The 1976 Arizona Wildcats football team represented the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

in the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to mos ...

(WAC) during the

1976 NCAA Division I football season The 1976 NCAA Division I football season ended with a championship for the Panthers of the University of Pittsburgh. Led by head coach Johnny Majors (voted the AFCA Coach of the Year), the Pitt Panthers brought a college football championship to ...

. In their fourth and final season under head coach Jim Young, the Wildcats compiled a 5–6 record (3–4 against WAC opponents), finished in a tie for fifth place in the WAC, and outscored their opponents, 283 to 273. The team played its home games in

Arizona Stadium Arizona Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in the southwestern United States, located on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. It is the home field of the Arizona Wildcats of the Pac-12 Conference. Orig ...

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. Young left Arizona to become head coach at Purdue after the season concluded. The team's statistical leaders included Marc Lunsford with 1,284 passing yards, Derriak Anderson with 506 rushing yards, and Keith Hartwig with 1,134 receiving yards. Linebacker Obra Erby led the team with 174 total tackles.

Before the season

Arizona finished the 1975 season with a 9–2 record and missed out on a WAC championship by narrowly losing to Arizona State in the finale. During the offseason, the Wildcats had to replace several starters from the 1975 team due to graduation. When the preseason began, Young still believed that the team would compete for the WAC title despite a rebuilding process.

Schedule

Game summaries

Auburn

The Wildcats began the season with their home opener against Auburn. The game was a rematch of the 1968 Sun Bowl, a game in which Auburn won. This time, in front of their home crowd, Arizona was able to get past the Tigers for the win. To date, this remains Arizona's first and only win against an SEC team.

UCLA

In their road opener, Arizona traveled to UCLA, who was ranked fifth at the time. The Wildcats struggled on both sides of the ball, and could only muster nine points in an ugly loss. The Bruins would be a future conference opponent for the Wildcats, as Arizona (and Arizona State) would join the Pac-8 Conference (which was then called the Pac-10) two years later.

UTEP

Against UTEP, the Wildcats scored a season-high 63 points as the team played their best all game long.

New Mexico

Arizona traveled to Albuquerque to take on the New Mexico and was hoping to avenge their loss to the Lobos in the previous year that ended the Wildcats’ chances of an undefeated season. The Wildcats would fight hard and would ultimately come up short against the Lobos. It would be the last time that the

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and ...

Rifle trophy would reside in Albuquerque, as the Wildcats would regain it the following season and would hold possession of it until the rifle's retirement in 1997.

Arizona State

In the state's annual rivalry game, Arizona looked to get revenge on Arizona State after the Sun Devils defeated the Wildcats in the previous year to capture the WAC title. In this season, Arizona State (who was struggling all season long) would outplay a depleted Wildcat squad to earn yet another rivalry win and kept bragging rights for the state. The loss ended the Wildcats’ season.

Personnel

After the season

Days after losing the season finale to ASU, Young was hired by Purdue to become their new head coach, as Purdue was struggling to win games and Young wanting more money. It marked a return to the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

for Young, as he had ties to the conference by coaching the defense at

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

prior to being hired at Arizona in 1973. Arizona would hire

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

coach Tony Mason to take over the program in 1977.

Season notes

* Arizona's season was mostly impacted by several injuries to players, which affected the team's chances of contending for the WAC championship and led to only five wins. * The 63 points scored against UTEP were the most in a game for the Wildcats under Young. * The Wildcats lost to both of their rivals (Arizona State and New Mexico) for the second season in a row. * This season was the last in which Arizona wore helmets with “UA” on them that looked like a snake. The Wildcats introduced red helmets with a blue “A” on them in 1977. * This was Young's first and only losing season with the Wildcats. Arizona had winning records in Young's first three seasons. Had there been more bowl games back then, Arizona would have made three bowl appearances under Young.

References

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Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

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