Arizona's New OC Bringing Things He Hasn't 'Done Before' on Offense
Even amid all the excitement surrounding the Arizona Wildcats heading into the upcoming college football season, there are still multiple questions about how things are going to play out when they are on the field.
Anytime there is a coaching change, there is normally a lot of roster turnover which prevents continuity carrying over from the previous year.
For Arizona, they are hoping that's not the case after they won 10 games for the first time in almost a decade on their way to a huge bowl victory against Oklahoma to cap off their incredible season.
New head coach Brent Brennan was able to go a great job of keeping the talent that could have departed through the transfer portal within this program, giving some hope they actually will be able to keep the momentum going this year.
Having Noah Fifita at quarterback and their superstar wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan in the mix should certainly help this offense, but how this group actually looks by the time they're on the field for Game 1 against New Mexico isn't known because Brennan didn't bring his offensive coordinator from San Jose State with him.
Instead, he opted to hire recently fired Syracuse head coach Dino Babers to be the Wildcats OC.
With them entering the Big 12 conference for the first time, Babers is looking to bring something unique to his second tenure with Arizona, saying he's going to do things "a lot different" with him in charge of the offense.
"This is going to be a different journey. It's gonna be a lot different. I'm doing some things, a combination of things that I haven't done before, and some of it's really cool. It will be fun to see what I can sprinkle in from the experiences and the people I've been around, to maybe even put an icing on the cake that makes it look and taste a little bit different," he told Jason Scheer of 247Sports.
That has been on display during their preseason practices.
At this point in time, though, the offense has struggled to pick up on some of the new concepts as they are installing new plays, something that Babers had to address.
There is still plenty of time for them to all get on the same page as they start off with two games against non-conference opponents before they begin their first Big 12 action.
The most important thing for Babers will be to make sure Fifita is comfortable in the offense and give him time to find his playmakers.
If everything goes right, this offense could be one of the best in their conference.
BRAD WAKAI