Arizona adjusts spring football showcase for player safety

From Arizona’s season-finale loss in November to the Wildcats’ spring football practice schedule, which officially kicks off Tuesday morning, the Wildcats focused on three items for a rebuild following a 4-8 campaign.

UA second-year head coach Brent Brennan said the three mantras in the offseason and the spring for the Wildcats have been “cementing culture, cementing personnel and cementing performance.”

Said Brennan: “When I talk about cementing our culture, I’m talking about our everyday, process-driven approach and ‘redline’ (the program’s mantra for effort) … That’s something that’s a focus for us. When we talk about cementing our personnel, that started with building the staff, the men that are going to lead our football team and making sure we had everyone in the right position to give us a chance to win football games in the fall.

The “cementing performance” portion is the work done on the practice field and in the weight room.

“There have been some big gains in that space,” Brennan said.

Brennan could’ve added another point: cementing health, a contributing factor to Arizona’s bowl-less season in Brennan’s first season at the helm. Last season, Arizona’s defense was decimated by injuries at key positions, including season-ending injuries to captains nickel back Treydan Stukes, linebacker Jacob Manu and safety Gunner Maldonado. The Wildcats also had seven different starting offensive lines in 2024.

Players’ health is a driving force to the UA converting its annual spring game on April 19 into an interactive showcase.

Instead of a traditional scrimmage, Arizona’s Red-Blue Spring Showcase will have an on-field beer garden, on-field kid zone, Easter egg hunt, live music, interactive drills and a postgame movie on the field.

It’s “an awesome day for engagement with the community,” Brennan said.

“We’re going to play some football and we’re going to have a practice, but we’ll have some live stuff mixed in there,” Brennan said. “That’ll be more defined for us as we go, because we have to see where we’re at health-wise. The days of splitting the team in half and having the (starters) and (fourth-string players) play the twos and the threes, I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore.”

“It’s complicated and there’s a fine line there, because you need to get ready to play, but you also need to protect the most valuable assets on the football team.”

With college athletics introducing revenue sharing and players receiving essentially receiving a salary from the program, the risk outweighs the reward for players to participate in spring games. Nearly 20 Power 4 programs — including Texas, Nebraska and USC — have canceled their spring games this year.

The “salaries correlate to the level of player,” so “if a kid is a higher-salary kid, he’s a really good player and those are the guys we need to make sure can play in the fall,” Brennan said. Several players on Arizona's roster are earning six figures for the upcoming season. 

“I think you can be a little bit more aggressive in the spring, because you have a little bit more time (to recover),” Brennan said. “But you also need to be smart about who gets tackled and who is tackling, because there’s a lot of marquee players on this team that a lot of people are excited to see play in September.

“How do we make sure the environment is as safe as we can possibly make them and still get the work done we have to get done to be prepared? There’s a balance in that.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

T-Mac holds private workout

Former Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan held a private Pro Day-style workout in front of roughly two dozen NFL scouts and coaches on Monday at the UA.

The projected Top 10 pick in next month’s NFL Draft ran the 40-yard dash and unofficially clocked in at multiple times, ranging from 4.46-4.53 seconds, according to multiple outlets.

McMillan’s unofficial 40-yard dash time (4.48 seconds), reported by Jordan Schulz, would’ve been tied for the 25th-fastest time at the NFL Scouting Combine, which McMillan didn’t participate in. McMillan is also skipping Big 12 Pro Day in Frisco, Texas this week.

The 6-5, 212-pound McMillan’s speed has been among the most notable talking points regarding his draft stock.

McMillan has drawn NFL comparisons to other big-bodied wide receivers, including Mike Evans, Larry Fitzgerald and Drake London. Evans ran the 40-yard dash in 4.53 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine; Fitzgerald ran it in 4.63 seconds, while London posted a time of 4.5 seconds.

Even though McMillan opted to not run the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, Brennan, wide receivers coach Bobby Wade and general manager Gaizka Crowley, among others, attended. Brennan held several conversations with coaches and general managers about McMillan.

“Because of that, having that access and having me there, it was a great opportunity for them to ask real questions about these players and how they’re going to add value to those organizations when they get there,” Brennan said.

Brennan was also asked about other NFL Draft hopefuls, including offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea and kicker Tyler Loop, but “T-Mac is something different,” Brennan said on Monday.

Brennan said McMillan’s best attributes as a player “is he’s an incredibly hard worker” and the former Arizona receiver hasn’t caused any internal issues with the UA football program. Plus, “in terms of his movement and ability to play football, he’s rare,” Brennan said.

“He was a player that was never on a list, never late, he never had an academic issue,” Brennan said of McMillan. “He was on point all the time. Not a single misstep in any of that. NFL teams like guys who are serious about their business. There’s no question T-Mac is extremely serious about his business. ... His movement, his short-range quickness, his catch radius is totally unique — totally unique. I’ve coached hundreds of them and I’ve coached a lot of NFL players, too, but he’s unique.”

The NFL Draft from Green Bay, Wisconsin begins on Thursday, April 24 at 5 p.m. on ESPN.

Extra points

— Stukes and left tackle Rhino Tapa’atoutai won’t be available for the spring. Both Stukes and Tapa’atoutai suffered season-ending knee injuries in 2024.

— Brennan said “the last year (as Arizona’s head coach) has been amazing and challenging at the same time.” Added Brennan: “There have been some incredible moments and also some really hard ones. But I’m focused on what’s happening going forward; that’s where my head is at. I’m excited about the 2025 football team at the University of Arizona. … We’re excited to get back to work on the field.”