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. 7 WILLIE TUITAMA
With it being the 7th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player for Arizona to wear No. 7 was quarterback Willie Tuitama, who played with the Wildcats from 2005 to 2008. Tuitama burst onto the scene as a true freshman in 2005, leading the team to a November win over No. 7 UCLA and being carried off the field on the fans’ shoulders. He went on to pass for 9,211 yards (second in Arizona history behind Nick Foles’ 10,011) and 67 touchdowns (tied for first with Foles). He was named MVP of the 2008 Las Vegas Bowl following the Wildcats’ 31-21 win over BYU. He completed 24 of 35 pass attempts for 325 yards with two touchdowns against BYU in his final game of his football career. He went undrafted in the NFL. Tuitama, 37, now resides in San Diego and has coached in the area. “All is good over here,” he mentioned in a text message. “Just working and enjoying life excited to see what Arizona does this season!”
NO. 7 IN 2024 — RB QUALI CONLEY & CB DEMETRIUS FREENEY
Conley, 5-foot-10 and 209 pounds, is a senior transfer from San Jose State who began his career with Utah Tech. Last season with San Jose State, he rushed for 842 yards and nine rushing touchdowns. Recorded a career-high 6.4 yards per carry. In 2022 with Utah Tech, he played in all 11 games and finished with 1,095 yards on 186 carries with eight rushing touchdowns. Rushed for more than 100 yards in six of the 11 games. Ran for a career-high 215 yards on 25 carries against Tarleton State.
Freeney, 6-foot and 190 pounds, is a junior cornerback who is embarking on his Arizona career after playing at San Mateo (Calif.) College and Miami (Fla). He saw action in three games, largely on special teams at Miami last season. He spent the 2022 season at San Mateo College, he had two interceptions and six pass break ups in seven games.
NOTE
A popular term around football players is “iron sharpens iron” and that can be correlated to Arizona’s talented secondary with standouts such as Tacario Davis, Treydan Stukes, Dalton Johnson and Gunner Maldonado matching up in practice against a Wildcat receiver group that includes Tetairoa McMillan, Reymello Murphy, Montana Lemonious-Craig and Malachi Riley. Arizona’s receivers are going against one of the best groups in the nation and the same goes for the defensive secondary against the receivers.
THEY SAID IT
“I think that’s a good thing. They’re definitely getting challenged every day by excellent players and excellent coaching on the back end. … I love that part of it for us and I think we’re in a good spot.” — Brennan about his receivers going against his defensive backs daily
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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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