Hope can be a dangerous thing.
It can lead people to make irrational decisions, which in turn bring about nothing but problems.
Hope can also be a good thing.
It can cause people to act in a manner that ultimately benefits them or others as their faith is rewarded.
In sports teams and programs generally must rely on something more tangible than hope, as games are not won simply by believing that victory will come.
But that doesn’t mean hope isn’t important, and that’s especially true for Arizona Football.
Coming off a terrible season with a head coach whose performance brought about rumors that he would be fired less than a year after taking the job, Arizona looked much more like the program that lost 20 consecutive games than the won that won 10 games and the Alamo Bowl in 2023.
A 4-win campaign with most losses not even being competitive led to an offseason that, actually, did not the head coach or the bulk of the team’s key players leave. Instead the coach made changes to his staff and the majority of important players stuck around.
Then the team added talented and intriguing transfers, signed what appears to be a decent recruiting class and went into the summer with positive momentum for the 2025 season.
Should we be hopeful that things are moving in the right direction?
Most recently the commitment of Oscar Rios, a 4-star QB who chose Arizona over UCLA (and a considerably long offer list), provided evidence that the answer to the question is yes.
Of course Rios still has to sign with Arizona and he would not see the field for the team until 2026 at the earliest, but the mere fact that Brent Brennan and new offensive coordinator Seth Doege were able to land a commitment here is proof that the coaches and program have some juice on the recruiting trail.
You don’t get one of the top QBs in the nation without any.
It kind of makes you wonder what the staff could bring in if this next season goes the way they hope.
Hope.
Almost every day since the team’s season-ending loss to Arizona State news coming from the program has been neutral at worst and positive at best. It’s a far cry not only from what many of us were expecting, but from how bad things could have gotten.
It was not all that long ago where Arizona hit what we felt was rock bottom, and the memories of that stretch between the end of 2019 through the majority of 2021 still linger for most. We are acutely aware of what a collapsing program looks like, and we saw a good many glimpses of that last season.
But maybe it does not have to happen.
It’s entirely possible that while the coaching transition was rough, the unexpected nature of it and especially its timing put the program in a bind that it needed only a bit more time to get out of. With a chance to really get to know the roster and its needs — and to go out and hire coaches who were more qualified than simply available — Arizona could be poised to if not contend for a Big 12 title, at least compete within the conference.
They’re already doing so on the recruiting trail, with the staff showing not only chops but cohesion as they look to create the kind of roster and culture that can sustain into the future.
On the heels of Rios’ commitment the Cats got word that Brandon Smith, a running back from California who had a quality offer list and is ranked in the top 25 of running backs by 247Sports, also plans on playing for Arizona.
He became the 16th member of Arizona’s 2026 class and is the second-highest ranked commit, behind the aforementioned Rios. It’s currently not ranked like the kind of class you’d expect to see turn around a program, but there’s still room for it to grow and of course we know stars and rankings are not everything.
What the class will end up like and who it will be made up of will be interesting and exciting to watch. What this season will look like with a remade roster being led by a revamped coaching staff is anyone’s guess, but as of now it’s hard not to feel good about where the program is not only at, but where it is heading. Better days may indeed be ahead.
At least, we can hope.