ESPN puts Arizona on list of college football’s biggest underachievers

Not everyone is sold on the potential of Arizona’s football team in 2024.

ESPN placed the Wildcats on its list of college football’s biggest underachievers ahead of the 2024 season on the same day Arizona landed on the USA Today Coaches Poll preseason Top 25 rankings at No. 21.

Arizona is in its first year in the Big 12 Conference after coming over from the Pac-12 Conference alongside Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.

From ESPN: “Arizona also went a decade without a postseason appearance until 2008, and ended a five-year run of no bowls last year before (Jedd) Fisch left to take the Washington job. The university discovered a $177 million budget shortfall in November, which will continue to impact athletics during its Big 12 transition.”

Winning the Big 12 in their first season and/or making the College Football Playoff under first-year coach Brent Brennan could silence all the doubters, and Arizona appears to have a team loaded with talent to do so.

Leading the way are a pair of players on the Walter Camp Award preseason watchlist in former Servite (Calif.) High teammates with quarterback Noah Fifita and wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan . McMillan, 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, is widely thought of as one of college football’s best receivers and projected as a Top 10 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.