Brent Brennan pleads for strong turnout versus Houston

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan pleaded for a strong turnout versus Houston on Friday night during his weekly meeting with reporters on Monday. Arizona fans will be conflicted with the basketball team starting just over an hour before the football team will kick off versus Houston.

The Wildcats are playing at home for the first time in three weeks. Arizona was on a bye last week and played at Central Florida two weeks ago. The announced attendance for Arizona's last home game was 49.888 versus West Virginia on October 26. Arizona is averaging 47,776 per game in 2024.

That is an increase from 2023 when Arizona averaged 47,320 per game. In a prime time with a slightly late start time of 8:15 Mountain Standard Time, Arizona needs a raucous crowd. Arizona needs to win its final three games of the 2024 season to become bowl-eligible.

Arizona played in and won its first bowl game since 2017 with a 38–24 victory over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl in 2023. Brennan acknowledged the frustration everyone feels with Arizona at 3-6. Brennan wants the crown to be a factor versus Houston.

"We need Tucson we need our fans our alums and the students to show up and rock this stadium and I know everybody's frustrated with where we're at and we need them to show up anyway we need to make this thing hard to play in we need to impact third down we need to impact the red zone right with crowd noise and enthusiasm and juice and energy so please rally we need you let's get this thing rocking Friday night"

- Arizona head coach Brent Brennan

Arizona is 2-3 at home this season. After home wins over New Mexico and Northern Arizona in non-conference, the Wildcats are 0-3 in Big XII games at Arizona Stadium with losses to Texas Tech, Colorado and West Virginia. The losses to Texas Tech and West Virginia were by a combined 11 points.

Arizona is 88th nationally allowing opponents to convert 40.0 percent of their third down conversions in home games. The Wildcats are 105th allowing opponents to convert on 63.64 percent of their fourth down conversions in home games.

Arizona is 90th with opponents scoring on 86.36 percent of their red zone opportunties in Tucson. The Wildcats are 94th in allowing touchdowns on 63.64 percent of their drives and field goals on 22.73 percent. Arizona fans need to be loud versus Houston and make it difficult for the Cougars to call plays at the line of scrimmage.