Arizona Football: Majority of Wildcats fans are on the same page

Arizona Football fans are still trying to get over the team’s loss to BYU, 28-23, and aren’t shy about pointing their paws at the new era coaching staff.

Wildcats fans want their team to win. They have been praying for Arizona Football to reign supreme once more and they had high hopes going into Saturday night. The loss to BYU was the first time in 17 years Arizona Football lost their home opener. Wildcats fans did not hide their disappointment online (and that’s where we are getting this feedback). Most posted that they blame the coaching staff and their game plan.

Look, Arizona Football fans are in no way college football gurus. The vast majority have never coached or played on a college football team, or have covered a team in the trenches as media, or have even stepped foot on the Arizona football field. So keep that in mind.

That said, head coach Kevin Sumlin asked the fans to support the team, buy tickets and come to the games. He asked the Zona Zoo to do the same. Everyone did their job, so it was foreseeable that with all the hype, anything short of a win in the Wildcats first game would not go over well in Tucson.

When coach Sumlin said at his first post-game press conference, “Everybody is going to have their opinions of what should have happened and what could have been done, but realistically those don’t matter unless you are part of this football team.” That didn’t sit well with fans I assume. I can only imagine what the media’s reaction was to that statement, maybe the same as my gut reaction, “so soon?”

Arizona Wildcats Football

Arizona Daily Star reporter Michael Lev agreed with Wildcats fans when it came to coaching. He published his report card for the game against BYU and gave the coaching staff a D. Basically he felt the coaches didn’t capitalize on Khalil Tate’s strengths last night. Most Wildcats fans agree with Lev from what we could see on social media. Fans have seen what is possible, so you cannot tell them differently.A

Sumlin had just told everyone to come to the games to be the 12th man and that means Wildcats fans are part of the team. It took Rich Rodriguez several seasons before he got to the point where he was talking about fans opinions not mattering.

But Rich Rod learned a bit from the fans who wanted him to start with Tate instead of his go-to QB Brandon Dawkins. It took an injury for Tate to get his chance, and Rodriguez learned a few things about how to win a game in Tucson. He had to give Tate some leeway in play call improvisation. He had to let Tate be Tate and it worked. Fans were no longer upset and there was a new era of Arizona Football coming together.

According to all the social media posts we read on both our Facebook and Twitter pages, Wildcats fans seem to have wanted to see Khalil Tate run, they felt he was handcuffed, had to stick with the game plan and not use his intuition. When Mazzone gave Tate a few plays at the end of the half that resulted in a touchdown, fans got excited. But that was also abandoned, and fans noticed that as well. They felt that when Tate started running, if just a little bit, it threw off the BYU defense and the Cats were back in business. But then when a series of plays that resulted in a touch down was abandoned for deep incomplete passing that didn’t work in earlier quarters, fans noticed.

Coach Tomey makes a great point through former Arizona DB Barrett Baker:

https://twitter.com/BarrettBaker27/status/1036288261763649536

This fan said it best when talking about having patience, and giving the coaching staff time. To be fair there are fans who will be fans no matter what. There are positive and realistic fans as well pleading for patience, may Wildcats fans everywhere try to be more like them because it can only help the team and the coaches.

https://twitter.com/BLOCKED_BY_PGU/status/1036304054471647232

Dave Heeke, gets an A+, as fans were happy with the beer and food. Some missed the wildcat growl that was replaced with fireworks and a coal mining horn, but it will grow on them.

Fans want to see a happy, energized, sidelines with players who have a can-do winning attitude. Fans want to see Tate run if only for a handful of plays. Fans want to see imaginative plays and in-game adjustments that work. We all want fans to have more patience and continue to support their team. And we all want the Cats to win. There’s so much football left, agreed, let’s hope the coaching staff and team learned a lot from this loss and Tate gets to be Tate again.