Arizona Sees Interesting News on Upcoming Opponent
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Arizona is set to open up its 2025 season as the team has ended training camp and is now in full game week mode as the Wildcats and head coach Brent Brennan start to prepare for their opening game against Hawaii, which is set for a 7:30 p.m. (MST) kickoff on TNT.
As the two teams get ready to prepare for Saturday’s game, there has been a recent development out of the Warriors’ practice with starting quarterback Micah Alejado being sidelined on Tuesday according to Christian Shimabuku of the Aloha State Daily.
Micah Alejado is sidelined for #HawaiiFB’s Tuesday morning practice but is giving his teammates pointers and encouraging them etc. pic.twitter.com/97IZJnULek
— Christian Shimabuku (@c_shimabuku) August 26, 2025
Hours later, Shimabuku reported that Hawaii head coach Timmy Chang stated that he expects Alejado to play against the Wildcats come Saturday night.
During the offseason, Arizona and Brennan revamped the coaching staff by hiring Seth Doege as the new offensive coordinator, promoting Danny Gonzales to defensive coordinator and adding Joe Salave’a, Josh Miller and Josh Bringuel to the coaching staff.
Last season, Arizona struggled on both sides of the ball but the defense got worse as the season went along and injuries started to pile up to the point where it was too much to overcome.
However, when the defense was healthy, the unit struggled when going up against dual-threat quarterbacks.
From the very first game of the season Arizona had its issues with running quarterbacks as then-New Mexico QB Devon Dampier, who rushed for 130 yards on 15 attempts and found the end zone twice.
Two weeks later, Kansas State QB Avery Johnson put up 127 yards on the ground in KSU’s 31-7 win over Arizona.
In all, when the Wildcats went up against a running quarterback, the team gave up 363 yards in four games.
The defense didn’t have an answer, or a way to slow down opponents if their quarterbacks had the ability to pick up yards on the ground.
Now, Arizona will open up its 2025 season against Alejado who has the ability to be a dual-threat with his mobility. Against Stanford, he had 10 rushes for 36 yards, which isn’t much but it does show that it is part of his overall game.
Last year, Arizona’s defense wasn’t aggressive at times and took a sit back and react approach to its defensive scheme.
Now, with Gonzales taking over as defensive coordinator the scheme of the defense will be changing things up and if what we saw in training camp holds true, the Wildcats will be an aggressive defense that will throw the kitchen sink at their opponents.
In the past at San Diego State and Arizona State, Gonzales ran the 3-3-5 defense as his base set. But, was known for mixing things up and giving the quarterback different looks constantly throughout a 60-minute game.
Arizona will need to improve against rushing quarterbacks with four on the schedule. Saturday’s game against Hawaii will be a solid test for the defense and give them an idea of where they're at when it comes to defending dual-threat quarterbacks.
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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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