The long, important off-season now begins for Arizona Football

The first season under head coach Jedd Fisch is officially in the books but now the long, important off-season begins for Arizona Football.

Well, the 2021 Arizona Football season came and went, and as the Wildcats finished the year with a disappointing 1-11 (1-8) record, head coach Jedd Fisch and company will have an important and long off-season ahead.

Coming into the year, many anticipated that this was going to be a long season. Arizona was riding a 12-game losing streak to begin the season, they changed coaching staffs, and they had to overcome years of poor recruiting, development, coaching, and player evaluations.

Nonetheless, it was a new era for Arizona, and many, including myself, were interested to see how this season would go, especially with a first-year head coach.

However, throughout the season, it went about as well as many expected. The Wildcats suffered several setbacks from injuries, attrition, difficult losses, etc. en route to an unimpressive and uninspiring 1-11 record.

With the season officially over, Arizona Football and Jedd Fisch will need to pivot to their first full off-season and work to get this program back on track.

Today, it is November 28, 2021, and that means we are 278 days until the next Arizona Football season begins, and for now, it is going to be a long but important off-season for Fisch and the Wildcats.

If this season showed us anything, it is that Arizona needs a lot of work to turn this thing around, and these are the key focal points that this staff needs to focus on this off-season.

Hire a Defensive Coordinator –

As we are all aware at this point, it is that the Wildcats now have a vacancy at defensive coordinator, and Fisch and Co. will need to move quickly in replacing Don Brown.

It’s no secret that this hire is an extremely important one, and the Wildcats need to make the right personnel decision, or it could set back Fisch and the Wildcats even further.

So for starters, Arizona needs to hire the right coach and set the tone early this off-season.

Re-evaluate the Roster and Get Rid of the Deadweight –

This might be a cold-hearted point to contend with, but this is a bad roster. Simply put, Arizona lacks the talent to compete and if Fisch and staff are going to raise the level of play and breed competition, this roster needs to be re-evaluated and addressed.

If guys can’t or don’t want to compete, this staff will need to do their best to ween out those players and bring in guys that do. Otherwise, you’re going to be stuck with a culture of losing, and things will not get better.

Hit the Recruiting Trail & Transfer Portal hard –

Lastly, if the Wildcats are to restructure and revamp this roster, they are going to need to bring in players that are going to help turn this thing around, and that means hitting the recruiting trail hard.

Currently, the team has a respectable recruiting class coming in but 15 players that are all freshmen, are not going to turn this thing around any quicker. That means this staff will need to continue hitting the recruiting trail and targeting the infamous transfer portal.

Either way, this off-season will be a long and important one for Arizona Football, and hopefully, we see real progress next year!