New Mexico

No. 21 Arizona kicks off first season under Brent Brennan against New Mexico

Published

1 year ago

August 30, 2024

No. 21 Arizona kicks off first season under Brent Brennan against New Mexico

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona took three short years to go from one of the worst programs in the FBS to a 10-game winner on the rise.

That was under Jedd Fisch. Now it’s Brent Brennan’s turn and he appears to have a stacked deck.

Kicking off a season with more expectations than any in recent years, No. 21 Arizona opens the Brennan era Saturday night at home against New Mexico.

“My message to the team is: it’s all about us,” Brennan said. “It’s about our process and how we prepare. It’s very, very simple, it’s boring and it’s not sexy. I think that sometimes gets lost.”

After seven seasons at San Jose State, Brennan takes over an Arizona program that climbed from the depths of a school-record 20-game losing streak to winning seven straight games to close out last season, the current longest run in the FBS.

Fisch took some players with him when he moved to Washington, but two key ones remained: quarterback Noah Fifita and receiver Tetairoa McMillan.

With two of the program’s best players opting to stick around, several others joined them, giving Brennan a stacked roster for his first season.

Fifita and McMillan headline what could be one of the nation’s most explosive offenses and the defense, long an issue in Tucson, took massive strides last season. Arizona has numerous playmakers back on defense, including linebacker Jacob Manu — the Pac-12’s leading tackler a year ago — cornerback Tacario Davis and safeties Dalton Johnson and Gunner Maldonado.

The Wildcats were ranked in The Associated Press preseason poll for the first time since 2015 and now get a first chance to show that it was warranted in their first Big 12 season.

“I had that thought walking out here just now, how much has changed in seven months,” Brennan said. “It’s surreal but also really, really special, but I’m excited, just like our players are.”

Bronco’s Lobos

Arizona won’t be the only team with a new head coach at Arizona Stadium.

Veteran coach Bronco Mendenhall was hired during the offseason to replace Danny Gonzales, who was fired after four mediocre seasons. Mendenhall had a successful stint at BYU before spending the past six seasons at Virginia, where he led the Cavaliers to three straight bowl games.

The Lobos got the Mendenhall era off to a shaky start last week, blowing a 17-point lead in a 35-31 home loss to Montana State.

“I saw capability, certainly, two defensive touchdowns, some fourth-down stops and some other positive things, but not consistent enough, not clean enough and not sound enough really, from beginning to end, to put the game away,” Mendenhall said.

Talented connection

Fifita and McMillan give Arizona one of the nation’s most talented duos.

Fifita began last season as the backup, but played so well in place of injured Jayden de Laura that he kept the job when de Laura returned. Fifita threw for 2,869 yards and 25 touchdowns with six interceptions, setting a school record with a 72.4% completion rate.

McMillan was the top-rated recruit in program history nearly three years ago and has lived up to the hype. The native of Hawaii caught 90 passes for 1,402 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, helping him become the first Arizona player to earn preseason AP All-America honors.

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New Mexico

Man charged in double homicide told New Mexico deputies a cockroach told him to kill

Published

1 day ago

November 9, 2025

Press Room

Man charged in double homicide told New Mexico deputies a cockroach told him to kill

A man is facing murder charges after allegedly admitting to deputies that he fatally shot two people inside a New Mexico home after receiving “an encrypted message in a cockroach” that he “needed to kill,” authorities say.

Alexis Hernandez, 25, was arrested and charged with two open counts of murder in connection with a Friday incident inside a southwest Albuquerque home, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.

Hernandez was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Saturday morning, and it is not immediately clear if he has retained a lawyer.

Authorities have not identified the men killed in the incident or the two young children who were also found inside the house at the time.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit filed at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court, deputies responded to reports of gunfire in southwest Albuquerque just before 10:30 p.m. When deputies arrived, they were met at the front door by Hernandez, who “had a firearm on his waistband and a Marine Corps Sabre on his hip,” the arrest warrant said.

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has arrested 27-year-old Alexis Najera Hernandez after deputies say he confessed to shooting and killing two men inside a home in Albuquerque, N.M.Crime Stoppers of New Mexico

Hernandez, who was immediately detained, told deputies he was in the Marines and “had to do what he had to do,” the warrant states. He then allegedly stated there were two dead bodies inside the residence.

Once inside the house, the warrant states, deputies found one dead man “with possible gunshot wounds” in the front of the house and a second man with apparent stab wounds in an attached apartment.

The two children who were found inside were safely removed from the residence, the arrest warrant states.

In an interview with deputies after he was taken into custody, Hernandez said that he knew the two slain men, one of whom was the owner of the property, according to the warrant. He then allegedly said he had believed the property owner was a friend who had been stalking him during the days leading up to the incident.

The warrant states Hernandez alleged the friend had placed cameras in the lights. Hernandez also told deputies that he was allegedly “hearing creepy voices coming from the vents” and “had been getting signs” that he had to end the property owner before he ended him.

Hernandez later allegedly told deputies that he also had received “an encrypted message in a cockroach” that he “needed to kill” the property owner, the warrant says. He added that the property owner allegedly did not like cockroaches.

The warrant states that Hernandez had previously purchased a Glock handgun, which he said he had for “protection.” Hernandez told deputies that on Friday the two men allegedly took him to the back room of the home and that he “was afraid for his life at this point.”

He said he shot the property owner in the head and the other in the kitchen, the warrant says. At one point, Hernandez allegedly told deputies, he had gone to his Honda Pilot to reload his gun before going back to each victim and shooting him again.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the details of the second man’s cause of death.

The warrant states Hernandez admitted that he did not know what to do after the attack, so he “stayed on scene and walked around.” He allegedly added that he knew about the two children at the house and that they saw him shoot the two men.

He added that “he was not going to take the kids or do anything to them,” the warrant says.

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