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. 41 MARK JACOBS
With it being the 41st day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 41 for Arizona is linebacker Mark Jacobs, a Flowing Wells graduate who played with the Wildcats from 1974-76. Jacobs unofficially holds the Arizona record with 200 tackles in 1974. The Arizona record book does not officially list the category for most tackles in a season. It does list the annual tackling leaders since 1975 and notes that until 1987 the tackles listed were from observation of “coaches film.” The NCAA did not officially begin to collect defensive statistics until 2000, believe it or not. So a way to look at it: Jacobs unofficially holds the Arizona record with 200 tackles, achieved as a sophomore, while Scooby Wright III has the most in the eyes of the NCAA with 163 in 2014, Wright’s junior season. Jacobs supposedly had more tackles than what the NCAA lists as the record-holder today: Texas Tech’s Lawrence Flugence with 193 in 2002. Jacobs went on to coach at Flowing Wells and was a pillar in the community, with the Sports Park naming itself the Mark Jacobs Sports Park. He earned his secondary education degree at NAU in the early 1980s and coached and taught in Flagstaff before returning to Tucson in 1987 to coach at Flowing Wells. Jacobs, now 69, returned to Flagstaff in 2002 to be with his family and to pursue a career in public-school administration. He is retired in Flagstaff.
NO. 41 IN 2024 — DE JULIAN SAVAIINAEA
Savaiinaea, 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds, is a redshirt freshman who graduated from Honolulu St. Louis High School. Played defensive tackle and defensive end in high school and was the 11th-ranked edge in the state of Hawai’i. He was a 3-star prospect per 247Sports with offers from Hawai’i, San Diego State and San Jose State (when it was coached by Brennan). He was recruited to Arizona by former defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen. He is the brother of Wildcat offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea.
NOTE
Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita is widely considered one of the best at his position in the Big 12 along with Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s son. Fifita told the Coloradan that Shedeur Sanders is a “special” quarterback who is a “generational talent, for sure.” “Just watching him and the things that he does, he’s very competitive,” Fifita added. “I know people don’t like some of his tactics but as a competitor myself, I love it. Whatever it takes to win, everybody has their own style.” Arizona and Colorado meet in Tucson on Oct. 19. “It’s big time,” Fifita said of the game, which most Arizona fans look forward to attending at Arizona Stadium after the conference season starts other than the game with Arizona State. “Hopefully we’re going into it with a lot of hype because of the seasons that we’re both having but it’s going to be a great matchup. I know it’s a homecoming game so Tucson is going to be pumping.”
THEY SAID IT
Talking w @ArizonaFBall Coach Brennan about the heat. And how water used to be a treat back In the day! pic.twitter.com/OP8wEQpTw3
— Bobby Bones (@mrBobbyBones) July 20, 2024
“If you get drafted in Green Bay, are you not going to play? Of course, you’re gonna play. For the heat here, I actually love it. I’ll take the heat over the cold or the heat over the rain any day. We’ll practice in the morning and we’ll be off the field by 12, 12:30 every day.” — Brennan when asked about operating in 100-degree temperatures in Tucson, especially early in the season during fall camp and through September.
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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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