Arizona football enters 2022 season ready to rebound after rough 1-23 stretch
The Arizona football program has found wins hard to come by over the last few seasons. To say the Arizona Wildcats have struggled is quite an understatement. Since week 6 of the 2019 season, the Wildcats have posted a 1-23 record, with the lone win coming against a covid-depleted Cal Bears team last season in an ugly 10-3 fashion.
Some alarming stats from last year include being dead last in all FBS in red zone scoring, last in turnover margin, and third worst in penalties per game. The offense couldn’t score, gave the ball away too much, couldn’t take the ball away on defense, suffered through injuries, and on top of all that, they were killing themselves with penalties.
To resolve this, Arizona has completed a roster overhaul during the offseason and enters the 2022 season looking to be much more competitive.
Head coach Jedd Fisch has hit the transfer portal and recruiting trail hard, and the roster now looks much improved over last season. In his first full recruiting cycle in 2022, Fisch hauled in the best recruiting class in program history and landed in the top 25 nationally.
Pairing that class with an impressive transfer portal group has given Arizona plenty of optimism about the trajectory of the program moving forward.
The roster upgrade is clear and obvious on paper, now the challenge will be whether Fisch and company can coach as well as they can recruit.
Wins and losses alone shouldn’t determine whether this season is a success, the Wildcats are looking to build something beyond just this season. It could take a couple of years of strong recruiting classes until they are competing for bowl berths and conference championships, but they are heading in the right direction and while may continue to take some lumps this year, the arrow is pointed up for the Arizona football program.