4 Key Takeaways From Brent Brennan's Press Conference
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Just three days remain before No. 17-ranked Arizona is set to take on the SMU Mustangs in the Trust & Will Holiday Bowl, which is to be played at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, CA, on Jan. 2 at 4 p.m. (MST).
Head coach Brent Brennan made a massive turnaround from last season, leading the Wildcats to a disastrous 4-8 record in his first year at the helm. Arizona ended the 2025-2026 season with a 9-3 record, a top-25 finish and is now bowling for the second time in three years.
Brennan was able to make that turnaround with the help of an experienced group of players who chose to remain with the program despite an unexpected ending last season, a dynamic bunch of transfer players and a coaching staff that put those players in the best position possible to succeed.
Arizona will now be facing an SMU team that is one season removed from making it to the College Football Playoffs and is looking to prove that it is still among the top of the ACC. Here are some key takeaways from Brennan's remarks on the upcoming challenge and his team's preparations for it.
On balancing rest time with preparation
"It's kind of like how you feel at the end of training camp. It's been a month of practice and just beating each other up, and you're excited to play against an opponent. And obviously, we're playing against a really good team. It's a big time game. It's a big time bowl game, national TV, all that fun stuff that comes with it. So there is a lot of excitement and anticipation for it."
On how a long layoff affects the team
"I think it just depends on how you choose to look at it. If you have to play quick, then you're like, 'Oh, I wish we had more time. We wish we had more time to develop our players.' We know, if you're on the plan that we're on, you're like, 'Well, let's just play the game already.' So I think it just depends on how you look at it. For us, this has been a great month, a lot of young players in our program, a lot of guys getting opportunities to run around and really get coached."
On players entering the transfer portal
"So far it's been good. Yeah, you never know, that's the world we live in right now. Players went home for three and a half, four days and so the conversations that they're having when they're away from the facility, away from their teammates, you just don't know what they are. And I think all those decisions are really personal and family decisions and I want to be respectful of that and I want to be respectful of all those kids' processes."
On the excitement of playing in a bowl game
"This team is really a special group of young men and I think that has played out over the course of season and you've seen that be visible just in how they celebrate each other and how they enjoy practicing together and how they just enjoy being around each other. We've been talking since we got bowl eligible. We've been talking about this extra life that this team gets by getting to go to a bowl game and extra time this special group of people gets to be together."
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Nathaniel Martinez and a set of shoulder pads at 7 years old. He later graduated from Pima Community College in 2023, where he began writing for the Pima Post. He is working to achieve a Bachelor’s in Mass Communication and Media Studies.