Breaking Down Arizona's All-Quarter-Century Team Receivers
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Welcome! To another edition of the Arizona Wildcats Insiders Podcast featuring your host Troy Hutchison, who will be delivering a daily podcast discussing everything happening surrounding Arizona athletics giving you an inside look at all the programs on campus.
Hutchison has been covering Arizona for the last seven years with his coverage spanning all-across UA’s campus from football and men’s basketball to Title IX sports. Plus, with so many former Wildcats playing at the next level in their prospective sports there will be moments where he will take a deep dive into the Cats excelling outside of Tucson.
So far in the Brent Brennan era of Arizona football, the Wildcats have had their struggles on the road with four-straight losses dating back to last year. UA has lost those games by an average of 28 points and have fallen behind by double-digits in all four games.
Arizona (4-3, 1-3 Big 12) was able to get things going early by striking quickly as quarterback Noah Fifita hit receiver Tre Spivey for a 70-yard touchdown pass, which seemed to set the tone early for the offense.
Despite the fast start, Arizona found itself trailing 21-14 to Houston (6-1-,3-1) at the half thanks to defensive struggles in the second quarter. And once again, the Wildcats lost the middle eight of the game, which resulted in a Cougars 31-28 win over the Wildcats.
Although Arizona fell on Saturday against Houston and has lost two-straight games, the program is clearly moving in the right direction and has improved drastically from a season ago.
Now with the Wildcats in the bye-week, we at Arizona Wildcats On SI have decided to roll out our All-Quarter-Century Team breaking down the top players at every position over the last 25 years of Arizona football.
Today we are taking a look at what the four top wide receivers would be over the last 25 years that have stood out from the rest.
Top Wide Receivers
4. Mike Thomas (2005-2008)
One of the best route runners and fastest receivers in program history was wide receiver Mike Thomas, who became a massive part of the Wildcats’ offense during his four seasons with the program.
Right around the time Thomas was bursting out on the scene, Arizona had a freshman quarterback in WIllie Tuitama, who was breaking out during his freshman season as well. The two quickly became a dynamic duo that carved up Pac-10 defensive units.
While with the WIldcats, Thomas played in 48 games where he racked up 3,231 receiving yards, 22 receiving touchdowns while totaling 3,626 all-purpose yards and finishing with 25 touchdowns.
For a short while, Thomas set the Pac-10 record for receptions in a career with 259 receptions. That is still a program-record that stands to this day.
3. Juron Criner (2008-11)
If you grew up watching Arizona football in the 2000’s and had to suffer through the John Mackovic, you know the darkest times in program history. However, by the mid-2000’s it became all worth it as the program started turning things around and set up a memorable 2009 season.
By the end of that year, Criner became the top receiver on the roster and had his coming out party against Oregon during the game of the week with College Gameday in town. That night he went off scoring three touchdowns while racking up 93 yards on five catches.
Similar to Bell, Criner was a touchdown machine totaling 32 for his career and became the No. 1 option for Arizona legend Nick Foles. It is arguably the best QB-WR duo in program history.
2. Bobby Wade (1999-02)
The gold standard for a number of years when it comes to receivers for Arizona had been Bobby Wade, who was the all-time leading receiver with his career 3,351 yards on 230 receptions for 22 years.
Wade’s best season came during his senior season where he hauled in 1,389 yards on 93 receptions. After Arizona, he had a solid six-year career at the NFL level playing for the Vikings, Bears, Titans and Chiefs. Now, he is the WR coach for Brent Brennan trying to turn around the program and get it in the right direction.
1. Tetairoa McMillan (2022-24)
Wade’s record stood for 22 years but then a five-star recruit by the name of Tetairoa McMilan came to Arizona and from the first season you could tell that he was different and could do amazing things.
During McMillan’s freshman year, he totaled 702 yards on just 39 receptions to go along with his eight touchdowns.
From the first spring practice, McMillan was turning heads and leaving coaches, players, fans and media members in awe of his superstar talent.
McMillan by the time he was done helped get the program to the Alamo Bowl finishing 10-3 on the season and broke the all-time receiving yards record by posting 3,423 yards on 213 receptions to go with his 26 touchdowns.
Records may and will be broken eventually especially in an offensive minded era of college football. Yet, there will never be another McMillan, who has Larry Fitzgerald-like skill sets and might be the most talented player in the history of the program.
Please be sure to share your thoughts on our All-Quarter-Century Team top four wide receivers ranking. To do so, follow us on our X account by clicking on the link.
Troy Hutchison grew up attending Arizona athletic events, which gave him a unique perspective and knowledge of the athletic department's rich history. He attended UA and began covering the Wildcats in 2018. As the Arizona Wildcats Beat Writer on SI, he is set to deliver wall-to-wall coverage to give fans an in-depth perspective.
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