Arizona Wildcats Head Coach Shares the Challenge that Utah Presents
The Arizona Wildcats are getting ready to hit the road for what will be their opening game in conference play and their first-ever official matchup that will count in the Big 12 conference standings.
Arizona is very familiar with their opponent however, getting things started on the road against their fellow new Big 12 team and former Pac-12 rival, the Utah Utes. While Wildcats head coach Brent Brennan is in his first year as the head man in Tucson, he has coached on the West coast for a very long time and is acutely aware of the type of challenge the Utes present.
Since joining the Pac-12 in 2011, ironically the same season Brennan took a position as an assistant at Oregon State, the Utes have had four double-digit wins seasons and won back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022. Now, Utah along with Arizona is taking on the new challenge of playing in the Big 12, and Brennan took time during his press conference to praise what head coach Kyle Whittingham, now in year 20 leading the program, has built during his time in Salt Lake City.
"Extremely well-coached team," Brennan said of Utah. "They’ve been winning lots of games every year for a very long time. They’re 20 years into their program build. They know exactly what they’re recruiting to, exactly what works there. They’re always one of the most physical football teams you play every year. High level of execution. Always really, really impressed with the football team. Every time I’ve ever played them or coached against them, I’ve always had an incredible amount of respect respect for Coach Whittingham and that staff."
Incredibly, Whittingham has been with the Utah program since 1994, working his way up from defensive line coach, to both safeties and linebackers coach, eventually defensive coordinator, and promoted from within to head coach following Urban Meyer's departure to Florida in 2005. Prior to leaving the dissolving Pac-12 conference this season, his program had been among the most consistently solid in the entire country.
Now, Utah will look to establish themselves as a new power within the new version of the Big 12, and they just so happen to get their first shot at doing just that against an opponent they have faced numerous times over the years. Last season, Arizona was victorious over the Utes in a 42-18 drubbing, but Utah had won the previous five matchups after the Wildcats claimed four in a row before that from 2012-2015.
There should be fireworks in Salt Lake City on Saturday night as it will mark the true beginning of a new era for both programs on the field.
