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. 15 JEFF HAMMERSCHMIDT
With it being the 15th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 15 for Arizona is safety Jeff Hammerschmidt, who played for Arizona from 1987-90. He was a four-year letterman and three-year starting safety at Arizona. A first-team All-Pac-10 safety in 1989, he was a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award that same season as a senior, before earning his bachelor’s degree in sociology. He signed as a free agent with the LA Rams (1991) and spent the 1992 season playing for the Frankfurt Galaxy of the World League. Hammerschmidt had many coaching stops as a special teams coach or assistant coach, including at Arizona, Syracuse, Colorado State, Stanford, Indiana and Montana on the college level. Hammerschmidt was also the New York Jets’ special teams assistant under former Wildcat linebacker Brant Boyer for five seasons. Hammerschmidt is now an executive with ETeamSponsor.com, a fund-raising platform for high school athletics and youth sports.
NO. 15 IN 2024 — QB ADAM DAMANTE & LB JABARI MANN
Damante, 6-foot-2 and 187 pounds, is in his first year in the program after transferring from NAU. He played in seven games with five starts as a true freshman with the Lumberjacks last season. He made his debut at Arizona and earned his first start against Montana, as NAU went 3-2 in games he started in. Completed 116 of his 168 pass attempts for 1,146 total yards and six touchdowns. Threw for more than 200 yards in three games with 196 and 183 yards in two others. At ALA-Gilbert North, where he was a teamamate of Arizona freshman Brandon Phelps, he threw for 4,769 yards and 59 touchdowns as a senior for the Eagles. Totaled nearly 9,000 passing yards in his high school career, throwing for 109 touchdowns and a 67.5 completion percentage. Added 1,047 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns.
Mann, 6-foot and 216 pounds, is a true freshman who is from Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, Calif. He played linebacker and running back in high school. In over 28 games on defense, made 104 solo tackles, 73 assisted tackles for 177 career tackles. Averaged 6.3 tackles per game. Made 15.0 tackles for loss. Recorded 6.0 sacks for loss of 47 yards, averaging 0.2 sacks per game for his career.
NOTE
New quarterbacks coach Lyle Moevao, who followed Brennan from San Jose State to Tucson, met with the media on Thursday. Noah Fifita said the addition of Moevao “has been awesome.” “He is a great coach,” Fifita added. “The relationship we built off the field allows us to have a lot of fun on the field, but even more so as to the person he is. He knows his football… We’re really excited to have him as our leader and be able to player for him.” Moevao, 37, is a former Oregon State quarterback who played for the Beavers when Brennan was an assistant there from 2006 to 2009.
THEY SAID IT
“Noah is special. He’s got the character part. He’s got the off-the-field part of it that makes him special and he’s got the on the field X’s and O’s savviness that makes him special. Also, the way that he speaks to media and other people, how to handle a lot of the pressures.” — Moevao on his highly-touted junior QB
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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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