Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan kicked off his highly anticipated junior season with a record-setting night.

The preseason All-American and projected first-round draft pick set a new school record with 304 receiving yards and four touchdowns on 10 catches in the No. 21 Wildcats’ 61-39 win over visiting New Mexico.

The 6-foot-5, 210-pound wideout delivered the first 300-yard performance by a college receiver since Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba put up 347 receiving yards against Utah in the 2022 Rose Bowl. Only five other FBS receivers have topped 300 yards over the past decade.

In Arizona’s first game as a member of the Big 12, McMillan registered the second-most receiving yards in a game in conference history. His previous career high was a 266-yard game against rival Arizona State last season.

McMillan scored on plays of 69, 17, 78 and 40 yards and nearly had a fifth TD reception but was tackled at the 1-yard line. More than half of his receiving yards (176) came after the catch.

“T-Mac is obviously special, man,” first-year Arizona coach Brent Brennan said. “He’s just something else.”

McMillan missed time this offseason while recovering from a lower leg injury suffered in spring practice and said it felt “amazing” to be back in action.

“These last four months, I’ve been grinding and ready to get back on the field,” he said. “Being able to just play with my brothers again, it’s just a true blessing. Regardless of the records, I’m just happy to be back on the field with my brothers.”

New Mexico kept up with the Wildcats throughout the first half and took a 24-17 lead late in the second quarter. Three plays later, McMillan burned the Lobos for a 78-yard catch and run down the sideline to tie it up.

“Those big explosives were just incredible,” Brennan said. “He outran the whole secondary on the big one down the sideline. He’s awesome. He’s an awesome competitor, and he’s also not satisfied. He was like, ‘We can play better.’ That’s what you hope for.”

Arizona produced 627 total yards of offense and averaged 11 yards per play, with quarterback Noah Fifita throwing for 422 yards and transfer running backs Jacory Croskey-Merritt (New Mexico) and Quali Conley (San Jose State) combining for 196 rushing yards and four scores.

McMillan emerged as one of college football’s most dominant playmakers in 2023 with 90 catches for 1,402 yards (fifth most in the FBS) and 10 touchdowns as a sophomore on a Wildcats team that won 10 games and the Alamo Bowl.

After Jedd Fisch and his coaching staff left to take over at Washington in January, Fifita and McMillan opted to bypass the transfer portal and stay at Arizona. The former teammates at Servite High School in Anaheim, California, wanted to keep playing together and help Brennan construct a contender.

“Everybody in this building, the brotherhood we already had, the culture we had set in here, we just didn’t want to leave this building,” McMillan said. “The legacy that we already had began over here, we wanted to continue this legacy. At the end of the day, we came to Tucson to be program changers. Hopefully, Tucson, y’all can find pride in our play.”

While all eyes in Tucson are on the Arizona Wildcats getting their football season underway, basketball is slowly starting to get things in motion.

Two scrimmage dates have been announced for fans to get their first look at this year’s team, with one being held on their home floor and the other being played in Glendale.

Expectations are high for the Wildcats to hit the ground running during their first season in the Big 12 Conference, and with the way this program has performed under head coach Tommy Lloyd, that should be of little surprise to anyone.

In the three years since he’s taken over, Arizona has won two Pac-12 regular season titles and two Pac-12 tournaments, earning a top two seed in the NCAA Tournament every year.

But despite that success, they have topped out on the national stage by being unable to advance past the Sweet 16 round.

Solving that riddle will be the key for Lloyd during his time in Tucson, and by being inserted into a more competitive conference, it will be more difficult for them to maintain a stranglehold on the regular season.

So how can Arizona emerge as true national powers again?

They need to start recruiting at a much higher level than they have under Lloyd.

His first full cycle in charge was the 2022 class, and since that time, the Wildcats have failed to secure a ranking in the top 15.

There are signs this is changing since they finished with the 16th overall class last year, but only landing two four-star recruits makes it tough to maintain long-term success when they have to rely on the transfer portal.

Seemingly knowing that, Lloyd and his staff are attacking the recruiting trail by trying to land some of the best players in the 2025 class.

With visits set up for the fall, the Wildcats are poised to make a huge splash this year.

However, there is at least one recruit in this cycle Arizona had interest in who they are moving on from.

When referencing Tounde Yessoufou, Joe Tipton of On3 reports, “Arizona has moved on from his recruitment and will look to fill the small forward position elsewhere.”

The California native is ranked as the No. 19 player in this class and has garned national interest from some of the top programs around the country like Kentucky, Baylor, UCLA, Tennessee, Kansas, and UConn.

The 6-foot-5, four-star forward has taken two trips to see Arizona, including an official visit back on June 16.

But clearly they feel like their attention is better served elsewhere, whether that’s because the interest has waned from a singular party, or if both are more interest in other options.

Still, this cycle will be one to closely monitor for the Lloyd and the Wildcats as they look to secure their best recruiting class in this era.

PHOENIX — In a shootout 10-9 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, the Arizona Diamondbacks had to make some tough decisions with the bullpen. Ryan Thompson was unavailable and manager Torey Lovullo wanted to stay away from Justin Martinez, as the duo had pitched in each of the previous two games.

Lovullo had some maneuvering to do, and his pitchers did not get the job done.

Starter Zac Gallen did not have great feel for his pitches early, although he gutted out five innings and left with the two sides tied 5-5.

The biggest moment for the bullpen came in the seventh inning when Paul Sewald entered down 6-5 with two runners on and one out.

Two batters into Sewald’s outing, Dodgers catcher Will Smith broke the game open with a three-run homer. Sewald missed his spot with a fastball in after Smith looked pretty hopeless on back-to-back sweepers. Lovullo thought the pitch should have been down-and-away to freeze Smith.

HR No. 17 for Will Smith is an insurance BLAST 💥 pic.twitter.com/ljT3REZHRn

— MLB (@MLB) August 31, 2024

Why Sewald? Kevin Ginkel, who has not allowed an earned run in his last 11 games, had previously warmed up, but Lovullo wanted to save him and A.J. Puk for a situation in which the D-backs were ahead. Jordan Montgomery was also not available.

“I can’t run away from everybody, and I want to give Paul a chance to get some rhythm and go in there and and find his way,” Lovullo said.

“It’s getting better. Believe it or not, I know it’s hard for me to sit here and convince you guys of that based on what his line score look like, but it’s getting better. I think we’re an arm fake away from executing an out at third base and being out of that inning.”

Sewald then allowed a second home run, this time a solo shot by Shohei Ohtani in the eighth inning on an 0-2 fastball right down the middle.

Ohtani’s homer became the difference in the game, as an Eugenio Suarez two-run shot cut the deficit to one run in the ninth inning.

The D-backs have not named Martinez the closer despite the 23-year-old filling that role over the past three weeks. Lovullo continues to leave the door open for Sewald to retain that status, but Sewald has allowed runs in three straight games and Friday’s performance proved costly.

“The thing I like about him is he’s landing the slider and I know last year it was kind of reverse. It was a lot of four-seam fastballs, and he couldn’t find the slider,” Lovullo said. “He’s got to find that fastball location.”

The Dodgers took a 6-5 lead in the sixth inning on a Joe Mantiply wild pitch, scoring a run charged to Dylan Floro. Mantiply was charged with two runs on Smith’s homer.

Diamondbacks’ first-and-third play

Lovullo highlighted a first-and-third play just before Smith’s home run that he felt made a significant difference in the game.

With runners on the corners, Los Angeles’ Teoscar Hernandez stole second. Instead of throwing down, catcher Jose Herrera pump faked to second and ran toward third. Mookie Betts was caught well off the bag, but Herrera had to wait a beat for Suarez to cover before throwing the ball. Betts just beat the throw to keep Smith’s at-bat alive.

“I thought we got him, but I played deep. I played almost in the grass. That’s why I didn’t make it to third,” Suarez said. “I thought if I played short there, we got him because that was a good play. … As a runner, when you see the third baseman play that deep, you got a chance to break off hard like he did and you’ve got a chance to be back. That’s what happened on that play.”

Lovullo admitted he had not yet reviewed the play, but he was frustrated by the failure to record the out. He said they practice it in spring training a lot, and he would take a closer look at the execution.

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