Following a win over No. 25 Cincinnati, Arizona head coach Brent Brennan went to the podium Monday after the presser for the new naming rights of Arizona Stadium to the Casino del Sol Stadium and went over a lot of things regarding his team.
The most relevant to this week would be packing Casino Del Sol Stadium, the depth showing up against the Bearcats, and what changing the name for the stadium means.
Arizona (7-3, 4-3 Big 12) will host Baylor (5-5, 3-4) at 11 a.m. The Senior Day game will be televised by TNT.
The program will honor the accomplishments of 28 seniors.
“You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning”
Many associated with Arizona, and those who are not, have commented on the fan attendance — or the lack thereof — of the home games for the better part of the season.
Brennan added to that saying, “Tucson, University of Arizona, ZonaZoo — we need you this weekend. You guys had a big-time impact on our win over Kansas at homecoming.”
While official attendance numbers haven’t fallen below 40,000 this season, the east side of the stadium has looked barren.
During the BYU game a few weeks ago, the crowd seemed just as loud for the Cougars as Arizona.
Brennan said directly to students: “ZonaZoo, you guys set the tone for the energy of the football game. I know it’s an early kickoff, but someone told me long ago, ‘You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.'”
Casino del Sol Stadium
In the last few years, it has become known that Arizona was looking for a naming-rights partner for its football stadium.
Early Monday morning it was announced that Casino Del Sol, owned by the Pascua-Yaqui Tribe, would be the partner for the next 20 years, paying $60 million.
“It starts with consistency of leadership,” Brennan said about the agreement between Arizona and Casino del Sol. “That is so important when you are building something. The partnership with Casino Del Sol is so impactful in that (player experience) because it’s going to be how we feed ‘em, how we house ‘em, all those parts, (and) how we support them.”
The deal is the biggest of its kind in Big 12 history according to a post made on Arizona’s website.
Depth lessons from Cincinnati
In every football season someone is bound to get hurt. What matters is the readiness and ability of the player behind the one that is hurt.
In the game against Cincinnati, four Wildcats were injured including offensive tackle Tristan Bounds and defensive tackle Tiaoalii Savea.
“Our recruiting staff and also the assistant coaches, (all the) people did a really good job of aggressively attacking that window of the portal last year, and the high school kids,” Brennan said about his depth this season. “I think that evaluation process is so important and it’s unique.”
With only two games left in the season, not including the bowl game, Arizona will have to rely on that depth more going forward.
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