Pack 'em in: Arizona has sold more than 50K seats for Saturday's game vs. Oregon

Go figure, a man named Fisch wants fans attending Arizona’s showdown with the 12th-ranked Oregon Ducks to pack in like sardines.

Saturday is expected to be cozier than it has been over the last few years, because Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch said during his pre-Oregon news conference on Thursday that the Wildcats have sold more than 50,000 tickets for Saturday night’s game; Arizona Stadium’s capacity is is 50,600.

The UA has averaged roughly 1,300 tickets sold per day since Monday, Fisch said.

“We’re excited and we hope our students come in the masses. I want to make that stadium like a bunch of sardines,” Fisch said. “Let’s see how many we can squeeze in.”

A Saturday sellout would be Arizona’s first since its primetime loss to UCLA in 2015, the most recent time the UA hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay.” It’s also the first time Arizona Stadium has sold more than 50,000 tickets for a football game since Arizona’s Territorial Cup loss to Arizona State in 2018.

“As we’re building the program, and as we’re trying to get to where we want to be one day, we need these type of moments — moments where our stadium is full for a great game and then know our next game is against USC,” Fisch said. “Can they continue to have that mentality and keep supporting us as we’re building, knowing there’s ebbs and flows of everything?

“The energy, the excitement of the program is in a good place. Hopefully, that will continue in recruiting. Hopefully, we’ll get good players that want to play here, stay here, improve here and then hopefully as the years — games, weeks, whatever that might be — continue, we’ll make sellouts a commonplace.”

On-campus shooting ‘a very difficult situation’

Fisch addressed Wednesday’s on-campus killing of Thomas Meixner, head of the UA’s Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences Department.

The shooting happened just after 2 p.m. at the John W. Harshbarger Building near East Second Street and North Mountain Avenue, less than a mile away from Arizona Stadium. The shooting suspect,46-year-old Murad Dervish, who was arrested near Gila Bend a few hours after the incident.

Meixner, an Arizona alumnus, received a doctorate in hydrology and water resources from the UA in 1999. He became head of the department in 2019.

“Our thoughts are with Dr. Meixner, his family, his friends, his colleagues, his students during this time. It’s a horrific incident,” Fisch said. “Compassion is at the forefront of everything we do here in football and athletics, and we certainly understand and grieve with the family, and we encourage the Wildcat community to care for themselves and one another. … Very tough time. Very difficult situation obviously and our thoughts and prayers are with the professor’s family.”

Fisch addressed the “tragic incident that occurred on our campus” during Arizona’s team meeting on Thursday, and encouraged his players to seek mental health counseling if need be.

“If any of our players have any needs at all to seek any mental health counselors, we have — in my opinion — three of the best that work with our players on a continuous basis,” he said.

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Arizona will hold a moment of silence before kickoff on Saturday.

Burnett ‘is going to grow up fast’ in new role

When Fisch was asked over a week ago about the lack of star freshman tight end Keyan Burnett’s playing time, Fisch said, “The beautiful thing you have in college football is time, and you don’t have to make those decisions immediately and you just let the best guys play and let the next group work really hard to find a way to get on the field.”

Of course, things change.

At that time, Alex Lines was a co-starter at tight end alongside breakout redshirt junior Tanner McLachlan. Lines left the program last week just before Arizona’s win over Colorado for undisclosed reasons. Lines had one catch for eight yards this season; McLachlan has 17 catches for 216 yards and a touchdown.

Lines’ departure has opened up the window for Burnett, a 6-foot-6-inch, 235-pounder who is Arizona’s highest-rated tight end recruit since Rob Gronkowski. Burnett, the son of “Desert Swarm”-era linebacker Chester Burnett, made his first-career start last week and was targeted once.

“He’s just going to keep getting better, just with the more reps he’s getting,” said Arizona offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll. “He’s a willing blocker and we know that he can do special stuff when he gets the ball in his hands. This is a great opportunity for him to step up.”

Burnett will be pressed into a role he wasn’t expected to have entering the year.

“Keyan’s going to have to step up,” Fisch said. “It’s a next-man-up mentality and he’s going to have to play more than he probably expected to play — let’s call it a couple of weeks ago. He’s extremely athletic … he’s strong, he can run, can catch. But it’s college football now and you’re blocking defensive ends that are strong, some older than you. He needs to become not only a pass-catcher. I expect him to run behind them and cut off the back-side D-end if we’re running away from him.

“In general, I think he’s going to grow up fast.”

Extra points

Fisch said safety Jaxen Turner, who missed the Colorado game with a shoulder injury, will likely start on Saturday. Said Fisch: “Jaxen had a great practice yesterday, so I’m under the impression he’s going to play.” Defensive tackle Tia Savea remains day-to-day with a leg injury he suffered against Colorado.

Former Arizona running back Trung Canidate was named an honorary captain for Saturday. Canidate led the Wildcats to a 38-3 win over Oregon in 1998.