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. 75 MIKE FREEMAN
With it being the 75th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 75 for Arizona is offensive lineman Mike Freeman, a Sahuaro High School graduate who played guard and center for the Wildcats from 1980-83. He was a starter for more than three seasons and became a second-team All-Pac-10 selection in 1983. He later played on Super Bowl teams with the Denver Broncos. Freeman, 63, now resides in San Antonio. He is a retired high school math teacher who also served as an assistant coach at the high school level.
NO. 75 IN 2024 — C JOSH BAKER
Baker, 6-foot-3 and 305 pounds, is a fifth-year senior who started all 13 games at center on the offensive line last season. He has started 32 games over four seasons with the Wildcats. He helped lead an offensive line that paved the way for the 20th-ranked total offense (448.0), eighth ranked passing offense (308.3), and 18th-ranked scoring offense in the nation (34.6 points per game).
NOTE
Top 10 Transfer RBs Rushing Grades in College Football, according to @PFFhttps://t.co/RVNQvamRVo pic.twitter.com/rP8uJKVuBH
— Transfer Portal (@TransferPortal_) June 17, 2024
Interesting to note that former Arizona running back Jonah Coleman, now at Washington with former Wildcats head coach Jedd Fisch, is rated the No. 1 transfer-portal player at his position while incoming standouts Jacory Croskey-Merritt (New Mexico) and Quali Conley (San Jose State) are rated Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, by On3 Sports. Arizona was also a finalist for former Oregon State running back Damien Martinez, who chose Miami over the Wildcats and is rated No. 6.
THEY SAID IT
.@CoachBrennan is excited to welcome 20 AZ HS Girls Flag Football teams to Tucson tonight! pic.twitter.com/0IWNiDi9JP
— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) June 16, 2024
“I think you’ve seen it grow so much over the last few years in the West coast. It’s awesome. It’s fun to see these girls get a chance to play the game. It’s such a popular game in our country and they have not had a chance to play it in the past. A chance for them to come out here and run around and compete is pretty cool.” — Brennan on hosting a girls flag football camp at Arizona Stadium on Saturday.
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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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