Arizona football history: seasons, coaches, rivalries, bowls

Zeitgeist statureNational Program II#57 all-time▲ climbing · highest since 2015

Stature and coaches, 1936–2026

The program’s standing over time, with every coach’s tenure beneath it — read down to see who was there for each rise and fall.

Arizona is National Program today. Never reached Dynasty tier; Power Program is its high, most recently in 2000.

Arizona State#1 nationally

DynastyBlue BloodPower ProgramNational ProgramRegional Program

Run↔pass identity, by season

Every coach, tenure by tenure, on the coaching page →

All-time 43-45-1 since 1931 · .483 win rate

Streak W1 Arizona won the last meeting

Trophy The rivalry itself No trophy — the season is the argument

Next 2026 season date set by conference

No fan reading for this rivalry yet this week. The heat trend and each side’s mood appear when fans start talking about it.

The last 5 · year-by-year

W 2025 Win 23-7
L 2024 Loss 7-49
W 2023 Win 59-23
W 2022 Win 38-35
L 2021 Loss 15-38

Program outlook

Brent Brennan went 4-8 in his first season and nearly lost his job. He went 9-4 in his second and earned a contract extension. Arizona enters 2026 trying to decide which version of Brent Brennan just showed up — and whether a bounce-back is a program or a single good year.

Since Jun 14: W 34-7 vs Cincinnati; W 52-31 at West Virginia; W 39-3 vs Iowa State; L 26-34 at Texas Tech. 6-2 this season.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

Desert Swarm is the standard Arizona football reaches for. Dick Tomey's early-1990s defenses were genuinely feared — 30 rushing yards allowed per game, Sports Illustrated cover, a 1998 season that finished 12-1 and ranked fourth nationally, a Holiday Bowl win over Nebraska. That is the ceiling the Wildcats carry as identity, and it is a real one. Tedy Bruschi came out of Tucson. Rob Gronkowski came out of Tucson. Bear Down is a campus creed with a genuine origin — the dying words of a 1926 player-captain, adopted as the university's permanent standard. The building blocks of a program that can be feared again are in the record.

The path back has been uneven. After Jedd Fisch's 10-3 rebuild in 2023, he left for Washington and Arizona crashed to 4-8 in Brennan's first Big 12 season, with the fanbase openly calling for a change. Brennan answered with a 9-4 turnaround in 2025 — a 6-3 conference record, a Holiday Bowl bid — and a contract extension. The offseason moved belief: Arizona appears to have a coach capable of competing in the Big 12 on a sustainable basis, not just surviving it. That is the real shift entering 2026, and it is the first time in a while the program has been able to say it honestly.

The 2026 question is whether the 9-4 was the new floor or the new ceiling. Arizona's Big 12 schedule will not get easier; the top of the league — Texas, Oklahoma State, the programs that treat Tucson as a winnable road game — will be watching the Wildcats closely. The specific answer the season will provide: whether Brennan can build a defense worth fearing again. The offense has Air Raid-flavored infrastructure. The defense is where the Desert Swarm ghost either returns or stays dormant.

On the field

A defense-first identity at its historical best — the Desert Swarm tradition of swarming gang-tackling pressure, updated into the modern Big 12 era with Air Raid-flavored passing concepts on offense. Brennan's 2025 team ran a spread-oriented attack and mixed defensive schemes to hold opponents in check on enough Saturdays to reach nine wins. The identity is in transition: Arizona knows what it wants to be defensively (feared, physical, Swarm) and is still determining whether the current staff can get it back there.

Program outlook · as of Jun 14, 2026

Arizona has won 51% of its games since 1916 — 60% at home, 40% on the road.

527-483-25 all-time · 102 seasons · 1916–2026

Home 345-220-10

Away 172-248-14

Neutral 10-15-1

1 g

1910s

1920s

57%

1930s

53%

1940s

44%

1950s

50%

1960s

54%

1970s

59%

1980s

60%

1990s

42%

2000s

50%

2010s

47%

2020s

Era record 71-80 13 seasons

Best season 10-3 2023

Trajectory · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned

Program quality AP rank (inverted) CFP appearance

Swipe left for earlier seasons

Chapters · 13 seasons · tap to open the archive

'14 10-4 '15 7-6 '16 3-9 '17 7-6 '18 5-7 '19 4-8 '20 — '21 1-11 '22 5-7 '23 10-3 '24 4-8 '25 9-4 '26 6-2

Arizona’s 2014–2026 record is 71-80.

Brent Brennan

Brent Brennan is in year 3. The methodology is taking shape.

Era Brent Brennan · 2024–presentPrev: Jedd Fisch (2021–2023)OC: Seth DoegePrev OC: Dino Babers (2024)DC: Danny GonzalesPrev DC: Duane Akina (2024)

The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →

3 years · era

Arizona and Arizona State, meeting by meeting

Arizona State leads the series 45-43-1 (since 1931); in the last 10 meetings, Arizona is 4-6

2025: Arizona won 23-7. After this game, Arizona State led 45-43-1.

Last 25 meetings: ▲ Arizona won, ▼ Arizona State won, by how much

Each step is one meeting: up when Arizona wins, down when Arizona State wins, flat for a tie. Counts every game in our records since 1931. Tap the line for any season.

Arizona in History

Saban retires; Alabama hires DeBoerCoach change · Jan 10, 2024
Arizona, Arizona State and Utah leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12Conference change · Aug 4, 2023

Moments in Arizona history

Arizona 37, Utah 30Nov 14, 2015
BYU 33, Arizona 27Oct 11, 2025
USC 43, Arizona 41Oct 7, 2023

1994

Desert Swarm on the SI cover

The defense gracing Sports Illustrated — the moment the desert became nationally feared

The 1998 12-1 season

A 23-20 Holiday Bowl win over Nebraska, a #4 final ranking — the high-water mark of Arizona football

Moment of the year · 2026

Won 35-7 vs Northern Arizona

Week 1 of 2026. A statement margin. Recruiting boards re-rendered overnight.

Decisive margin

2024–2026

Arizona has sent 11 players to the NFL Draft since 2024 — 2 of them in the first round.

Steady. Reliable mid-tier pipeline.

11 picks · 2 in round 1

#8 Tetairoa McMillan Wide Receiver · 2025 ·

Carolina Panthers · #4/466 final season

#25 Jordan Morgan Offensive Tackle · 2024 ·

Green Bay Packers

#37 Jonah Savaiinaea Offensive Guard · 2025 ·

Miami Dolphins

#52 all-time · 12 first-round picksthe talent factory →

#	Program	Record
1	Utah	5-0
2	BYU	4-1
3	Texas Tech	4-1
4	Arizona	3-2
5	Baylor	3-2
6	Houston	3-2
7	Oklahoma State	3-2
8	Arizona State	2-3
9	Cincinnati	2-3
10	Iowa State	2-3
11	TCU	2-3
12	UCF	2-3
13	West Virginia	2-3
14	Colorado	1-4
15	Kansas	1-4
16	Kansas State	1-4

Arizona’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026

2014–2017 · Calvin Magee (co) / Rod Smith (co)2018–2020 · Noel Mazzone2021–2023 · Brennan Carroll2024 · Dino Babers2025–2026 · Seth Doege

Defense2014–2026

2014–2015 · Jeff Casteel2016–2018 · Marcel Yates2019 · Marcel Yates / Chuck Cecil (interim)2020 · Paul Rhoads2021 · Don Brown2022–2023 · Johnny Nansen2024 · Duane Akina2025–2026 · Danny Gonzales

Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)

Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

Bear Down

since 1926

'Bear Down' — dating to 1926, the final words of Arizona QB John 'Button' Salmon before he died from a car-crash injury — is the program's permanent mantra. The phrase is engraved on every Arizona facility + tattooed on alumni + spoken in every postgame interview. The most-storied two-word mantra in CFB outside of 'Roll Tide.'

1998 Desert Swarm Era

since 1998

Dick Tomey's 1998 12-1 + Holiday Bowl championship + #4 final AP rank — 'Desert Swarm' defensive identity — is the program's all-time peak. The defense forced 50+ turnovers + held offenses to single digits routinely. Tomey's tenure (1987-2000) defined the program identity that continues to anchor recruiting.

Cactus Bowl / Territorial Cup

since 1899 · trophy game

Arizona-Arizona State plays for the Territorial Cup — first played 1899, one of CFB's oldest trophy games. The in-state Big 12 rivalry has produced 90+ meetings. The Cup itself is a brass-and-leather trophy whose annual home depends on the outcome.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.

BowlsLast 5 bowls 2-3, 11-9 since 1979

Recent postseason (1979-2025): 11-9

Most recent: 2025 Holiday Bowl — loss 24-19. Last 5 postseason: 2-3.

2025 L 2023 W 2017 L 2015 W 2014 L

Reddit blowupsThe plays that blew up on r/CFB.

r/CFB moments

1.5k

[Postgame Thread] USC Defeats Arizona 43-41 (3OT)

Oct 2023 · r/CFB

1.4k

[Postgame Thread] Northern Arizona Defeats Arizona 21-19

Sep 2021 · r/CFB

715

[Postgame Thread] SMU Defeats Arizona 24-19

Jan 2026 · r/CFB

671

[Postgame Thread] BYU Defeats Arizona 33-27 (2OT)

Oct 2025 · r/CFB

508

[Postgame Thread] USC Defeats Arizona 45-37

Oct 2022 · r/CFB

All-time top community posts

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Arizona

Stature and coaches, 1936–2026