Arizona Wildcats spring game shows 'football matters here in Tucson again'

Water balloons will be flung, water guns will likely be used, a live DJ will puzzle some party tracks and the Gronkowski brothers are in town. What happens afterwards at Gentle Ben’s or Dirtbag’s is dealer’s choice.

Oh, and the Arizona Wildcats are hosting their annual spring game amid all of this at Arizona Stadium Saturday afternoon to put a final stamp on the program’s month-long spring practice schedule.

Following an offseason that included an influx of defensive players to fill the void left behind players graduating and entering the transfer portal, Arizona paired its bolstered defense with an offense that was the sixth-best passing unit in college football in 2022 — and returns its entire core minus star receiver Dorian Singer, who was one of three Wildcats to transfer to USC.

Last spring game, Arizona rolled out a new-look offense with an abundance of high-level transfers, including quarterback Jayden de Laura, wide receiver Jacob Cowing and tight end Tanner McLachlan. The hope was their stop in Tucson would be their last at the college ranks. This spring, Arizona’s defense, led by standout underclassmen and transfers, will gauge their progress in a four-quarter, 12-minute (running clock) game against the UA’s experienced offense.

“It was a good spring,” Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch said. “Guys stayed healthy, it looked like we had almost everybody back for these last couple practices, so that’s good. I would expect most guys being able to compete.”

Fisch said Arizona’s goal on Saturday “is we go out and there and compete really hard on every play regardless of who is playing in what rep. Whether it’s guys who haven’t had a lot of reps, guys that have, guys that are well-known starters, guys who are competing for a backup job, I’d like to see how good we can be as a football team, and how healthy we can stay in those 48 minutes.”

In the last month, “how much they’ve grown as a team is really what impresses me the most,” Fisch said.

“I think we have a lot of good players that need to become great, but they’re trying to improve every day,” he said.

Despite the overhaul of defensive players, including five from the transfer portal, the five-week spring practice period allowed Arizona’s staff to evaluate depth. After Saturday, the Wildcats enter the summer with “eyes wide open” and keep tabs on the transfer portal to “see what is available, see what we need, see if we can bring in a couple guys to help out our football team,” according to Fisch.

“If we can find a couple that can, we’ll bring them in; if we can’t, we won’t,” Fisch said. “But we’re only going to try and bring in guys that can really help us at this point in time, because I like the commitment that the team we have here has made. ... We’re going to treat it for the 2023 season and see what we could do there, if we’re going to dive into the portal.”

Besides roster construction, Arizona’s spring game has other essential purposes: fan engagement, displaying the sizzle of UA football for recruits on visits and, last but certainly not least, former players returning for alumni weekend.

“There hasn’t been a football game since Nov. 26, so we ended on a high note last season. This is this season. The amount of people we can get to celebrate our program, celebrate our team — we want to get as many students out so they can see what our team looks like,” Fisch said. “We want to get the fans out, so they can see what the kids look like and to see how determined they’ve been to get better.”

Arizona defensive back Treydan Stukes said the UA football program is “night and day” different from previous years and the spring game has “gotten better every year since Coach Fisch has gotten here.”

“Everybody in Tucson can feel it. Coach Fisch has just come and really turned this program around,” Stukes said. “He’s really come in and done a lot for the city.”

The UA is expecting around 280 former players in Tucson on Saturday for the spring game. Former Arizona tight end Rob Gronkowski and fullback Chris Gronkowski will serve as honorary head coaches, with arguably the UA’s two best cornerbacks in Antoine Cason and Chris McAlister as honorary defensive coordinators. Rob Gronkowski — arguably the most recognizable figure to ever play at Arizona — will return to Tucson for the third time since Fisch was hired; “Gronk” was an honorary captain for the inaugural spring game of the Fisch era in ‘21, and made his first appearance at the UA for the first time in a decade.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Arizona senior defensive analyst Duane Akina, who previously coached at the UA for 14 years under the late Dick Tomey, is eager to see his former players — most with wives and kids now — from the winningest era of Arizona football history.

“I’m excited,” Akina said. “It sounds like there’s going to be a lot of ex-players that I’ve spilled blood with. I look up in the stadium, and there are 24 names up on the stadium that I’ve spilled blood with while I was here.

“It’s going to be exciting seeing all of those guys. I’ll be interested in hearing some of the stories. I’m sure the fish got bigger over the years, you know what I’m saying? It’s going to be fun sharing some of those old stories.”

Alumni weekend is another form of appreciation and gratitude for the foundation past players have built.

“We represent their block ‘A’, we represent everything they did for this program, we want to show them that they should be proud to be an alum,” Fisch said.

Former Wildcat greats back at their old stomping grounds, potentially future Cats roaming the sidelines, and a McKale Center-sized crowd at Arizona Stadium on Saturday is the result of Fisch’s emphasis on the production for the spring game; respecting the past, working on the current, and selling the future.

“I think he does a good job of celebrating this program, celebrating the University of Arizona, celebrating the history and tradition of the football program,” Arizona quarterbacks coach Jimmie Dougherty said of Fisch. “Bringing past players back to coach in the game and do different fun things like that, but at the core of it, you’re still going out and playing a football game. … It’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to it. But again, it’s a credit to Fisch and what he’s organized for the program.”

Said Fisch: “I think people see that football matters here in Tucson again.

“I think people realize that football is the driving force, and when you can get it going and get the momentum and energy behind football, that benefits the entire athletic program. … That makes a huge difference.”

Extra points: Gates for the spring game at Arizona Stadium will open one hour before kickoff at 2:30 p.m.

Per the UA, nearly 20,000 spots have been secured for the spring game. The spring game is open to the public. A pregame “fan fest” and tailgate will take place on Bear Down Field on the north side of the stadium before the spring game.

The Wildcats are expecting about 40-50 recruits visiting this weekend.

Fisch said Arizona linebacker and Oregon transfer Justin Flowe, who is expected to start alongside “Will” linebacker Jacob Manu on Saturday, “just keeps getting better and better and better, and more involved in our defense, more involved as a leader, and a guy who is excited about playing football.”

Added Fisch: “If we can continue to build off of that, we’ll have a chance at a really good linebacker. Now he’s going to have to continue to learn the system, grow in the system and do things we ask him to do. If he does that, Justin is going to have a really good career for us.”