The Arizona Wildcats look to build on their 9-4 record from a season ago. Their coaching staff is a year wiser, as the fresh-faced coordinator’s rookie campaign was successful under 3rd year head coach Brent Brennan. Quarterback Noah Fifita returns for his senior season and will look to build on his whopping 73 career touchdown passes. The Wildcats did lose top running back Ismail Mahdi to the NFL draft, but the door is open for a return as he went undrafted. Kedrick Rescano and Quincy Craig are two workhorses that will look to carry the load in the backfield this year. Arizona is excited about transfer Cole Rusk at the tight end position and expects Chris Hunter and Tre Spivey to have big years. The season hangs on the arm of Fifita, as nobody else in the quarterback room has taken a snap at this level.

The Wildcats return just 3 of their top 11 tacklers from a season ago and will lean heavily on the ability of Taye Brown now that Dalton Johnson has departed for the NFL. Nebraska transfer Malcolm Hartzog will look to lead a secondary that has a lot of turnover from a season ago.

Arizona has a lot of question marks at special teams, as its kicker from a year ago only connected on 61% of his attempts, the lowest in the BIG 12, but expected from a converted punter. The Wildcats will be breaking in a new punter and new return men.