'Shipping issues' cause uniform change in Arizona season opener vs. New Mexico

So, what happens when a visiting team doesn’t have all of its white uniforms available? The home team, with a “white out” crowd, switches to all-white uniforms.

No. 21 Arizona announced a change-up in its season-opening uniforms early Saturday morning. After originally planning to wear white helmets, navy jerseys and white pants, Arizona’s signature home uniform combination, the Wildcats opted for the all-white Stormtrooper look, after New Mexico had “shipping issues” with some of its white uniforms, a UNM athletics spokesperson told the Star.

The Lobos have the same Nike-branded uniforms as last season, but some of the resized jerseys didn’t make it to Albuquerque in time for New Mexico’s road opener at Arizona. New Mexico brought its silver helmets, red jerseys and silver pants to Tucson.

The last time New Mexico came to the state of Arizona for a regular-season game was in 2015, when the Lobos wore the same silver-red-silver combination in a 34-10 loss to Arizona State in Tempe. New Mexico donned anthracite helmets, red jerseys and white pants in the 2015 New Mexico Bowl against Arizona, which wore white helmets, white jerseys and red pants.

Arizona previously wore military-inspired all-white uniforms for Military Appreciation Day against Utah at Arizona Stadium in 2021. Before then, Arizona wore all-white uniforms in 2014 for its come-from-behind win against Cal that ended with a walk-off touchdown pass to wide receiver Austin Hill — also known as the “Hill Mary.”

Rise and shine

This week and throughout most of fall training camp, Arizona held its practices in the morning, roughly six hours before its usual practice time in the late afternoon and evening last season.

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan said “there’s lots of reasons” for the Wildcats practicing in the morning instead of the afternoon or evening, the times for their games this season.

Earlier practices give the Wildcats “a chance to maximize their sleep, which is one of the most critical parts of their recovery for them,” Brennan said.

“I think it also helps them make good decisions at night. Some kids want to stay up all night and play video games. They can’t do that when you gotta be rocking and rolling at seven in the morning.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Arizona nickel back Treydan Stukes said the “morning practices have a lot of benefits.”

“It allows guys to have some time to get their body right, right after practice, go watch film and you still have the rest of the evening to take care of school. There’s a lot of benefits, for sure.”

Added Brennan: “For the rest of their life, they’re going to have to get up early and go to work. You get them up early, you feed them, they have a workout, their bodies are awake, you feed them again and then they go to school. In that regard, I think they’re more awake when they’re going to class versus how some of us would roll out of bed and drag to class. These guys are fully awake and ready for their day.”

He said it

“He’s just a kid who has incredible poise and he’s really talented. Somebody was asking me recently about Tyler Loop, and I think it was Becca Moros, our soccer coach, and I was saying he’s an NFL player. She said, ‘How could you tell?’ I’m like, ‘Listen to when he kicks the ball. It sounds different.’ Michael has that, too.” — Arizona coach Brent Brennan, on freshman punter Michael Salgado-Medina

UA-UNM College Football 25 simulation

Following the additions of Arizona running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt, defensive tackles Chubba Ma’ae and Kevon Darton, among several other players, in EA Sports College Football 25, we decided to simulate the UA-New Mexico game, which is stamped as a rivalry contest in the video game.

In the simulation, Arizona, ranked No. 16 in the game, beat the Lobos 35-7. The Wildcats posted 369 yards of total offense. Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita completed 24 of 33 passes (72%) for 277 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, but was sacked four times.

UA star wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan led the Wildcats in rushing with five carries for 35 yards and a touchdown, along with five receptions for 58 yards and a touchdown. Tight end Roberto Miranda led the Wildcats with six catches for 74 yards. Croskey-Merritt, the former Lobo, had a mild five carries for 9 yards against his former team.

Maldonado had the only takeaway (interception) of the game.