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. 59 RANSOM TERRELL
With it being the 59th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 59 for Arizona is linebacker Ransom Terrell, who played with the program from 1971-73 after starring at Amphitheater High School. He twice earned All-WAC honors. Terrell was only 190 pounds when he first started as a sophomore and he finished his career at only 215 pounds, yet he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1974. He was released during fall camp. Terrell relocated to Las Vegas in 1977 and was a long-time employee of the Clark County School District, working as the purchasing/warehousing coordinator. He passed away at age 60 in 2012. He was actively involved for many years as a coach for youth athletics and as a Scout Master in Las Vegas.
NO. 59 IN 2024 — OL RHINO TAPA’ATOUTAI
Siaosi “Rhino” Tapa’atoutai, 6-foot-5 and 310 pounds, is a redshirt freshman who graduated from Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills, Calif. Recruited to Arizona by former defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen. He was a three-star prospect who had scholarship offers by Colorado, Arizona State, Hawai’i, Houston Christian, Indiana, Kansas, Louisville, New Mexico State, Oregon State, San Diego State, San Jose State, SMU, Texas State, and UNLV.
NOTE
2024 Big 12 Head Coach Pressure Rankings via @JesseReSimontonhttps://t.co/Q0KBBo5aVg pic.twitter.com/6tzTLWAMRO
— On3 (@On3sports) July 3, 2024
On3.com believes new head coach Brent Brennan is No. 7 in the pressure-to-succeed scale among Big 12 coaches after taking over a talented group on both sides of the ball after the departure of Jedd Fisch to Washington. Baylor’s Dave Aranda is under the most pressure, according to the rating. Deion Sanders is No. 2, which is questionable. Sanders is not under any pressure really from people at Colorado because of the attention he’s drawn to the program.
THEY SAID IT
On3.com rates Brennan having “medium” pressure.
“Brennan is among the rare first-year head coaches who need to show results immediately — and it mostly has to do with the situation he inherited from Jedd Fisch. The Wildcats were a 10-win team in 2023, and while a slew of players transferred to Washington, star quarterback Noah Fifita, wideout Tetairoa McMillan and corner Tacario Davis all opted to remain in Tuscan (Tucson) to try and win a championship in a new conference.” — Jesse Simonton, On.3 com.
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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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