The first game can leave a lasting impression.
Think back to 2018, the last time an Arizona coach made his debut. The hype was massive entering Kevin Sumlin’s first game — which also happened to be against BYU, the team the Wildcats face Saturday night.
Quarterback Khalil Tate was coming off a historic season. Arizona was favored by 11 points. More than 50,000 fans packed Arizona Stadium (something that’s happened only once since).
Then the Wildcats lost. Sumlin’s honeymoon period summarily ended. A case could be made that UA football still hasn’t recovered from that deflating outcome.
So yeah, what happens in Jedd Fisch’s debut at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas matters. But it doesn’t matter quite as much.
Perspective is critical here. The reality is, the program Fisch inherited is very different from the one Sumlin did.
The ’18 Wildcats were coming off a 7-6 season, their fifth above-.500 record in six years under Rich Rodriguez. Tate was in the conversation for the Heisman Trophy. He was supposed to take off under Sumlin and take the program along for the ride.
None of that happened. Arizona got progressively worse, going 5-7, 4-8 and 0-5. By the time Sumlin was fired and Fisch was hired, the Wildcats had lost a school-record 12 consecutive games. The point spread for this matchup against BYU has flipped: The Cougars are favored by 12.5 points, reflecting how the two programs have trended since.
The first game always feels like the be-all, end-all because the offseason is interminable and the talk about what could be is relentless. UA coaches and players used the word “excited” at least 25 times while speaking to the media this week.
But for Fisch and what he’s trying to build here, it’s really just the beginning.
“We still haven’t even coached a game yet here,” Fisch said. “We have to see how everybody’s going to handle the pressures of the game and see how everybody’s going to handle the challenge and the opportunity that competition brings outside of the framework of practice. So there’s a lot left to unravel; there’s a lot more to see. We’re just getting started.
“We’re really excited” — there’s that word again — “to see who our team is. But I would imagine that our team today will continue to evolve and will look probably different come November.”
Jedd Fisch will make his UA coaching debut. He replaces Kevin Sumlin, whose Wildcats career also began with a game against BYU.
Long-term view
Fisch’s quarterback decision illustrates that big-picture approach.
Is playing both Gunner Cruz and Will Plummer really, truly the best approach to defeating BYU? Probably not.
But Fisch recognizes that his program and his quarterbacks are still in their infancy. Cruz and Plummer each have four years of eligibility remaining.
Regarding the notion that he had to pick one of them, because, well, that’s what you’re supposed to do, Fisch said:
“I don’t think that’s the right thing to do with our situation. ... I don’t want to just make a decision to appease the critic. There’ll be a time where you can see where the team rallies, what goes on in the game. If one comes out and plays a really good game and the other one struggles, then that kind of has answered the question for us.”
Fisch did make clear that winning always would be the goal, adding: “We’re never going to not have a mentality to play the absolute best we can play and win as much as we possibly can win.”
To that end, Fisch and his staff added 17 players via the NCAA transfer portal during the offseason. Fifteen of them made the depth chart for Week 1.
Fisch understands how valuable pulling off some early upsets can be in terms of morale and support. But even engineering a quick turnaround can be viewed as a long-term play: The better the Wildcats perform on the field, the better they’ll be able to recruit to improve future teams.
“It’s also my responsibility as the head coach,” Fisch said, “to make sure that our team continues to get better every year.”
Veteran tight end Bryce Wolma says this year's team doesn't compare to previous squads.
‘Completely different team’
Everyone associated with the program is eager to play Saturday night. The coaches are curious to see what they have. The players want to, as Fisch said, “get that taste of their mouth” from the last time they played — the Territorial Cup debacle of Dec. 11, 2020.
“The adrenaline, the energy is obviously going to be through the roof,” senior tight end Bryce Wolma said.
A crowd of almost 60,000 is expected. A national audience on ESPN also will be watching.
But the BYU game is only one of 12 on the schedule. As veteran defensive coordinator Don Brown noted: “Right after Week 1, there’s Week 2.”
So Fisch has adopted one of the mantras one of his former bosses, Pete Carroll, made famous at USC.
“We’re gonna take a mentality that every game is a championship opportunity,” Fisch said. “If we start talking about one game being more important than another game, I think we wind up losing focus on what the process is and what we’re trying to get done.”
Fisch is trying to change a culture and rebuild a program. He wants one of its tenets to be toughness, both physical and mental. The way this season starts presents a challenge in both regards.
BYU always has a bunch of grown men on its roster, so the physical part is obvious. How the Wildcats process whatever happens in the game will be just as telling.
If they win but lose next week against San Diego State, what will they have accomplished? If they lose and allow the hangover to affect them, that will be even worse.
Let’s go back to 2018. The loss to BYU wasn’t that bad. The final score was 28-23.
The following week, Arizona suffered an absolutely abysmal defeat, falling behind Houston 38-0 early in the third quarter. The final was 45-18.
Something clearly was amiss. Wolma, who was part of that team, is convinced those days are over. Fisch hasn’t just changed the personnel at Arizona, Wolma said; the first-year coach has changed the mindset.
“This year I think that we have a different level that I haven’t seen before of our players and our coaches (being) bought into each other and the system. I don’t know that I’ve seen that before at the University of Arizona,” Wolma said. “We’re a completely different team.”
