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. 43 WILLIE PEETE
With it being the 43rd day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 43 for Arizona is slot receiver/defensive back Willie Peete, who played with the Wildcats from 1956-59. After his stellar career, Peete became Arizona’s first African-American assistant coach. He came to Arizona from Mesa High School, where he was a three-sport star in football, basketball and baseball. He started playing at Arizona as a true freshman (a rarity in those days) in 1956 as a tight end. He was one of only four black athletes on the team that season. He wore No. 43 until his senior season, when he wore No. 82. It was in 1971 when Peete became the school’s first black assistant football coach, staying for 12 seasons before having a 15-year NFL coaching career. His son Skip played for the Wildcats before transferring to Kansas after Willie Sr. got a job with the Kansas City Chiefs. Skip Peete is in his 27th season as an NFL assistant coach, presently the running backs coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His other son, Rodney, starred at quarterback at Sahuaro before playing his senior season in Overland Park, Kansas. He went on to excel at USC and play 16 years in the NFL. Willie, who is retired and living in Tempe, recently celebrated his 87th birthday.
NO. 43 IN 2024 — S DALTON JOHNSON
Johnson, 5-foot-11 and 200 pounds, is in his fourth year in the program as a redshirt junior after playing only three games as a true freshman in 2021. He played at safety in all 13 games last season, including the Alamo Bowl in which he earned Defensive MVP honors after making a career-high 13 tackles (seven solo and six assisted), and forcing a pivotal fumble to lead the Wildcats comeback 38-24 win over No. 12 Oklahoma. He finished with career-high 86 tackles (53 solo, 33 assists), career-high six tackles for loss, career-high two sacks, one interception, two pass deflections, and four forced fumbles. He finished 10th in the Pac-12 with 86 tackles and tied for first with four forced fumbles. He recorded his first career interception at Arizona State and made eight tackles (seven solo and one assist) including two tackles for loss in the Territorial Cup win. He also had nine tackles against Washington (five solo and four assists) with two forced fumbles.
NOTE
In an informal poll on Twitter (X), I asked people about the Big 12 road game they would like to see the most and the game at TCU on Nov. 23 ranked No. 1 with 38 percent of the vote followed by at UCF on Nov. 2 (26 percent) and at Utah on Sept. 28 (20 percent) and at BYU on Oct. 12 (16 percent).
Which Big 12 road game for Arizona (not including the non-conference game at Kansas State) would you want to travel to see the most?
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) July 18, 2024
THEY SAID IT
Athlon projects Arizona to play Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 27. The Las Vegas Bowl has an arrangement with the SEC and Pac-12 for this season and next. The bowl ties for the Pac-12 remain this season and next per a contract signed by the conference with the Las Vegas Bowl before the conference disbanded. This prediction means Athlon believes Arizona will not qualify for the College Football Playoffs.
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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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