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. 1 BRUCE HILL
With it being 1 day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player for Arizona to wear No. 1 was quarterback Bruce Hill, who played for Arizona from 1973-75. Hill was added to Arizona’s Ring of Honor at Arizona Stadium last season. Hill was the Western Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year in 1973, Back of the Year in 1975, and made the All-WAC First Team squad in his final season. His long list of accomplishments led to his induction into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 1981. When his collegiate career ended in 1975, he stood as the Arizona career record holder with 5,090 passing yards, 45 touchdowns, and 6,054 yards of total offense, all records that remained intact for eight years and still rank among the top 12 in program history. The 1975 Wildcats team, captained and quarterbacked by Hill and led by head coach Jim Young, finished the year with a 9-2 record, a mark of 5-2 in WAC play, and a No. 18 ranking in the final Associated Press Poll. Over the course of Hill’s career, the quarterback helped steer Arizona to 20 weeks ranked in the AP Top 20. One of Hill’s most impressive performances came in a 1975 game against New Mexico, in which he threw for a then-school record 406 yards and set the program’s single-game record with 451 yards of total offense. Both marks from that game remain in the Arizona Football all-time top 20. Over the course of his three-year career Hill led the Wildcats to a record of 26-7, including a 17-4 record in WAC play, and snapped a nine-game Territorial Cup losing streak for Arizona with a 10-0 victory in front of 40,782 Arizona fans in Tucson in 1974. Hill played briefly in the Canadian Football League before returning to his alma mater Los Angeles Fremont High School to teach U.S. History while also being the head coach at his alma mater.
NO. 1 IN 2024 — RB JACORY CROSKEY-MERRITT & CB TACARIO DAVIS
Croskey-Merritt, 5-foot-11 and 208 pounds, originally is from Montgomery, Ala., and lettered at Sidney Lanier (Ala.) High School. He is a fifth-year senior who transferred from New Mexico after rushing for 1,190 yards in 12 games on 189 carries with 17 rushing touchdowns last season. The 1,190 rushing yards is the seventh most in UNM history, 17 rushing touchdowns was third all-time, 18 overall touchdowns was tied for second and 108 points were fourth on the UNM single-season scoring chart. Named Honorable Mention All-America by College Football News.
Davis, 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds, is a junior out of Long Beach (Calif.) Miligan High School. Appeared in all 13 games with 11 starts during second season with Arizona last year. Led the conference with 15 pass breakups and 16 passes defended. Named All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention and AP Second-Team All-Pac-12 for the first time in collegiate career. Finished with career-high 25 total tackles (18 solo, 14 assists) including 0.5 tackles for loss. Moved his career tackle total to 32 over 18 games played with Arizona. Rated as a potential high NFL draft pick in 2025 by various publications.
Honors & Awards
- 2023: AP Second-Team All-Pac-12
- 2023: All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention
NOTE
Arizona has announced that Treydan Stukes, Noah Fifita, Gunner Maldonado, Jonah Savaiinaea, Josh Baker, and Jacob Manu will represent the football team with the captain “C” on their jerseys. Brennan stated that these players will hold the role of captain for the entire season.
THEY SAID IT
“I just feel like there’s such a clear… leadership on this team, and I think the players feel it. The team voting was a virtual landslide.” — Brennan
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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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