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. 76 BILL JENSEN
With it being the 76th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 76 for Arizona is offensive tackle Bill Jensen, who played for the Wildcats from 1977-80. He was a starter for more than three seasons and became a second-team All-Pac-10 selection in 1980. He was the strongest offensive lineman at Arizona at the time, bench-pressing 400 pounds. He was born in Madison, Wis., but grew up in Mesa and played at Mesa High School.
NO. 76 IN 2024 — OT JONAH RODRIGUEZ
Rodriguez, 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, redshirted last season at San Diego State after attending Madison High School in San Diego. He was a three-star recruit by 247sports. Ranked by 247Sports as the 53rd-best player at his position and the 58th-best recruit in the state of California. Also had offers from Arizona State, Boise State, Colorado and Syracuse coming out of high school. Dino Babers coached at Syracuse and is now Arizona’s offensive coordinator.
NOTE
The newly released Lindy’s College Football Annual has Arizona WR Tetairoa McMillan as a first-team All-American. the No. 1-rated receiver overall in college football and the No. 2 NFL draft prospect at his position behind Missouri’s Luther Burden III.
THEY SAID IT
“The one-handed catches. The leaping grabs. The massive catch radius. The long speed. The strong hands that snare everything, in traffic, on the run, and especially in the end zone. Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan sure knows how to put on a show.” — Anthony Gimino, Lindy’s senior editor
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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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