To get ready for the upcoming Arizona football season, All Sports Tucson offers a countdown, which will include history notes and a look ahead to the season — a good way to keep Arizona football on the mind in the summer months leading up to fall camp in early August and then kickoff against New Mexico on Aug. 31 in the start of the Brent Brennan era.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS PREVIOUS DAYS IN THE COUNTDOWN
A LOOK BACK — NO. 95 CLEVELAND CROSBY
With it being the 95th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 95 for Arizona is defensive tackle Cleveland Crosby (1978-79). He was a Purdue transfer who had 13 sacks in two years with the Wildcats. He was a second round draft pick in 1980 but his NFL career never flourished because of injuries. He also played for the Houston Gamblers of the USFL and remained in the Houston area. He is retired in Pearland, Texas, a suburb of Houston.
NO. 95 IN 2024 — DT Keanu Mailoto
Mailoto, a 6-foot-5 and 300-pound defensive tackle, is a redshirt junior who played three games during the 2023 season. He made one assisted tackle in the 42-18 win over Utah. Before he came to Arizona, Mailoto made 19.0 tackles during the 2022 season at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. He recorded a season-high four tackles at Fullerton College in the final game of the 2022 season. Recruited to Arizona by former defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen and tight ends coach Jordan Paopao.
NOTE
Mailoto will be coached by new Arizona defensive line coach Joe Seumalo, who has 22 seasons of NCAA Division I experience coaching defensive linemen. Ten of his players went on to play professional football. Oregon State’s Stephen Paea was the 2010 Pac-12 Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Seumalo was a defensive lineman at Hawaii who played for Dick Tomey in 1985 and 1986 before Tomey left to Arizona in 1987. Seumalo’s children are very active with football. Andrew is in his sixth season as the defensive line coach at Lafayette College, Isaac is in his eighth NFL season as an offensive guard with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jessi (a daughter) is the Player Personnel Coordinator at the San Francisco 49ers, and Noah recently completed his career as a linebacker at Oregon State.
THEY SAID IT
“Honestly, he just allows us to play our game. He wants us to elevate by not thinking as much and obviously just going.” — Defensive lineman Dominic Lolesio told KGUN-TV about his new coach Joe Seumalo
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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