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. 26 DAVE LIGGINS
With it being the 26th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 26 for Arizona is safety Dave Liggins, who transferred to Arizona from Cincinnati during the Tony Mason era and played with the Wildcats from 1978 to 1980. Liggins earned Defensive Player of the Game honors in the 1979 Fiesta Bowl loss against Pittsburgh. Liggins intercepted future Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino twice in that game. Liggins passed away in 2016 at age 57 from liver and kidney problems. Two years after receiving liver and kidney transplants, his liver started failing him. He was an All-Pac-10 selection in 1980, when he finished No. 7 on school’s career interception list with 13. He had seven of those interceptions in 1980. He was signed by the Denver Broncos as an undrafted free agent and hurt his knee in camp and never played again. He worked at the Tucson Airport Authority as well a juvenile detention center in Smithville, Ohio, and Tampa, Fla. He was also part of the Sandusky County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Dept. He coached at various universities.
NO. 26 IN 2024
No current Wildcats are listed with No. 26 on the roster.
NOTE
Safety Genesis Smith, a sophomore from Chandler Hamilton High School, is making an already solid secondary for Arizona very strong. He appeared in all 13 games last season as a true freshman and figures to have a more prominent role this year with Duane Akina, the defensive coordinator, known for his ability to develop NFL cornerbacks and safeties. Smith totaled 24 tackles with one interception. He has an opportunity to step into bigger roles this season for the Wildcats. Smith may have an opportunity to start especially with Akina talking about occasionally playing Treydan Stukes at cornerback. “Part of being the best player on the depth chart is can you learn more than one position,” Akina said.
THEY SAID IT
“(Smith) I think has really a lot of upside. Right now if you were to say who is your starting secondary, I can say Genesis Smith is one of our starting defensive backs. Is he trotting out first? No because there are only so many guys. He is lined up in a position with Stukes, (Gunnar) Maldonado and Dalton (Johnson), so I’ve got four starting safeties right now.” — Akina
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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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