Arizona football included among early losers in college football transfer portal

It was a rough first season in Tucson for Arizona Wildcats football coach Brent Brennan, whose team went 4-8 overall and 2-7 in Big 12 Conference play after opening the season ranked in the Top 25, leading some to call for the school to fire him.

The offseason is off to a rough start as well.

The Wildcats have lost several key players to the portal, including CB Tacario Davis, CB Emmanuel Karnley (Miami), OL Wendell Moe Jr. (Tennessee), DB Gunner Maldonado (Kansas State) and LB Jacob Manu (Washington).

ESPN compiled a list of the early winners and losers in the college football transfer portal and the Wildcats were listed among the losers, with the site listing the school as having 28 players in the portal.

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Max Olson wrote: “The Wildcats are right behind Purdue for most scholarship players lost to the portal among Power 4 programs, which is the primary reason they’re on this list. After a rough 4-8 run through the program’s first season in the Big 12, coach Brent Brennan will need to add a lot this offseason to get Arizona heading toward a turnaround. He’s getting one more year with quarterback Noah Fifita, but the Wildcats have had a dozen players who started games this season test the portal.”

Purdue, Washington State, USC and Oklahoma joined Arizona on the “losers” list.

Olson, however, offered some hope for the Wildcats, noting that it was still really early in the transfer portal season.

He wrote: “The Wildcats are putting together a large transfer class and have already added quality playmakers on offense for Fifita, including Kris Hutson, Ismail Mahdi (Texas State) and Luke Wysong (New Mexico). If their evaluations are on point in this cycle, they should bounce back…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/arizona-football-included-among-early-000943273.html

Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic

Publish date : 2024-12-31 00:09:00

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