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. 45 CHARLIE CAMP
With it being the 45th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 45 for Arizona is inside linebacker Charlie Camp, a standout with the famed Desert Swarm defense from 1991 to 1995. Camp was a four-year letterman at Arizona who finished his career with 219 tackles, nine tackles for loss and three sacks. He led the Wildcats with 90 tackles as a senior in 1995. He played one year for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 1996 before embarking on an extensive coaching career as an assistant. He has coached at Idaho, San Diego State, Arizona, Oregon State, San Jose State (under Dick Tomey and with Brennan), Nevada, North Dakota State, Akron, Houston Baptist and Texas-San Antonio. He has also served as an assistant in high school including at Rowlett (Texas) High School and presently at Little Elm (Texas) High School as the defensive coordinator. He is also a real estate agent in the Frisco, Texas area. Another No. 45 of note: Antonio Pierce, who stood out for the Wildcats in 1999 and 2000 after transferring from Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. After a nine-year NFL career, Pierce coached at Long Beach (Calif.) Poly High School while serving as an NFL analyst with ESPN. He went on to be an Arizona State assistant before joining the Las Vegas Raiders’ staff. He is now the Raiders’ head coach.
NO. 45 IN 2024 — NT KEVON DARTON
Darton, 5-foot-11 and 271 pounds, is a fifth-year senior transfer from Syracuse. Last year with the Orange he was a Burlsworth Trophy nominee. He started all 13 games at nose tackle, finishing with 42 tackles, 8.0 tackles for loss and 5.0 sacks. He had three tackles, a sack and 1.5 tackles for loss at North Carolina and achieved his first-career multi-sack game against Wake Forest. He finished with two sacks and four tackles in the win. He finished with a season-high seven tackles and a sack in the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl against South Florida. He joins former Syracuse coach Dino Babers at Arizona. Babers is the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator.
NOTE
In an informal poll on Twitter (X), I asked people how many wins Arizona will achieve in 2024. It was a landslide pick for eight or nine wins for the Wildcats. An overwhelming 89.4 percent of those who made a selection indicated the Wildcats will win at least eight games this season.
How many wins for Arizona's football team in 2024?
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) July 16, 2024
THEY SAID IT
The praises for Arizona cornerback Tacario Davis continue.
Tacario Davis is a rare breed pic.twitter.com/79OplP6KtY
— PFF College (@PFF_College) July 16, 2024
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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