20 months ago, Arizona was a broken program.
The Wildcats went bowling eight times in 10 seasons from 2008-2017, including a 10-win season in 2014 that saw them reach the top 10 in the College Football Playoff rankings.
They hired Kevin Sumlin to be the new head coach ahead of the 2018 season, and the slow decay began. They went 5-7 in 2018, then 4-8 in 2019, the first time the program missed back-to-back bowl games since 2006-07.
Rock bottom came afterward. Arizona was winless in five games during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the last with Sumlin at the helm. They brought in current coach Jedd Fisch, but he could only manage a 1-11 record in 2021. From Oct. 5, 2019, to Sept. 3, 2022, the Arizona Wildcats lost 23 of their 24 games.
The Wildcats looked to be headed toward disaster again in 2022, starting the season 3-6. On Nov. 12, however, they stunned a top-10 UCLA team on the road with a 34-28 victory.
They didn’t win out to become bowl-eligible that season, but the victory over the Bruins indicated a changing tide. It turned into a tsunami in 2023.
Through nine games this season, Arizona is 6-3, already having qualified for a bowl game for the first time since 2017. The Wildcats won three of their first four games before they lost to playoff contender Washington by 7 points and reigning Heisman winner Caleb Williams and USC by 2 points. Since the two heartbreaking losses, Arizona has rattled off three consecutive victories over ranked teams for the first time in program history. They knocked off Washington State on the road before playing spoiler against Oregon State and UCLA again in front of their home crowd.
Since that fateful UCLA game a season ago, Fisch’s squad has played six ranked opponents in 12 games. They’re 4-2 against top-25 teams. A program that won a single game over a 35-month period now has a winning record against ranked teams in the past year.
Arizona also reached six wins in early November without their preseason starting quarterback. Junior Jayden de Laura, who threw for 3,685 yards and 25 touchdowns a season ago, was lost to an ankle injury after just four games.
In stepped Noah Fifita, who has been excellent. The freshman has made the job his own, with 1,521 yards, 14 touchdowns, and four interceptions in his five starts. His QBR of 82.4 is the 11th-best mark in the country.
Even beyond Fifita, the Wildcats are within the top 50 in the FBS in both scoring offense and defense. Arizona is one of just 14 Power 5 programs averaging 30 points per game or more on offense while allowing fewer than 20 points per game on defense.
The hardest job in college football is turning around a desolate program. Jedd Fisch took from 1-11 to No. 21 in the CFP rankings in just two years. If that’s not one of the three best coaching jobs in college football this season, I don’t know what is.