To get ready for the upcoming Arizona football season, All Sports Tucson offers a countdown, which will include history notes and a look ahead to the season — a good way to keep Arizona football on the mind in the summer months leading up to fall camp in early August and then kickoff against New Mexico on Aug. 31 in the start of the Brent Brennan era.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS PREVIOUS DAYS IN THE COUNTDOWN

A LOOK BACK — NO. 95 CLEVELAND CROSBY

With it being the 95th day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 95 for Arizona is defensive tackle Cleveland Crosby (1978-79). He was a Purdue transfer who had 13 sacks in two years with the Wildcats. He was a second round draft pick in 1980 but his NFL career never flourished because of injuries. He also played for the Houston Gamblers of the USFL and remained in the Houston area. He is retired in Pearland, Texas, a suburb of Houston.

NO. 95 IN 2024 — DT Keanu Mailoto

Mailoto, a 6-foot-5 and 300-pound defensive tackle, is a redshirt junior who played three games during the 2023 season. He made one assisted tackle in the 42-18 win over Utah. Before he came to Arizona, Mailoto made 19.0 tackles during the 2022 season at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. He recorded a season-high four tackles at Fullerton College in the final game of the 2022 season. Recruited to Arizona by former defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen and tight ends coach Jordan Paopao.

NOTE

Mailoto will be coached by new Arizona defensive line coach Joe Seumalo, who has 22 seasons of NCAA Division I experience coaching defensive linemen. Ten of his players went on to play professional football. Oregon State’s Stephen Paea was the 2010 Pac-12 Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Seumalo was a defensive lineman at Hawaii who played for Dick Tomey in 1985 and 1986 before Tomey left to Arizona in 1987. Seumalo’s children are very active with football. Andrew is in his sixth season as the defensive line coach at Lafayette College, Isaac is in his eighth NFL season as an offensive guard with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jessi (a daughter) is the Player Personnel Coordinator at the San Francisco 49ers, and Noah recently completed his career as a linebacker at Oregon State. 

THEY SAID IT

“Honestly, he just allows us to play our game. He wants us to elevate by not thinking as much and obviously just going.” — Defensive lineman Dominic Lolesio told KGUN-TV about his new coach Joe Seumalo

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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.

ALPINE, Arizona — A bear walked into a cabin through an open door and attacked a 15-year-old boy who was watching YouTube videos, authorities say.

A news release from the Arizona Game and Fish Department says the teen suffered injuries to his face and arm in the attack Thursday night. The boy was treated at a hospital for his injuries.

“This really could have been a lot worse,” the boy’s mother, Carol Edington Hawkins, tells NBC News. “We’re still in disbelief that this happened, but we’re also feeling very blessed.” She said the door had been left open to allow cool air inside.

Wildlife officials say the teen, named Brigham, was sitting inside the cabin when the black bear, estimated to about 3 years old, entered and attacked. It briefly left the cabin and chased Brigham’s 19-year-old brother, Parker, but then entered the cabin again and again swiped at Brigham, injuring his arm.

When wildlife officials arrived at the cabin, they were able to quickly locate the male bear and kill it, the news release says. The carcass will be examined and tested for disease.

The injuries to Brigham were not life-threatening but he is receiving shots for rabies as a precaution, reports say.

“So many miracles worked together to keep Brigham safe. … Not many kids can say they got in a fight with a bear and came out on top,” Hawkins writes in a post on Facebook.

This is the 16th recorded bear attack on a person in Arizona since 1990. Two of the attacks were fatal, the most recent occurring last year.

“Black bears are predatory animals and should always be considered unpredictable and dangerous,” the news release says.

“Not many kids can say they got in a fight with a bear and came out on top,” says Arizona woman Carol Edington Hawkins, whose 15-year-old son survived an attack last week. In a Facebook post, Hawkins shared photos of her injured son, Brigham, the Arizona Republic reports. She tells NBC News that Brigham was watching YouTube in a cabin on her parents’ property in Alpine on Thursday evening when a black bear “walked in through the front door and swiped him across the head.” She says Parker, Brigham’s 18-year-old brother, heard Brigham’s screams and ran over from a second cabin to help.

Hawkins says the bear chased Parker—who initially thought it was a large dog—but he managed to get to the other cabin just in time. She says the bear also chased her husband, Shane, when he ran to Brigham’s cabin, but he “slammed the door in the bear’s face.” Arizona Game and Fish Department officers killed the bear, believed to be a 3-year-old male, at the scene, the Republic reports. Hawkins say the family is saddened by the bear’s death but understands that it was acting abnormally and had to be put down. “For whatever reason, there was something wrong with this bear, something was off,” she says.

Brigham, who has a rare neurological disorder, was treated for injuries including gashes to his face and arm but is expected to make a full recovery, reports the New York Post. He has been given rabies shots as a precaution. “We’re extremely blessed and feel that somebody was most definitely watching over him,” Hawkins tells 12News. “He’s very small and has lots of medical issues and there was nothing he could have done to chase off this bear or fight off this bear.” (More bear attack stories.)