Arizona Wildcats looking to leave 9-win jinx in the past

For the last half-century, whenever Arizona wins nine games, the Wildcats fail to match or exceed the win total the next season. The last time Arizona had back-to-back seasons with nine or more wins was in 1974 and ‘75.

“It’s been done,” said Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales. “It just hasn’t been done as of recent.”

Arizona hasn’t had back-to-back winning seasons since the 2014 and ‘15 seasons. UA is hopeful this year will get the Wildcats back to consistent success.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane and see how each UA team performed after winning nine or more games, shall we?

1975

Record: 9-2

The rundown: In the third season under head coach Jim Young, the Wildcats posted back-to-back nine-win seasons. Future Arizona head coaches Larry Smith (defensive coordinator) and John Mackovic (offensive coordinator) were Young’s top assistants.

Arizona quarterback Bruce Hill passed for 1,747 yards and became a first-team All-WAC selection. Arizona hadn’t had a first-team all-conference quarterback in 50 years until Noah Fifita ended that drought this past season.

1976

Record: 5-6

The rundown: The Wildcats lost three out of the last four games in Young’s final season. Young left Arizona for the same position at Purdue. Arizona’s leading passer was the late Marc Lunsford, who passed for 1,284 passing yards.

1986

Record: 9-3

The rundown: Chuck Cecil starred at safety in UA's defense and had a 106-yard pick-six against fourth-ranked Arizona State in Tucson. Cecil's interception returned for a touchdown is widely considered the greatest play in UA football history. 

The week after beating ASU, Arizona lost to Stanford, 29-24, at the Coca-Cola Classic in Tokyo, and ended the season with a 30-21 win over North Carolina at the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu for the first postseason win in program history.

1987

Record: 4-4-3

The rundown: After Smith became USC’s head coach, the Wildcats hired Hawaii head coach Dick Tomey. Arizona tied — yes, ties were in college football until 1996 — three teams: Cal, Washington and ASU.

1993

Record: 10-2

The rundown: Arizona’s “Desert Swarm” defense, led by first-team All-Pac-10 defensive linemen Rob Waldrop (Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year) and Tedy Bruschi, was the catalyst for the Wildcats’ success under Tomey. The Wildcats were the Pac-10 co-champion with UCLA in 1993, but due to Arizona losing the head-to-head battle, the Bruins were invited to the Rose Bowl instead.

Arizona blanked the Miami Hurricanes, 29-0, in the Fiesta Bowl, the first shutout in the bowl game’s history. Bruschi and running back Chuck Levy were named Fiesta Bowl MVPs. 

1994

Record: 8-4

The rundown: The dropoff in this season isn’t as bad as others, especially considering three of the four losses were by a combined nine points. Arizona entered the 1994 season ranked No. 7 and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

1998

Record: 12-1

The rundown: The Wildcats had arguably their best season in program history in 1998. It’s the only Arizona team to win 12 games and the first to have one or fewer losses since the 8-1-1 squad in 1961. Arizona began its dominant season with a three-touchdown win over Hawaii, Tomey’s previous coaching stop prior to Arizona.

A month later, Arizona quarterback Ortege Jenkins led the Wildcats to a thrilling win over Washington after his “Leap by the Lake,” which remains one of the most iconic plays in UA football history. In a back-and-forth battle with Nebraska, the defending national champion, the Wildcats won the Holiday Bowl, 23-20, to punctuate the program’s historic season. 

1999

Record: 6-6

The rundown: Arizona could smell the roses at the start of the season, but the third-ranked Wildcats were blown out by No. 4 Penn State, 41-7, in State College, Pennsylvania, to start the season. Despite the upset win over No. 22 USC, the Wildcats dropped four out of their last five games.

2014

Record: 10-4

The rundown: After thrilling wins over No. 2 Oregon on the road, Cal (the “Hill Mary” game) and ASU, Arizona won the Pac-12 South Division. The Wildcats lost to Oregon in the Pac-12 championship before falling to Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. Arizona linebacker Scooby Wright III had arguably the best defensive season in program history. The Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year also won Chuck Bednraik Award, Lombardi Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Jack Lambert Trophy. Wright was a unanimous All-American.

2015

Record: 7-6

The rundown: Injuries derailed Wright from playing a complete season, but the linebacker stamped his UA career by leading the Wildcats to a win over the New Mexico Lobos in the New Mexico Bowl. Wright declared for the NFL Draft minutes after that victory. Earlier in the season, Arizona hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay” for its matchup with No. 9 UCLA. After quarterback Anu Solomon and Wright left the game with injuries, the Bruins won, 56-30.

2023

Record: 10-3

The rundown: Two years prior, Arizona was a downtrodden program until Jedd Fisch revived the Wildcats with a loaded recruiting class in 2022, which had Fifita and star wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan. Fifita took over for the injured Jayden de Laura during the Wildcats’ Pac-12 opener at Stanford. After hard-fought games against Washington and USC, the Wildcats won seven straight games, including the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. Arizona’s 2023 Alamo Bowl team is one of four teams in program history to win 10-plus games.

2024

Record: 4-8

The rundown: Arizona was affected by the retirement of legendary head coach Nick Saban. Alabama hired Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer and the Huskies hired Fisch, who was replaced by Brent Brennan, the head coach at San Jose State. Brennan retained several players from the Alamo Bowl team, including Fifita, McMillan, offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea, linebacker Jacob Manu and standout defensive backs in Tacario Davis, Treydan Stukes, Dalton Johnson, Gunner Maldonado and Genesis Smith, among others.

Injuries depleted Arizona’s defense and offensive line and the Wildcats had one of the worst offenses in the Big 12. Arizona entered the season as College Football Playoff hopefuls, which turned into “absolute misery,” Brennan said. Arizona ended the season with a 49-7 loss to Big 12 champion ASU.

2025

Record: 9-4

The rundown: Arizona hired offensive coordinator Seth Doege and promoted Gonzales from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator. Arizona also hired its first full-time special teams coordinator in five years in Craig Naivar.

In Arizona's second season under Brennan, the Wildcats became the eighth team in program history to win at least nine games. Arizona ended the regular season on a five-game winning streak before falling to SMU, 24-19, in the Trust & Will Holiday Bowl in San Diego.

The Wildcats had three players earn first-team All-Big 12 honors: Fifita, Stukes and Johnson. Stukes and Johnson led an Arizona defense that was among the top passing defense and takeaway units in college football.

Fifita became the third all-time Arizona quarterback to receive first-team all-conference honors — the first in 50 years. Fifita joined Hill and Ted Bland, a three-time All-Border Conference selection from 1933-35.

Fifita set the program career passing touchdowns record (73) and the single-season passing touchdowns record (29). In the first season under Doege, Fifita finished third in the Big 12 with 3,228 yards, 29 touchdowns and just six interceptions — two interceptions in the final seven games. 

Following the season, Brennan, Doege and Gonzales signed contract extensions and the Wildcats returned all of their coordinators — and Fifita for his fifth and final season at the UA.

Gonzales is confident Arizona can replicate last season or improve because of “the leadership at the top with Coach Brennan.”

“You have to build the culture, live the culture, defend the culture,” Gonzales said. “We were living it hard last year, because it was fun, because we were winning and everyone was excited. Well, all that is worn off now, because those are gone. How do you defend it? How do you fight for that culture every single day? It starts with whoever is leading it. Coach B set the tone when we got back in January. …

“With the leadership that we have, we have the best quarterback to ever play in the history in this school. If we do what we expect to do as a program, he’ll be in New York in December. Noah Fifita is the best quarterback in the country. If we can get some stops on third down and protect him, he’ll be able to show that."

2026

Record: TBD

The rundown: Brennan believes in his “Team 123” squad this season, but he’s reluctant to diagnose the identity of the team.

“Identity is very hard to define before you play a football game,” Brennan said. “How do you know? You don’t know. What I hope is that when we line up, we’re a physical team that chooses violence and looks like they’re having fun doing it. With a lot of the unproven pieces that are out there, defensively and what that looks like, we gotta play more football.”

Between Arizona and San Jose State, Brennan successfully rebuilt teams. While it’s a tall order, “it’s way harder to sustain it — and if anyone tells you different, they’re full of it. Way harder,” Brennan said.

Side effects of sustaining success are “relief bias, complacency, everyone kissing your butt and telling you how good you are,” Brennan said.

Fifita views this season as unfinished business.

“For me, the goal is a Rose Bowl (in the College Football Playoff),” Fifita said. “That’s what we’ve been working towards for five years. That’s what I’ve been dreaming about and praying about for five years. That’s the potential of this team.

“We have the people and the personalities to do it. Coach Brennan has been preaching process over outcome. That’s something we live by and something I respect so much. … That’ll give us a chance to go do what we want to do.”

Added Fifita: “We just gotta be ourselves. We’re not worried about the past. We’re not worried about the past wins or the past losses. We’re not even worried about these expectations. We have our own standard that we live by. It’s about this year. Everybody has zero wins, everybody has zero losses. We’re not looking at what the outside world says is possible. We know what we have and we’re going to dive into the process and do what God has destined for us.”

Brennan said the Wildcats “have really good leadership and I think they’re still really hungry.”

“I think they feel like they left some stuff on the table last year,” Brennan said.

“They want to go attack this thing.”