Not always, but often times the transfer portal has a way of shining a bright light on your program.
Generally the programs that are the healthiest, both in their games and in the NIL space, don’t see a mass exodus of key players. Meanwhile those that are in disarray or struggling to win games or donors tend to watch a lot of talent depart.
Based off of what happened last season, Arizona football could have been in the latter group. By all rights, with a head coach who was seemingly close to being one-and-done after failing to sustain the momentum built but the one who was poached by a Big 10 school, it should have been.
However Brent Brennan kept his job and replaced all his coordinators, and it was hoped — but not expected — that the changes, where made, would truly signify a fresh start for a program that desperately needs to turn the page from a disastrous 2024 season.
Success?
The first portal window saw a good many players leave, but none that were particularly shocking or even devastating. Arizona was able to retain a good chunk of talent, including pulling some players back from the portal after they had entered.
The Cats then tabbed Seth Doege to run the offense, Danny Gonzales to helm the defense and added Craig Naivar to guide special teams, while sprinkling other new assistants among the staff. On the surface these seemed like solid-to-good hires, but the spring portal loomed and every player on the roster would have another opportunity to depart if they decided Arizona was no longer it for them.
Few felt that way.
“We’re still in the portal window, I don’t know how that’s going to work out,” Brennan said at the conclusion of spring practice last month. “We still have freshmen, incoming freshmen, coming in. We’re still recruiting players right now. The easiest thing to say is the roster is not set as of today.”
He was right, but more in a good way than not.
That Arizona lost only a handful of players to the spring portal but retained every one of the players expected to play starring roles. That can be seen as a testament to the revamped staff that had little time to install their schemes and show what kind of teachers and leaders they would be. Understanding there are less open roles within programs this time of year, good players would have little trouble finding a landing spot if that is what they sought.
Instead, the Wildcats who stuck with this staff, program and school continued to do so, providing even more evidence that just maybe things really are going to be better this upcoming season.
That’s not to say Arizona’s roster is particularly loaded or does not need to add more talent, because it isn’t and it does. Even more, a good chunk of the roster and players who figure to receive the bulk of the snaps are either going to be new to their roles, to this program or to this level of football, so there is still much that this year’s team has to prove.
But given where the program is today and comparing it to where it could have been, don’t you at least think they might be alright? That this group of players who chose Arizona and then reaffirmed their commitment may very well surpass the meager expectations they are set to enter the season with and be a competitive team?
I do.
The truth is in college football it doesn’t take being a great team to win six games. For as bad as Arizona was last season, had close losses to Texas Tech and West Virginia gone the other way the Cats would have been playing in the postseason.
Arizona’s nonconference schedule doesn’t figure to be the most daunting, especially with three games being at home, and the Big 12 is not necessarily the deepest conference in terms of elite programs.
In short, there will be opportunities for a mediocre team to win games, and after last season most fans would take a mediocre team that reaches bowl eligibility.
The Wildcats could of course be better than mediocre. The truth is that with as much turnover as this roster has undergone in many ways the team that takes the field will be unfamiliar and untested. The same goes for the coordinators, who are all new to their respective roles, at least at Arizona.
But that is the beauty of this upcoming season. The roster as it currently stands offers plenty of intrigue, if not proven talent, and that the group decided to stick around and together provides a glimpse of it having the kind of connection the best teams in the country often have.
Instead of decimating the program, the transfer portal helped to rebuild the roster and show us all that despite what we may have felt as recently as the end of last year, Arizona is still a place where talented players want to play football.
With any luck, it will again be a place where they can play winning football, too.