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. 40 MARCUS BELL
With it being the 40th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 40 for Arizona is linebacker Marcus Bell, who played with the Wildcats from 1996-99. He was a standout on the 1998 team that went 12-1 under Dick Tomey, who called Bell the best inside linebacker he ever coached. Bell was an All-Pac-10 selection in 1998 leading the conference in tackles per game with 10.3. He also led the league with 124 total tackles his senior year in 1999. His 139 tackles in 1998 led the nation. In one game that season against Washington, he had 21 tackles. He finished with 405 career tackles, No. 5 on Arizona’s all-time chart. He was part of an Arizona defense in 1998 that recorded a school-record 46 sacks. He went on to play three seasons for the Seattle Seahawks after the Seahawks selected him in the fourth round of the 2000 NFL draft. Bell also played one year for the Houston Texans. Bell, who won three state titles as a player at St. Johns High School, coached at Eager Round Valley for 10 years before resigning before the 2021-22 school year. He led Round Valley to a 2A state title in 2019, the school’s first championship in 35 years. He remains in Eagar involved in the fitness training business.
NO. 40 IN 2024
No current players are listed as having uniform No. 40 at Arizona.
NOTE
Arizona recently went from a projected 7.5 wins to eight wins this season by FanDuel Sportsbook. That means enough action was placed on Arizona to go over 7.5 to have the projected win total move up to eight. This indicates an 8-4 season would meet expectations given the talent Arizona has returning from last year’s 10-3 team, including projected future NFL players Tetairoa McMillan and Tacario Davis, among others.
THEY SAID IT
“Arizona has a game, it’s pretty early in the season, it’s a Friday night game, and they go to Kansas State. That one right there will be one of the sneaky must-see games of the year – good luck picking that one – but also you start to learn a little more about the team. Even I’m not going to be foolish enough to sit here and tell you, ‘I’ve got a pretty good read on what Arizona will be this year.’” — CBS Sports college football analyst Josh Pate
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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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