Bold Observations from Arizona Training Camp
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Arizona football is officially BACK in action and the long offseason is finally coming to an end as the Wildcats have opened up their 2025 training camp to get things geared up for the season with the team set to face Hawaii on Aug. 30 at home at 7:30 p.m. (MST) on TNT.
After an underwhelming 2024 season under Brent Brennan where Arizona went 4-8 after starting the year in the preseason AP Poll at No. 21 and ending the year losing 7 out of its last 8 games, the WIldcats made changes to the roster and their coaching staff.
Brennan revamped his coaching staff by hiring Seth Doege as the offensive coordinator and promoting Danny Gonzales to the defensive coordinating job. Plus, he was able to bring in defensive line coach Joe Salave’a, who is regarded as one of the top recruiters in the nation and a former Wildcat as well.
“When we go through a tough season like we did a year ago, you got to find a way to fix what was broken, fix what wasn’t working and put those pieces together,” Brennan said. “And part of those pieces are how we’re going to do things in terms of how we’re going to coach, what we’re going to do schematically and the other part is who are the players that are going to play those roles.”
The energy at practice was high, loud despite the team not even in full pads, or in shells at this point in time. The pace of play was a complete 180 from the previous season and matches the mindset and mentality that the coaching staff wasn’t to bring to the 2025 season.
Although there was no contact and players weren’t in shells, there were still takeaways to be made with what the media was able to see throughout the duration of the day.
Three Observations
Luke Wysong
- One of the most consistent receivers on Arizona’s roster has been slot receiver Luke Wysong, who transferred over from New Mexico and was recently named to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List.
- Wysong is the type of receiver that will catch anything in his radius and finds the open hole 10 yards and in making him the perfect receiver for a quick hitting offensive scheme.
- To me, he reminds me of former Wildcat David Douglas, who was a pure possession receiver that would find the open hole in the zone making it easy for the team to pick up a quick 6 to 8 yards.
Injuries
- We can not report on injuries due to Arizona rules for media members at practices. However, I can say that this team has been able to keep healthier in comparison to last year in training camp.
- You haven’t seen as many issues as you did a season prior, which led to guys dropping like flies during the 2024 season. This year, there haven't been many standout injuries and nothing serious at all in comparison.
Luke Haugo
- Now, it's clear that the top three quarterbacks on Arizona’s roster are Fifita, Locke and Anderson with Fifita being the starting QB.
- However, another quarterback that was brought in through the 2025 recruiting class was three-star QB Luke Haugo from Higley High School in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he was rated as one of the top players in the state.
- Although Haugo hasn’t gotten anytime with the first three teams, he has seen a few 11-on-11 drills and what has stood out to me his his quick release for a 6-foot-5 quarterback. That is something you just don’t see given that most tall QBs have a slow release. He is able to get the ball out quick in the short passing game and has good footwork.
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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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