Arizona Football

2024 Arizona football season countdown: 65 days to kickoff

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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. 65 KEN HAKES

Ken Hakes, with his wife Dani Lyn, is very active as an Arizona football alum (Hakes photo)

With it being the 65th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 65 for Arizona is defensive tackle Ken Hakes, who played with the program from 1986-89. Hakes played for Larry Smith and Dick Tomey. He made a big career improvement in his time at Arizona and ultimately led the Wildcat linemen with 72 tackles in 1989. Hakes is a highly successful businessman in Phoenix as the Division Vice President of Finance at Oldcastle Superlite Block, a company that specializes in the production of architectural masonry and concrete aggregate products. He has worked for Oldcastle Superlite Block since 1998. He earned dual majors of accounting and finance when he attended Arizona from 1986 to 1990.

NO. 65 IN 2024 — OT LEIF MAGNUSON

Leif Magnuson

Magnuson, 6-foot-5 and 315 pounds, is one of Arizona’s experienced offensive lineman in his fourth year in the program as a redshirt junior. He made the Pac-12 Fall Academic Honor Roll in consecutive years in 2022 and 2023. He appeared in 11 games last season including the Valero Alamo Bowl 38-24 win over No. 12 Oklahoma. 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). His father Quinn played college football at Washington State and professionally in the Canadian Football League with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Ottowa Rough Riders, and Montreal Alouettes.

NOTE

Arizona Class of 2025 commit Coleman Patmon’s announcement that he is headed to Arizona was welcomed by exuberant teammates at Del Valle (Texas) High School. Patmon is a tall cornerback in the mold of Arizona great Chris McAlister. He is 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds, a 3-star talent as rated by Rivals. He chose Arizona largely because of the recruiting efforts of defensive coordinator Duanke Akina and defensive backs coach Chip Viney. Patmon chose Arizona over the likes of Washington (yes, Jedd Fisch tried to enter the picture in recent weeks), TCU, Houston, Northwestern, Minnesota and Oklahoma State.

THEY SAID IT

“I have come to the decision of putting my faith and commitment with the University of Arizona. God’s guidance through this process was still evident and I thank HIM, my parents, grandma, guardian, Uncle Alan, and all that have supported me on my path. Thank you to the U of A football staff and my future teammates for making feel right at home.” — Arizona Class of 2025 commit Mays Pese, a lineman from Santa Barbara, Calif.

FOLLOW @JAVIERJMORALES ON TWITTER!

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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