It’s been almost two months since Arizona knew it was going to play in a bowl game, and more than three weeks since learning its destination and opponent. That’s a lot of waiting.
But now it’s finally game week, with the Wildcats set to face SMU in the Holiday Bowl.
The team flew to San Diego on Monday afternoon and will have a series of bowl-sponsored events leading up to Friday night’s game at Snapdragon Stadium. While Brent Brennan wants his team to soak up all there is to in the bowl experience, the game remains the top priority.
“Absolutely, enjoy this moment,” Brennan said. “Enjoy this opportunity. There’s many of our players have never been to San Diego. So enjoy all the cool stuff that you get to do, but when it’s time for football, there’s nothing that matters more than that. The most important thing about this experience is us playing good football on Friday night against SMU.”
Below is what Brennan discussed at his final press conference before heading to San Diego:
On being anxious to play: “I think everybody feels that way. It’s kind of like how you feel at the end of training camp. It’s been a month in practice and just beating each other up, and you’re excited to play against an opponent. And obviously, we’re playing against a really good team. It’s a big time game. It’s a big time bowl game, national TV and all the fun stuff that comes with it. So there is a lot of excitement and anticipation for it.”
On if the long layoff is good or bad: “I think it just depends on how you choose to look at it. If you have to play quick, then you’re like, oh, I wish we had more time. Wish we had more time to develop our players. If you’re on the plan that you’re on you’re like, well, let’s just play the game already. So I think it just depends on how you look at it. For us, this has been a great month. A lot of young players in our program, a lot of guys getting opportunities to run around and really get coached. That part of it is just, I thought, really beneficial for us.”
On getting 13 extra practices: “In my opinion, it’s a huge component of why great programs are consistently good, is because they just get that extra block of spring practice for the bowl game. We talked to all kinds of head coaches and other staffs about the best plan for that. And I think we did a good job of walking the fine line between it being too much and too much practice and just beating the hell out of each other for a month straight, but also like getting really good, intentional, physical work done.”
On balancing fun with work in San Diego: “This is way different than any road game that you play because of the festivities. I really think that bowl games are special, and the things that the Holiday Bowl is going to do for our team is something that they should enjoy, and it should be something that should be really special for them. I think any of us that have played bowl games or coached in bowl games, you remember all those parts of it the rest of your life. You might not remember a road trip to wherever in the middle of October, but you remember the bowl experience. And so I want our players to enjoy it. I want them to have a great time. And then it’s time for football. I want us to be locked in, and I want us to get after it in the practice environment and then be great to play Friday night. In this moment, I want it all.”
On possible opt outs: “So far it’s been good. You never know, right? That’s the world we live in right now. Players went home for three and a half, four days, and so the conversations that they’re having when they’re away from the facility, away from their teammates, you just don’t know what they are. And I think all those decisions are really personal and family decisions, and I want to be respectful of that, and I want to be respectful of all those kids’ process. I’m sure Coach Lashlee and SMU would love to know where we’re at with that, but they can find out Friday night.”
On if any players planning to transfer will be with team: “I think (Braedyn) Locke is the only one who’s going to be ready to play.”
On the transfer portal opening on Friday and being the only portal window: “The way that you don’t know how it’s going to help is what will it feel like after spring practice? To me, that portal was always the most, I don’t know the right word for it … I think it was just the most disappointing or challenging. Because a couple things. Number one, you could have brought a player in in December. You could have paid him much money, and then he can leave after four months in your program. And you’re like, oh my gosh, what a bad investment that was. If you’re trying to make great decisions with how you spend the rev share and how you do that then you got to make sure, there’s no way to be 1,000 percent on it. And then I also think there’s also those situations where everyone else goes to spring practice, and feels like well we have that need at this point, at this position. And then they say, like, well, where is a good player at that position? And then let’s go back door and find a way to get to him. So then it gets a little bit complicated. So I like the idea of the single portal. Where it’s at is fine with me. If they want to move it, that’s fine, whatever, just as long as we know what we have for the year, for a year. And so I like the idea of us being kind of mostly through the portal as we as we get into February, because we’re going to have a chance to build the chemistry, build the culture and build the team. And I think that’s one of those things that’s gonna be very, very important for Arizona football. We’re gonna have to build great teams here, and so as we do that, we’re gonna need time with those players here, on task and together and putting the work together and going through all the tough stuff together.”
On if Arizona’s 2025 performance will help recruit the portal for 2026: “I think naturally that helps. I think we played an exciting brand of football in all three phases this year. It’s been fun to watch. I think we have some really outstanding players returning, so I think there’ll be some people that are excited to play with those guys. But I also think we have a great recruiting staff. Our coaches are gangster recruiters. We’re good at it. If you think about this team this year, that team was built off a 4-8 record. We did a great job of identification and then actually recruiting those players and getting them excited about playing football at Arizona. And so I feel really great about the combination of the new hires we made in recruiting, along with our coaching staff and our evaluation process, and then also our recruiting process to acquire players that we think can help us level up, help us continue to build a sustainable, consistent winning football program at the University of Arizona.”
On new GM Aaron Knotts’ first week on the job: “I think for Aaron, for him it’s drinking out of a firehose. It’s a lot happening in a really short time frame, with the pressure of the portal opening. But he’s done a great job. He’s been here, working his tail off, and the communication has been really positive. For us, we get back on the 3rd and so we’re in the process of figuring out, like, okay, what is that going to look like in terms of official visits for us coming out of the bowl game, but the staff has been awesome.”
On his best and worst bowl memories: “Best memory was when I was a player, and I didn’t play very much, but we were playing the Rose Bowl, and I played one play in the game. And at the time, my position coach told me in pregame, just go out there and go stand on the rose and do a 360 and just take it, just look at it, just see it all. Just take it all in. That was the 1994 Rose Bowl.
“The worst one, we’re playing in Arizona with San Jose State. We just won the Mountain West. We beat Boise in the championship game. And I met with this leadership council before and I said here’s the deal, we can stay in Vegas. I might have to raise a little bit of money, but we can stay here through Christmas and train and get ready for your bowl game. And one of the players is like, coach, we’re gonna win tomorrow night. We haven’t been home for like seven months, right? The problem is, when they went home, everybody got COVID. We left, I think, 16 players in San Jose, including our All-American defensive end, defensive player the year. We left really good players. We left six offensive linemen. Then we get here, and we’re at Starr Pass, but it’s a ghost town, it’s still COVID. It’s not like there was a bowl experience to it. And we get to the day of the game, and throughout the week, we just have more and more players testing positive. And we’re trying to not let that be the story, so we didn’t talk about the media or let anybody know we’re missing 30-plus players and both coordinators. And so we’re warming up in what is now Casino del Sol Stadium, and there’s 38 minutes on the game clock. And Ben comes up to me and he says, hey, Pima County wants us to test the team right now. Because we had like five people pop that day. And I’m like, we’re in shoulder pads, our game is pretty close. I can’t say what I said at the time, but he’s like, no, I’m serious, if we don’t do it, they’re gonna cancel the game. And I’m like, okay, so I whistle everybody up, and we walk through the training room, and every person in our organization has to get swabbed. I felt like that at that moment, then we were crushed, because everybody’s already feeling a certain way about all these players and coaches not being able to be a part of the game, so it was already pretty tough. And then when we had to do that, and everyone thought like they might test positive and they have to stay here for a week. And then we did not play well, we got our tails kicked.”
On finishing the season strong: “Since we got bowl eligible we’ve been talking about this extra life that this team gets by getting to go to a bowl game. And that means this extra time this special group of people gets to be together. We always talk about at the beginning of the year, like in January, that every football team has a lifespan. It’s either 11 months or 10 months or nine months, but the longer the better, right? And so I think they’ve done a great job of like enjoying those moments. The stuff that we’ve done off the field during bowl practice has been really fun and really, really meaningful for us.”