Arizona Football begins season preparations with start of fall camp

Were are now two days into Fall Camp as Arizona Football continues its preparations for the fast approaching 2022 season. 

It is officially a new season of Arizona Football in Tucson! And after months of agonizing anticipation, the Wildcats are back in action as they begin preparations for the 2022 season.

Arizona took to the Dick Tomey Practice Fields yesterday with rain clouds and light showers dissipating not long after its start, and for roughly 100 minutes, the Wildcats ran several drills working on fundamentals.

A Work in Progress

As head coach Jedd Fisch has stated already, Arizona is essentially in year one of their rebuild. Remember, last year was a team he inherited, and he didn’t have much influence or decision on personnel.

This year, there are a lot of fresh faces, and the overall size of the team is much bigger compared to last year. And with that, you can see the direction in which the Wildcats are trying to go under Fisch.

However, even with the immense success, the Wildcats have seen this off-season, they are still a ways away from where they want to be, to truly be able to compete at a higher level. So, with the first two days of camp in the books, the Wildcats are very much a work in progress.

In the Red Zone

With the Wildcats’ struggles in the red zone last season, according to Brian Pedersen of Arizona Desert Swarm, the Wildcats worked exclusively in the red zone in its effort to improve in that area.

Last season, Arizona could not score or stop anyone in the red zone to save their life. The Wildcats scored touchdowns on less than 31 percent of its red zone possessions, meanwhile, the defense gave up touchdowns on more than 76 percent of opponents’ trips into the red zone.

Return of Old Traditions

As Arizona began its 100-minute practice on Wednesday, the Wildcats first started things off with a welcomed tradition that hasn’t been performed in quite some time… ‘the Haka’.

Led by freshman offensive lineman and Hawaiian native Jonah Savaiinaea, “Big Jonah” as he is aptly named, energized the Wildcats by performing the “war dance” just before practice.

Hopefully, this is an old tradition that stays with the Cats this season as it was popular among fans during the Rich Rod years!

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