing Dino Babers after Babers replaced Brennan Carroll with him following Fisch. Add it all up and there’s little to nothing still there from that season they had back in ’23.

“(Tetairoa McMillan) is gone to the NFL, and (Noah) Fifita has a lot of question marks around him,” one said. “I think the success of this staff will depend on how fast they can find a quarterback who can run this new system.”

“They’re still portaling in a ton of new faces,” another added. “I don’t think they really have their identity or culture in place yet.”

Arizona is looking for improvement, especially offensively, in year two under Brennan. The Wildcats could be more competitive with it or have a lot of the same problems without it this fall.

“Best-case scenario here is that the new offensive system clicks right away, and they can steal a few games,” one coach said.