The Arizona football program is on a new journey in 2024. The team is now competing in the Big 12 conference, after years in the Pac-12. The Wildcats are considered one of the best teams in their new league. Armed with a preseason no. 21 ranking from the Associated Press college football poll, the Wildcats have high expectations.
The squad also has a new coach in Brent Brennan. Brennan comes to Tucson after spending the last several years leading San Jose State. While Arizona is certainly a strong team, the club has a fatal flaw that will doom their College Football Playoff hopes.
Too much change at once for Arizona football
Arizona's fatal flaw is that the program is going through too much turbulence at once to compete for a CFP spot this season. The team is in a new conference, and also implementing a new head coach's system. That won't immediately lead to loads of victories, although that is certainly likely in the years to come.
That doesn't mean the Wildcats won't have a good 2024 season. Arizona football is armed with one of the better quarterbacks in the league, in Noah Fifita. Fifita threw for 2,869 yards in 2023, with 25 touchdowns. He is undoubtedly the heart and soul of this year's team.
A lot is on Fifita's shoulders, as he has to learn a new system and how to attack new defenses. The Wildcats are playing seven conference games this season against new opponents. This includes road contests at Kansas State, BYU, UCF, and TCU. Arizona hosts West Virginia, Texas Tech and Houston.
For Arizona to make it to the CFP, the team would have to win essentially almost all of these games. That is likely not going to happen in the rough and tumble of a difficult conference season. Arizona also has to travel across two time zones to get to Orlando to play a tough UCF team. The wear and tear of travel is a lot to get used to.
Arizona is joining the league with three other former Pac-12 schools. These schools are Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. The Wildcats also play each of these teams, to round out their conference schedule.
Arizona football's Brent Brennan, like his players, is going to have to get used to all this new change. Brennan didn't post the best record at San Jose State. The coach has a 34-48 overall record as a coach.
The record is a bit misleading, in Brennan's defense. The coach inherited a program in San Jose that wasn't doing so well before he got there. In his first two seasons, he went just 3-22. After those disastrous campaigns, Brennan found his footing. He won five games in year three, and kept the wins coming. Brennan had three seven win seasons in his last four years at the school. It clearly took time though for him to build the program he wanted. That will be the case at Arizona as well.
Arizona football's tough road schedule
Arizona football starts its season on August 31, in a non conference game against New Mexico. The Wildcats also play Northern Arizona in non conference action, before beginning the Big 12 schedule. Arizona has two road games in the league against preseason ranked teams. Those are also in back-to-back September games, against Kansas State and Utah.
A loss to both of those teams will certainly dash the program's hopes for a CFP appearance. A win in both contests will improve their chances tremendously. A split would not hurt their CFP hopes that badly, but would definitely make things much more difficult.
The Wildcats finished the 2023 season with a 10-3 record, finishing near the top of the Pac-12. Time will tell if Arizona can get 10 wins again, in its inaugural Big 12 season.
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