Bold Wildcats' Training Camp Observations

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 and 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.

Three Observations

Aug 31, 2024; Tucson, Arizona, USA; New Mexico wide receiver Luke Wysong (15) celebrates touchdown during first quarter at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images | Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images

The Slot Machine

This offensive unit is deep at the receiver position and will feature 6 to 8 guys that will rotate in and out of the game throughout the course of the 12-game season and has a high number of guys with speed and soft hands that haven’t had many drops in training camp.

The slot is going to be extremely important in this offense and will be used in many different ways under Doege, who has been very creative when it comes to getting the ball to playmakers out in space.

The two top guys to look for to play in the slot a lot this season will be Luke Wysong and Javin Whatley who are the best hands on the team and will surprise defensive backs with their speed out in space.

Coleman Patmon

The defensive backs position is loaded in the secondary for Arizona and is the deepest position on the roster with three key veterans in Treydan Stukes, Genesis Smith and Dalton Johnson all playing a high number of snaps with each other. Plus, the staff brought in added depth through the transfer portal and recruiting class.

One of the freshmen that has been highly impressive this training camp is defensive back Coleman Patmon, who comes from Del Valle, Texas where he picked the Wildcats over offers from TCU, Northwestern, Oklahoma State and Arkansas.

In camp, Patmon has been a monster in the secondary and has been making plays left and right in the passing game and has even seen a little time with the first team defense.

Now, he still has a long way to progress but Patmon is clearly a recruiting steal for Arizona and will be a high-level player possibly this season.

Kick Return

The days of massive kick returns and touchdowns on the opening kick seem long gone compared to college football 10 years ago. However, the Wildcats do have some weapons in the return game that could be gamebreakers this season.

The main guy returning kicks is transfer running back Ismail Mahdi who is one of the most agile running backs on Arizona’s roster and is great out in space and finding the open hole. Mahdi is the perfect fit for returning kicks and setting up the offense in good field position.

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