The Arizona football team hit rock bottom last November. They ended a winless, shortened season with a 70-7 loss to the hated Sun Devils of Arizona State. 

Former head coach Kevin Sumlin was let go shortly after the game and after a bumpy coaching search, Athletic Director Dave Heeke and President Robert Robbins went with an unconventional choice in Jedd Fisch. 

A much-maligned choice at the time, Fisch was working at a deficit. Now, Fisch has managed to turn the story surrounding him and managed to change the public discourse into more and more excitement surrounding the program. 

The PR job that Fisch has executed so far has been perfect, and it’s warranted, especially when Tedy Bruschi and Rob Gronkowski have your support as well. However, what are the expectations for when Fisch and his staff get out and coach for the first time? 

Fisch has put together an excellent staff that might have this team overachieve a bit, but this team is not good and won’t be winning a lot of games this year. Sumlin and his staff left the cupboard almost bare for Fisch and there’s a chance it could be really bad next season again. 

That’s the worst-case scenario because Arizona has already hit rock bottom, so there’s nowhere to go but up. With this new staff, I think the realistic expectations for this team are to show any and all signs of improvement. That comes in all shapes and forms, from fewer penalties to improvement on the field. 

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A lot of the improvement that should be expected comes from the ability for anyone to notice an increase in effort level. We want to be able to see an increased level of competition from the team, even though the talent might not be all the way there yet. 

2021 Season Prediction

I personally believe that Arizona will go 4-8, but when watching the games, viewers will be able to notice a marked difference with the on-field product and I also wouldn’t be surprised if Arizona won more games than that as well.

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