Arizona
Taking stock: How Arizona soccer is looking under coach Becca Moros
The offseason is here, with all of Arizona’s sports done for 2023-24 season and the 2024-25 campaigns still a little ways away.
That makes this a great time to step back and see how all of the Wildcats’ programs are doing, especially with the impending move to the Big 12 Conference.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at each of the UA’s men’s and women’s athletic programs to see what shape they’re in and what prospects they have for the near future. We’ll break down each team and evaluate how it is performing under its current coaching staff, looking at the state of the program before he/she arrived and comparing it to now while also looking at the upcoming debut in the Big 12 and beyond.
Next up: Soccer under Becca Moros.
How it looked before
Arizona soccer had by far the most successful run in program history under former head coach Tony Amato. During his eight years he took the Wildcats from nine straight losing seasons to eight straight of being .500 or better, including five trips to the NCAA Tournament. Amato left in the spring of 2021 to become the head coach at Florida and Arizona responded by hiring Moros, the youngest coach in the Pac-12.
Moros was hired in June that summer and instantly had to get her roster ready for August, retaining players and recruiting some of her own. She has led UA to one winning season in her three years and has been in the bottom three in the conference in scoring all three seasons.
Moros believes she’s been putting the pieces together with a veteran team coming back for 2025, getting ready to perform against new conference competition.
Where things stand now
Arizona is missing a consistent second scoring option other than Nicole Dallin after forward Cameron Valladares transferred to ASU in December. Moros said that MacKenzie Moring has been having time to develop in the opposite striker position as Dallin. Moring did not appear in any games last season and saw a combined 22 minutes of play in two games her freshman year.
On the goalkeeper’s end of things for UA, Hope Hisey, who had held down the net for UA the past five seasons, has graduated. Which brings up, who’s next? On the roster already was Ciara Ulreich-Power, who didn’t see any action last year and Olivia Ramey who transferred from Oklahoma where she started 22 games the past two seasons.
Moros feels this team has more depth attacking out of the midfield and the front line than they have ever had since she has been there.
What life in the Big 12 should look like
As Arizona leaves the Pac-12, which has been arguably the hardest conference to play in recent years, it will enter a Big 12 that will be a challenge of its own. Texas Tech and BYU were the only teams still in the conference to make the NCAA tournament last season. The UA doesn’t see Texas Tech in the regular season and will host BYU.
The Big 12 had eight teams of .500 or better in the regular season and UA will have to face five of them along with ASU.
One big question
Can Arizona get some momentum rolling and get back to the tournament? Before Arizona won its last two games of the season, UA went on a 6-game losing streak and two draws which stopped any hope at a tournament berth.
Moros retained key players, Megan Chelf, Sarah Rice and Dallin for their fifth seasons. Adding more depth to her forward position will give UA the chance to compete in the Big 12.
If Arizona finishes within the top 12 of the conference they will have a shot in the Big 12 Tournament, which is being held in CPKC Stadium, home of the NWSL’s Kansas City Current, for the next two seasons.
Arizona
Tetairoa McMillan a 2024 Biletnikoff Award semifinalist
Arizona Wildcats junior Tetairoa McMillan on Tuesday was among 11 players named semifinalists for the 2024 Biletnikoff Award, which is given annually to college football’s best pass-catcher.
McMillan is third in the nation with 1,136 receiving yards with Arizona (4-6) still set to visit the TCU Horned Frogs this Saturday and before hosting the rival Arizona State Sun Devils in the regular season finale.
His receiving yards total trails two other finalists: San Jose State receiver Nick Nash (1,282 yards) and Bowling Green tight end Harold Fannin Jr. (1,170).
Also on the list is a player for the Wildcats’ upcoming opponent. TCU’s Jack Bech is sixth in the nation with 982 receiving yards so far this season.
McMillan began the year well-regarded and on the lengthy Biletnikoff Award preseason watch list, as well as the Maxwell Award watch list that will be handed out to the nation’s best all-around college player.
The bulk of his production in 2024 has come in two games: a 304-yard performance in the season opener against New Mexico on Aug. 31 and a 202-yard outing on Oct. 26 against West Virginia.
A likely first-round pick, the 6-foot-5, 212-pound receiver piled up 1,402 yards and 10 touchdowns last season. Current Arizona Cardinals rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. won the Biletnikoff trophy last season for his 1,211 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior for Ohio State.
LSU’s Malik Nabers and Washington’s Rome Odunze, who like Harrison were first-round NFL Draft picks, were the other finalists in 2023.
A panel of 600 college football journalists, commentators, announcers, former award winners and former receivers vote for semifinalists, finalists and award winners.
A fan vote accounts for one official vote as well.
Tetairoa McMillan and 10 more 2024 Biletnikoff Award semifinalists
Jack Bech (WR), TCU
Ja’Corey Brooks (WR), Louisville
Harold Fannin Jr. (TE), Bowling Green
Tai Felton (WR), Maryland
Tre Harris (WR), Ole Miss
Travis Hunter (WR), Colorado
Tetairoa McMillan (WR), Arizona
Nick Nash (WR), San Jose State
Xavier Restrepo (WR), Miami
Jeremiah Smith (WR), Ohio State
Ryan Williams (WR), Alabama
Arizona
How former Arizona Wildcats fared in Week 11 of NFL season
Another week of the NFL season is in the books. Here’s how former Arizona Wildcats fared around the league in Week 11.
Nick Folk, K, Tennessee Titans
Folk made a pair of field goals, including a long of 43 yards, in Tennessee’s 23-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Folk has 396 career field goals, one shy of 15th all-time.
Christian Roland-Wallace, ST, Kansas City Chiefs
Roland-Wallace played 13 snaps on special teams in Kansas City’s 30-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Roland-Wallace earned a 66.7 grade, second-best on the Chiefs special teams unit.
Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, ST, San Francisco 49ers
Flannigan-Fowles played 14 special teams snaps for San Francisco in its 20-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Flannigan-Fowles’ 63.6 grade on PFF was fourth-best on the 49ers special teams unit.
Jacob Cowing, WR/ST, San Francisco 49ers
Cowing played one offensive snap and two special teams snaps in San Francisco’s loss.
Jordan Morgan, OT, Green Bay Packers
Morgan was placed on the injured reserve on Saturday, meaning he’ll miss at least the next four weeks. Morgan reportedly reaggravated a shoulder injury during practice.
Arizona
Democratic Arizona governor says she'll work with Trump on border security if it won't harm families
PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Monday she is willing to work with President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration on border security issues like stopping fentanyl trafficking, but not in areas that she said could harm Arizona families such as mass deportation.
Hobbs traveled to the Arizona-Mexico border on Monday to trumpet her state’s National Guard work helping crack down on smuggling of the deadly synthetic opioid into the U.S. through Nogales, Arizona. More than half of all border seizures of the drug are made in Nogales.
“Border security was a core issue of the Trump campaign,” Hobbs told reporters as vehicles moved behind her. “I look forward to having conversations with the incoming president about Arizona’s needs, including border security and the work we’ve done here to build these partnerships that are actually producing results and how we can continue those partnerships under his administration.”
But, she added, there are Arizona families who “are worried about threats from the Trump administration as well.”
“I will not tolerate actions that harm Arizonans, that harm our communities and quite honestly, divert resources from providing real security at our border,” Hobbs said.
Trump has promised to conduct the largest deportation operation in American history, something that would upend the lives of the 11 million people living in the United States without authorization, many of whom have family members who are U.S. citizens.
“I will stand up to protect Arizonans from harm by the federal government, from anyone,” Hobbs said, but “I’m not going to comment on hypotheticals. We don’t know what a mass deportation plan will look like, what resources it will involve.”
Hobbs also touted Operation Secure, her initiative deploying the National Guard to assist local and federal enforcement in Arizona’s border communities like Nogales. The governor said 170 Arizona National Guard members are assigned to counterdrug efforts statewide, including 40 at the border in Nogales.
The governor’s border visit comes less than two weeks after Democrats suffered blistering losses at the polls in Arizona, with Trump defeating Vice President Kamala Harris by a margin of about 185,000 votes statewide and beefing up the Republican majority in the Arizona Legislature.
Hobbs said Monday that border security is not a “Republican or Democratic issue” and she will work with “anyone” to keep the border safe.
Troy Miller, acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, also spoke at the news conference and called National Guard members “a critical force multiplier” for his agency’s operations at the Nogales port.
“The scope of this problem is too large and the stakes are too high for us to do this work alone,” Miller said. “That’s why I’m so proud of the partnerships we have built, especially the ones right here in Arizona.”
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