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. 88 MIKE LUCKY
With it being the 88th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 88 for Arizona is tight end Mike Lucky, who emerged as one of the greatest to play for the Wildcats during his career from 1995-98. Lucky was an honorable mention selection of the All-Pac-10 team his senior season of 1998. He was selected in the seventh round of the NFL draft by Dallas and he played with the Cowboys for four seasons (1999 to 2002). As a senior at Arizona, he was fourth on the team with 11 receptions for 142 yards. He also added 40 knockdown blocks, helping the team average 213 rushing yards per game (14th in the nation). In the last game against ASU, his blocking contributed to Arizona gaining 607 rushing yards, including a school record 288 rushing yards by Trung Canidate. He finished as one of the school’s top receiving tight ends, with 43 receptions for 563 yards and four touchdowns. Lucky, 47, now resides in Mesa, where he is an outside sales representative of Intsel Steel West, a metal fabrication business.
NO. 88 IN 2024 — TE KEYAN BURNETT
Burnett, a 6-foot-6 and 245-pound junior, is one of the top Class of 2022 standouts from Anaheim (Calif.) Servite High School that came to Arizona. He joined QB Noah Fifita, WR Tetairoa McMillan, and LB Jacob Manu. His father, Chester, was a linebacker at Arizona 1995-97 and was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the 1998 NFL draft. … Keyan appeared in all 13 games last season with two starts at tight end during his second season with the program. He made three receptions for 34 total yards with a long reception of 17 yards while averaging 11.3 yards per catch. Made a career-long 17-yard reception in the season-opener against Northern Arizona on Sept. 2 … He has played in 22 games with three starts in his career to this point. … He figures to factor more prominently in Arizona’s offense with former tight end Tanner McLachlan now with the Cincinnati Bengals.
NOTE
The Brent Brennan Monday Night Lights 7-on-7 and Offensive and Defensive Line Camp took place on Monday night at Arizona Stadium. A High School Girls Football Flag Football event will take place June 15 at Arizona Stadium. Here are some photos of Monday night’s event from AllSportsTucson.com’s Andy Morales:
THEY SAID IT
High Praise for N4LO pic.twitter.com/ItXsu2nVDR
— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) June 4, 2024
“If you throw it (Tetairoa) McMillan’s way, there’s a very good chance he’ll come down with it. There are two main reasons for that. The first is that he presents a massive target to throw to at 6-foot-5, giving him a larger catch radius than anyone on this list. His 17 contested catches in 2023 were second among FBS receivers to only Rome Odunze. The second is that he also has excellent hands, finishing with the lowest drop rate among Power Five receivers with at least 100 targets this past season (2.1%).” — Pro Football Focus
Arizona junior receiver Tetairoa McMillan will earn many accolades this season. Pro Football Focus recently rated him as the second-best Big 12 receiver behind Iowa State’s Eli Green. What’s interesting is Iowa State also has Jayden Higgins at No. 3 and Jaylin Noel at No. 10. Arizona does not play Iowa State in the regular season this year.
Highest Graded Returning Big 12 Wide Receivers pic.twitter.com/sD1qTo3Y7W
— PFF College (@PFF_College) May 24, 2024
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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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