2023 Season Thread

[tgrumpy2]

My son gave his idea of the new PAC. Oregon State, Colorado State, Wyoming, Western Wyoming Community College, Colorado School of Mines, NAU, Chandler High School.

[UAEebs86]

My son gave his idea of the new PAC. Oregon State, Colorado State, Wyoming, Western Wyoming Community College, Colorado School of Mines, NAU, Chandler High School.

You forgot New Mexico Highlands.

[azgreg]

My son gave his idea of the new PAC. Oregon State, Colorado State, Wyoming, Western Wyoming Community College, Colorado School of Mines, NAU, Chandler High School.

You forgot New Mexico Highlands.

[ASUHATER!]

At this point unless Cal and Stanford get invited to the big 10, they just need to pull the trigger and join OSU and WSU in the mountain west and make that a 16 team league before the mountain west does anything else.

[TheCatInTheHat]

A quick shout-out to the Star and their Arizona Football beat writer Justin Spears. He's continuing Lev's work ethic and approach. Ten years ago and earlier, it seems like it was mostly a case of showing up after practice in time for the coach's comments and Q&A. And other than collecting quotes, it's easy enough to mostly transcribe what's announced during the game. Much harder to bring your own roster, watch each play closely, keep track of who's playing (especially on the lines), and note who's doing well; particularly practice after practice and in the heat. But to serve fans' interests, especially with all the turnover in college, it's great to know how the likely roster is shaping up.

I usually pick up football preview magazines. It's a tradition that started a long time ago with Street & Smith's, as I wondered what supposedly neutral outsiders thought of the team. But the previews have been written by moonlighting locals for a long time, so now it's mostly about having a roster available to scout out the opposition before the next game. They have to go to print months before fall camp. In our case, I think the thought process was that we brought in a bunch of one-year defensive transfer portal rental guys last year, they struggled, and we're pretty much doing the same thing this year, with roughly the same expected result. Only the defense has stabilized with another year under Nance, Akina makes a difference, we're starting to see the impact of a few years of good recruiting as players mature, and maybe this year's batch of portal transfers is actually a little better than the last bunch. In any event, it's good news that there's more back-and-forth in terms of who "wins" practice.

And maybe, just maybe, we're positioned to at least slightly surprise the pencil pushers. And, as Eddie Valiant said in Roger Rabbit: "May they get lead poisoning."

[TheCatInTheHat]

.

[Catintheheat]

I want to post this here because I don't follow UA football (or any football) as much as UA basketball. Yet, this season seems to be different. I can see UA is starting to become a good football team. And I think we are going to surprise a lot of people. I can't wait for the season to begin. I don't think I've been this excited for UA revenue sports in a long time. I believe this is going to be a special year.

[azcat49]

Absolutely agree. Conference is tough but there is something special about Fisch. He has had a plan and has worked it to perfection. The payoff is coming and our talent is light years better

[PHXCATS]

Good to hear Spears is doing good work writing

Most of my exposure to him is through podcasts. Seems like a good guy and he is talented but I think he gets in his own way. Many times he makes multiple mistakes that could easily be corrected either through editing the podcast or doing a little more prep work. A little extra prep work and a being a little more professional would really help Spears

[EastCoastCat]

A quick shout-out to the Star and their Arizona Football beat writer Justin Spears. He's continuing Lev's work ethic and approach. Ten years ago and earlier, it seems like it was mostly a case of showing up after practice in time for the coach's comments and Q&A. And other than collecting quotes, it's easy enough to mostly transcribe what's announced during the game. Much harder to bring your own roster, watch each play closely, keep track of who's playing (especially on the lines), and note who's doing well; particularly practice after practice and in the heat. But to serve fans' interests, especially with all the turnover in college, it's great to know how the likely roster is shaping up.

I usually pick up football preview magazines. It's a tradition that started a long time ago with Street & Smith's, as I wondered what supposedly neutral outsiders thought of the team. But the previews have been written by moonlighting locals for a long time, so now it's mostly about having a roster available to scout out the opposition before the next game. They have to go to print months before fall camp. In our case, I think the thought process was that we brought in a bunch of one-year defensive transfer portal rental guys last year, they struggled, and we're pretty much doing the same thing this year, with roughly the same expected result. Only the defense has stabilized with another year under Nance, Akina makes a difference, we're starting to see the impact of a few years of good recruiting as players mature, and maybe this year's batch of portal transfers is actually a little better than the last bunch. In any event, it's good news that there's more back-and-forth in terms of who "wins" practice.

And maybe, just maybe, we're positioned to at least slightly surprise the pencil pushers. And, as Eddie Valiant said in Roger Rabbit: "May they get lead poisoning."

What is this thing you call a magazine?

[TheCatInTheHat]

LOL. It's like vinyl...an outdated overpriced collectable. Twelve bucks at B&N until they go out of business because nobody reads anything more than a couple of hundred characters long.

[ANGCatFan]

The roster weights have been updated. Almost everyone added weight except for some of the bigger linemen who shed a few pounds. The big winner is incoming Freshman Tylen Gonzalez who added 55 pounds and has also moved from defense to offensive line. Here are the players who added weight:

Deuce Davis 10
Tiaoalii Savea 12
Tristan Davis 10
Keanu Mailoto 25
Jacob Kongaika 15
Tyler Monoa 5
Isaiah Johnson 5
Isaiah Ward 10
Dorian Thomas 20
Keyan Burnett 10
Tyler Powell 5
John Hart 10
Roberto Miranda 5
Tanner McLachlan 5
Sam Graci-Glazer 10
Devin Hyatt 6
Grayson Stovall 15
Jordan Morgan 5
Zarius Wells 9
Seth MacKellar 15
Elijah Payne 10
Joseph Borjon 5
Rhino Tapa'atoutai 30
Bryce Echols 35
Leviticus Su'a 10
Chase Randall 5
Christian Madoski 5
Tyler Mustain 15
Brandon Craddock 10
Sio Nofoagatoto’a 5
Jordan Forbes 5
Orin Patu 5
Ta'ita'i Uiagalelei 25
Bill Norton 25
Jeremy Mercer 5
Dalton Johnson 5
Julian Savaiinaea 5
Kameron Hawkins 15
Ammon Allen 5
Nolan Clement 5
Dominic Hanger 20
CJ Flores 10
Ammon Kaufusi 10
Tyler Loop 5
Cruz Rushing 15
Brandon Johnson 5
Will Uhrich 15
Canyon Moses 5
Arian Parish 5
Chris Hunter 10
Jai-Ayviayunn Celestine 13
Taxation Davis 10
Stevie Rocker Jr 10

And here are the 5 players who lost weight:
Raymond Pulido -10
Josh Baker -5
Wendell Moe -20
Jonah Savaiinaea -5
Sam Langi -5

I’ve only listed the weight changes for players from jersey 23 and above.

[Carcassdragger]

Wow. Look at Norton. If that's muscle he could be very very good.

[azgreg]

We've got like 23 guys over 300 lbs.

[azgreg]

[TheCatInTheHat]

Wilner's in an interesting spot. He leveraged the Pac-12 so he could purport to be the authority on conference-wide matters, as well as where each individual school ranked (because various matters obviously must require completely subjective ranking.) He was geographically located near the conference's headquarters, so he could sell the idea that he had access to inside info. It reached a peak with a journalism major somehow receiving post-graduate degrees relating to the broadcast media business, contract negotiations, and finance in the lead-up to the most recent Pac-12 media deal fiasco. And it dove-tailed nicely with staff reductions in most newspaper sports departments who could just subscribe to his column for his occasional mentions of the local team and where they supposedly stood with the league. So after this season, he says he'll just take "Pac-12" off the title and hope to carry on. That means for the four teams going into the Big Ten based in Chicago, which he knows nothing about, the four teams going into the Big XII based in Dallas, which he knows nothing about, and the two teams likely going into the MWC based in Colorado Springs, which he knows nothing about. Unless he can otherwise convince the sports editors for the papers covering those ten teams that he can bring some insight and value beyond uninformed speculation, that leaves writing about the two teams in his immediate area. Instead of the imagery of being Mr. Syndicated Conference Guy, he's back to the reality of being columnist for the San Jose paper and covering a couple of local teams that are currently twisting in the wind. I'd say he's likely pretty desperate for them to be offered and to accept table scrap charity from the Big Ten so he can try to claim "The Big Ten West" as his beat. As you can probably tell from my tone, I kind of hope that doesn't happen. But the great thing is it doesn't really matter because we'll be in the Big XII, and about the only time I care about the Big Ten is when I feel like watching a game at 9 am, which is rare. As far as I'm concerned, the Star and other papers can pull the plug on his act whenever they want to.

[Catintheheat]

The more I am reading about the Cats, the more I think they are underrated. The offense is the best we have had in some time, including the OL. There is talent on this squad, and some depth. I don't know our ceiling. We have a lot of NFL talent on the team. However, a lot of the talent is unproven. I don't want to miss a game this season. UA football is going to be fun to watch.

[KillerKlown]

Bowling season.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Three weeks to go. Well, this wasn't easy, as the FCS level doesn't tend to put as much out there. A fair amount of speculation on my part, but here goes:

Offense
QB 2 6-2 215 Kai Millner SO (CALIFORNIA)
RB 8 5-8 190 Draycen Hall JR 546 YDS 2 TD
WR 6 5-11 175 Coleman Owen JR 690 YDS 4 TD
WR 10 6-1 200 Hendrix Johnson SR 671 YDS 5 TD
WR 3 6-1 185 Jamal Glaspie SR (FRESNO STATE) 435 YDS 1 TD
TE 88 6-4 255 Isaiah Gerena JR (MORGAN ST) 232 YDS 2 TD
OL 58 6-5 310 Jesus Reyna JR
OL 60 6-5 310 Derrick Brown SO (SOUTH DAKOTA ST)
OL 65 6-4 310 Krikour Koustanian SR (NORTHERN COLORADO)
OL 69 6-9 305 Dimitri Georgiadis Sr (VIRGINIA TECH)
OL 72 6-5 300 Ethan Kramer JR (NORTHERN COLORADO)

Veteran skill position types and a good-sized O-line. Questions at QB as they bring in a drop-back type transfer from Cal, along with a smaller roll-out type from Montana. Coin-flip to the guy from Cal. They've got a good sized backup RB returning, joined by transfers from SMU and MTSU. We'll see if transfer Ethan Cuff from Alabama cracks the WR starting lineup. Some decent size in their backup TEs and a few of their OLs.

Defense
DL 36 6-1 250 Eloi Kwete SR 50 T
DL 6 6-1 310 Nehemiah Magalei JR 25 T
DL 97 6-3 280 Daniel Robledo JR
LB 10 6-1 235 Jhasi Wilson SR 63 T
LB 5 6-1 230 Heston Lameta SR 62 T
LB 46 6-2 215 Tommy Ellis JR 38 T
S 2 6-2 210 Kamdan Hightower SO 64 T
S 26 6-1 180 Colby Humphrey JR 29 T
S 4 6-2 195 Brady Shough JR 19 T
CB 1 5-10 180 George Steele SR 39 T
CB 21 6-1 185 Sean Haymon SO 22 T

This is a fairly veteran group. Six transfer portal and JC types figure to be backups, with CB Shawn Dorseau from East Carolina, S Mikale Greere from San Jose St, and LB Zion Magalei from Colorado looking the most likely to have a shot to start. Jeff Widener got some snaps at QB last year, but he switched positions to safety.

Kicking
K 18 5-9 185 Szymon Gawlick SO (SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT ST)
P 33 6-3 190 Eemil Herranen SO 41.8 YPP
PR 6 5-11 175 Coleman Owen JR 37 YDS LONG 16
KR 8 5-8 190 Draycen Hall JR 128 YDS LONG 37

They return their punter, with the expected nice average indoors and at their almost 7,000 foot altitude. They got a new kicker from the portal, with a backup combo punt/kick guy if he falters. Their shifty little receiver Coleman Owen is their punt returner. Diminutive RB Draycen Hall returns kicks.

Summary
NAU went 3-8 last year, with their only FBS game being their opener at ASU, which was their biggest loss of the year 40-3. They're probably a little better than last season, but I wouldn't expect any huge jump. For what it's worth, 5 of their losses were by single digits, along with a 17 point loss to Idaho, and a 29 point blowout at UC Davis. Their flukey win in 2021 against Fisch's brand-new program seems like a lifetime ago, and I doubt there's much thought about it, as the circumstances have changed. We'll get some value out of having the players' snaps on video. I suppose there might be a yardstick in terms of what ASU did last year, but I dont think you'll be able to draw many conclusions from that. Just play, learn, win, stay healthy, and move on.

[azgreg]

We have to smoke these guys.

[TheCatInTheHat]

The last game, in 2021, we went up 13-10, then they got a pick six right before halftime. Nothing in the 3rd until they benefitted from a targeting penalty and scored late to take a 14-10 lead. Okay, says me, we'll wear 'em down in the 4th and take a disappointing win. Then they score half-way through the quarter, and we're in trouble down 8. We score with 2 minutes left, but miss the 2-point conversion, don't get the ball back, and that was the ballgame.

Their announcer, Mitch Strohman, is kind of a dick. In 2019, we're up 58-20 midway through the 3rd after an 8 pm kickoff. So we leave. I remember that, for some reason, NAU was being carried on a Tucson station, so I put that on. With most of our two-deep on the bench, NAU outscores Arizona 3 TDs to 1 for a 65-41 loss, and Strohman is yelling his head off. He complains about calls, he goes crazy for every NAU TD, and he keeps ranting "We can do this!" His color guy probably got in trouble, as he was like, "Well, I think this one's about over." And Strohman would angrily reply "No it's not!" I'm glad I didn't hear him when they actually DID win in 2021.

Anyway, he also called the NAU hoops team's home loss to Portland State earlier this year. He went nuts when NAU appeared to win it on a buzzer-beater (by Tommy Lloyd's son Liam.) But then, PSU got it back and hit the final buzzer-beater. Mr. Caffeine made Awful Announcing:
https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/northe ... ohman.html

Anyway, I've got nothing at all against NAU, and it would be pretty said to think we need any "revenge" against them, which is about like beating up Woody Allen. Losing to them was entirely the fault of those who allowed our program to sink to that level. However, if it causes their minnow-in-a-thimble announcer to pound too many energy drinks and stare at the wall all night, that would be okay with me.

[EastCoastCat]

Too small a fish to even care about if we are really saying and believing that Arizona football is back.

CJF needs to have his teams stomp on cupcakes. Period.

[azgreg]

Too small a fish to even care about if we are really saying and believing that Arizona football is back.

CJF needs to have his teams stomp on cupcakes. Period.

I disagree. After the upset their coaches were running down the hallway and stairwell of the coaches box area yelling "We own this state!"

We have to smoke these turds.

[Chicat]

Too small a fish to even care about if we are really saying and believing that Arizona football is back.

CJF needs to have his teams stomp on cupcakes. Period.

I disagree. After the upset their coaches were running down the hallway and stairwell of the coaches box area yelling "We own this state!"

No shit?? You have to admit that’s pretty hilarious. If it happened to ASU I’d have t-shirts made up with the final score and that quote.

But yeah, gotta destroy them. Not only for revenge but also to get some momentum going into MSU.

[Chicat]

That week 7 game at Wazzu looms large. Do we go into the bye week above .500 or coming off a bunch of losses in a row. For our psyche and chances of making a bowl, I feel like that’s a tough must-win.

[azcat49]

We are going to be so vanilla vs NAU. No reason to show my much with Miss St that next week. That’s the one the players and staff want. That and USC for obvious reasons

[TheCatInTheHat]

It's the opening game of a promising season, and what happened will be remembered, so I'm sure the players will be into it. I think last time, it was the second game, and Fisch was maybe taking an approach of instilling "you have to play like a professional on an even keel week-to-week without too many highs or lows." And maybe he overdid it, I remember Larry Smith saying something like that happened with his team early on at Arizona. And we were a terrible team in 2021. I think we'll run a generic version of our normal stuff, just to practice it, and to put down what we want to show on video for MSU. We threw it 56% of the time last year, and that was also the case in the UCLA game. Don't know what Fisch considers ideal, and that probably also varies game-to-game.

[EastCoastCat]

Fisch is not going to throw out a vanilla offense. We are not that good yet and each win this year will be crucial because we still don’t match up to the SC’s and Utah’s of the world.

Beat NAU then worry about Mississippi State.

[azcat49]

Well if we can’t just run over them then I guess we haven’t improved much. The OLine looks much improved and while I know Fisch loves to throw it a bunch and will do so, I still think we won’t be showing a lot of our offense.

49-6 cats over NAU

[azgreg]

Even with a vanilla offense and defense we beat these chodes by 4+ scores.

[EastCoastCat]

I guess I don’t understand what you guys mean by vanilla offense? You think Fisch will run the ball up the middle all night with a few safe throws sprinkled in?

We have seen Fisch’s offense for a couple of years. That’s exactly what we will see against NAU as well as the rest of the schedule. Let’s not overthink this.

I do expect a few wrinkles against MSU and that defense but it will more off of the base offense.

But all of this is nonsense anyway. Games are won based on who controls the line of scrimmage. The Lumberjacks should not present a problem. MSU is a whole other story.

[TheCatInTheHat]

My view is that it's not necessarily a case extremes. Of course Fisch isn't going to turn into Woody Hayes. He's consistently thrown the ball at least 50 percent of the time, and I'd expect that to continue, even when we can get away with smash-mouth against bad teams. (Subject to the normal mercy-rule stuff in the 4th quarter with a big lead.) I just think there's a lot of nuance in his passing game, in terms of routes and reads, and he's got a lot of talent at the receiver position. So, it doesn't have to involve wearing handcuffs and just throwing 10 foot passes to TEs and backs. You can throw it upfield and mix things up without getting too complex or creating a highlight reel for some receiver who's got an overmatch situation. But, it's just thinking out loud. If Fisch thinks he needs to work on every aspect of his offense and score every single possible point; he's the coach and that's fine with me.

[Carcassdragger]

I'm most interested in Cordera's prediction for this season.

Cordy?

[EastCoastCat]

Fisch’s goal is to sell out all 6 home games. More interested if that’s even remotely possible.

[UAEebs86]

I'm most interested in Cordera's prediction for this season.

Cordy?

Are you a masochist?

He hasn't visited in almost a year BTW.

[PHXCATS]

Fisch’s goal is to sell out all 6 home games. More interested if that’s even remotely possible.

With this fan base??????????????

[azcat49]

If you look at the seating chart when looking for tickets, it looks like they have done a nice job this offseason. Not close to selling out but I bet we have three sell outs this year

[TheCatInTheHat]

Sounds like it was reasonably productive. Penalties, but better now when you can learn from them. Some nice catches, but balanced with some good defensive plays. Interesting to see how they use Speedy Luke in a hybrid RB/WR role. Wiley sprung with a good block for a 100 yard KO return, but also a blocked FG on the kicking teams, and also downing a punt near the goal line. These things can be a dreary glorified practice, but it sounds like they got some good work out of it.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Next year, we've got New Mexico, NAU again, and then at Kansas State. Short notice for both schools to find replacement teams if it's a conference game. On the other hand, if K-State isn't scheduled as a Big XII league game, playing them non-conference could be a solution. There were some weird scheduling things when we moved into the Pac, too. I seem to recall that we had to play a road game at San Diego State that was designated as a Pac-10 game.

https://www.kansascity.com/sports/colle ... 48079.html

[Carcassdragger]

Next year, we've got New Mexico, NAU again, and then at Kansas State. Short notice for both schools to find replacement teams if it's a conference game. On the other hand, if K-State isn't scheduled as a Big XII league game, playing them non-conference could be a solution. There were some weird scheduling things when we moved into the Pac, too. I seem to recall that we had to play a road game at San Diego State that was designated as a Pac-10 game.

https://www.kansascity.com/sports/colle ... 48079.html

If we end up having to schedule another team, it should definitely be a southern California team. We are courting several recruits in the San Diego area. It'd help to show them we are committed to a continued presence in the area.

[KillerKlown]

Doubt USC would schedule us.

[Chicat]

Next year, we've got New Mexico, NAU again, and then at Kansas State. Short notice for both schools to find replacement teams if it's a conference game. On the other hand, if K-State isn't scheduled as a Big XII league game, playing them non-conference could be a solution. There were some weird scheduling things when we moved into the Pac, too. I seem to recall that we had to play a road game at San Diego State that was designated as a Pac-10 game.

https://www.kansascity.com/sports/colle ... 48079.html

If we end up having to schedule another team, it should definitely be a southern California team. We are courting several recruits in the San Diego area. It'd help to show them we are committed to a continued presence in the area.

There aren’t enough teams with open dates for us to be picky about geography.

[KillerKlown]

We want BAMA!

[azgreg]

We want BAMA!

We get em.........in 2032.

[azgreg]

[PHXCATS]

Not hating on Scheer but this is not interesting at all

Been done tons of times in the past

[Irish27]

How great is that. His daughter wearing his old jersey number at the stadium where he became a legend.

[azgreg]

[RichardCranium]

I don't understand why the K-State game has to have special treatment. just play the game. if we are not officially in the schedule yet, then its a non conference game, if we are then its a conference game. What's the big deal?

[Chicat]

I don't understand why the K-State game has to have special treatment. just play the game. if we are not officially in the schedule yet, then its a non conference game, if we are then its a conference game. What's the big deal?

Not sure what you mean by “officially in the schedule” but if it’s a conference game then we need to find a non-conference game to replace it, which would be difficult at best for both teams. It’s fine if it’s a non-conference game (although weird), but we need the Big12 to arrange the schedule so we don’t play each other again that season in a conference game.