Arizona Seniors Reflect on Wildcat Careers and Senior Day
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Coming off a big win on the road over Cincinnati, Arizona is now 7-3 on the season as it honors the senior class for the final home game of the season against Baylor at Casino Del Sol Stadium.
The Wildcats will be honoring a senior class that has brought a lot to this program both this year and over the past several seasons through lots of ups and downs under multiple coaching staffs.
Seniors Dalton Johnson, Treydan Stukes, Chubba Maae and Ian Wagner spoke to the media on Tuesday. Here are some takeaways from what they had to say.
On playing their entire careers in college at Arizona
Johnson: "Once I made that decision to stay all the times when we could have left, it was always the right choice. At the end of the day, believing what coach (Brennan) is doing and what he put together and he believed in me. What more can you ask for, and plus these are my brothers here. I fell in love with U of A. I've been here for five years and I want to go out the right way and give back to the city of Tucson and repay what they've done for me."
Stukes: "Very similar. Throughout the couple of times that we could have had a chance to go anywhere else, I know we talked a lot and we felt that no matter what decision we made, it would be the right one and eventually it led with us deciding to keep repping the "Block A." We trusted in the coaching staff and these are my dawgs for life, so I wouldn't want to do it with anybody else. We definitley made the right choice."
On Maae staying with Arizona despite signing with the Jedd Fisch regime
After beginning his collegiate career at UC Davis, Maae had transferred to Arizona when Jedd Fisch was still the coach for the Wildcats. Despite Fisch leaving for Washington, Maae elected to stay committed to Arizona.
"My decision to stay was the main reason why I chose to come here in the first place which was the people here. When I came on my visit... There's times where you go off during your visit with the guys and you hangout. I was with the guys and for those couple hours, it just felt like I was at my cousin's house or at a friends house. The family atmosphere here is unlike any other and it is real when we say we have a family here."
On Wagner becoming a holder
Wagner has 59 touchbacks on 62 kickoffs this season.
He has also become the holder for the Wildcats despite having never done it before joining Arizona a few months ago.
"I kind of figured it was another way to get on the field and obviously the team needed it because of the void (at that spot). I was athletic and I was good at catching, so I worked all summer on it... We had two options and I ended up being the option."
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Ari Koslow is a sports writer covering the University of Arizona athletics at On SI. Koslow has been covering Arizona sports for several years. Born and raised in Seattle, he is a diehard Seahawks fan and a longtime sufferer of the Mariners. He is a huge fantasy football fanatic. Koslow is a graduate of Arizona’s School of Journalism.