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. 86 JON HORTON
With it being the 86th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 86 for Arizona is receiver Jon Horton, who emerged as one of the greatest to play for the Wildcats during his career from 1983-86. He is a Sunnyside High School graduate who ranks 12th in career catches (136), sixth in receiving yards (2,415) and ninth in touchdown receptions (16) in Wildcat history. Horton was selected the the Tucson Citizen and Arizona Daily Star All-Metro teams following his senior season in 1981, when he caught 37 passes for 717 yards although coach Paul Petty operated a run-oriented offense. Horton’s professional career led him to the World Football League, and that impacted his life, career away from football and his future. He runs his personal training business where he now lives in the Netherlands.
NO. 86 IN 2024 — TE JOHN HART
Hart, 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, is a redshirt sophomore from Peoria Sunrise Mountain High School. He came to Arizona as a preferred walk-on and has not yet played since joining the program in 2022. A dual sport athlete that played basketball, football, and volleyball at Sunrise Mountain High School. Appeared at tight end and defensive end in his Sunrise Mountain career. He made 21 receptions for 215 yards through 33 games played in high school.
NOTE
It starts in the trenches
Another lineman from California joining the OL group!
Welcome to Tucson, Michael Wooten pic.twitter.com/Oz6r2TOs9p
— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) June 5, 2024
Arizona officially announced its 16 spring transfer portal acquisitions and among them is offensive tackle Michael Wooten of former Pac-12 rival Oregon. Wooten, 6-foot-4 and 310 pounds, has three years of eligibility remaining. He was a 3-star prospect out of Chatsworth (Calif.) Sierra Canyon High School. Coming out of high school, he was offered a scholarship by Oregon, Colorado, Arizona State, Utah, San Diego State and Virginia.
THEY SAID IT
“(Wooten’s) athleticism, his ability to move his feet quickly, his ability to propel his body quickly in the direction he wants to go and the amount of time that we have left with him to develop was a huge huge upside. The skies the limit for Mike just with the training that he is going to get in our strength and conditioning program and the changes we’re going to make to his game overall on the offensive line. It’s going to pay huge dividends for him.” — Arizona offensive line coach Josh Oglesby.
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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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