Way too early season outlook for Arizona Football in 2019

While the 2018 season is over for Arizona Football, it’s time to prepare for 2019. With that said, here is our early outlook for next year!

The 2018 year is nearly over, and we couldn’t be happier about that. Leave all the bad Juju from Arizona Football this past season, behind.

It’s time to focus on the future and build towards getting this program back on track and looking at what the potentially great things 2019 has in store!

Arizona Wildcats

Entering the year, we were all too familiar with the hype surrounding the Cats. Kevin Sumlin was hired almost a year ago now, Khalil Tate was returning after a stellar sophomore campaign, and there were quite a few solid pieces to ‘win now’.

Everything had shaped up to be a good year, so much that many were picking the Wildcats to be a dark horse favorite to win the conferences’ southern division. Alas, we fast forward 11 months from the Sumlin hiring, and Arizona’s hype ended before it really even got started.

Arizona feel to 0-2 to start the year and never really recovered.

On the verge of becoming bowl eligible in their final game against rival ASU, Arizona blew a late, 19-point lead to the Sun Devils, losing in heartbreaking fashion to finish the year 5-7.

Since then, us fans danced with the rumors that Tate would be leaving, running back coach Clarence McKinney then moved on to a head coaching position at Texas Southern, and we’ve had a few transfers as well thus far.

I guess that’s the growing pains we should have expected in year one under Sumlin. However, if we care to take note, here’s how a few other coaches have performed in their first years at their “new schools”.

• Willie Taggart- FSU (5-7)
• Mario Cristobal- Oregon (8-4) *with a bowl game still to play
• Scott Frost- Nebraska (4-8)
• Chip Kelly- UCLA (3-9)
• Herm Edwards- ASU (7-6)
• Chad Morris- Arkansas (2-10)
• Dan Mullen- Florida (10-3)
• Jimbo Fisher- Texas A&M (8-4) *with a bowl game still to play

Basically all the teams that are traditional football powers, were able to make a bowl game, meanwhile programs like Florida State, Nebraska and UCLA all struggled too, so we’re definitely not alone! In the grand scheme of things, and we really shouldn’t be too upset as these struggles tend to happen for a few programs.

So, that got us thinking, what are some more reasonable expectations for 2019?

Well for one, Tate is returning, as is the Pac-12 1st-team running back, J.J. Taylor. On defense, Arizona has the Honorable Mention, Colin Schooler, Tony Fields II and Scottie Young among others.

Plus, the Wildcats likely return P.J. Johnson, and will get another year of eligibility from corner back, Jace Whittaker and will have a few solid pieces from the 2019 recruiting class that I think can make an immediate impact!

Luckily, Arizona doesn’t seem to lose too much either. The biggest losses from this year will certainly be; Layth Friekh, Shawn Poindexter, Shun Brown, Tony Ellison, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles and Dereck Boles most notably.

The talent should be there, but the schedule will be a little bit tougher. Just from first glance, there are some solid teams, particularly from the Pac-12. Additionally, Arizona will face Texas Tech in Tucson and will travel to Hawai’i. Texas Tech will have a new coach next season, but should still be a solid group.

• Aug. 24 at Hawai’i
• Sept. 7 NAU
• Sept. 14 Texas Tech
• Sept. 28 UCLA
• Oct. 5 at Colorado
• Oct. 12 Washington (Family Weekend)
• Oct. 19 at USC
• Oct. 26 at Stanford
• Nov. 2 Oregon State (Homecoming)
• Nov. 16 at Oregon
• Nov. 23 Utah
• Nov. 29 (Fri.) at Arizona State

May be a tall order, but the Wildcats I think could win six games to become eligible, but the defense will certainly have to play better, and Tate and the offense will need to continue to produce at a high level!

At Zona Zealots, we’re anxious to see how the Wildcats perform in 2019 and have confidence this group can turn it around! Bear Down, Arizona!