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About 30-45 minutes into the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™ last practice of fall training camp, head coach Brent Brennan led the team over to ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Stadium to briefly attend a rally for “Zona Zooâ€� members to learn game-day traditions and chants.

Brennan, wide receiver Chris Hunter and offensive lineman Rhino Tapa’atoutai addressed the crowd of a few thousand UA students and sang “Bear Down, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€� before returning to practice across the street.

“Tonight was a great night,� Brennan said on Thursday. “It was a great practice and we’re looking forward to what’s next. We’re going to keep pushing forward. There’s a lot of momentum with this team. I love where we’re at and I can’t wait to see what we do next weekend.�

To prepare for the season opener against Hawaii next Saturday, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ is rehearsing pregame procedures and holding a mock game Saturday night. The ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ will have Big 12 officials present, “which will help us work through some of those mechanics and give me a chance to get the coaches off the field and get everyone on the sideline and operate like a real game.â€�

“When you’re in training camp, you’re so used to everyone running on the field and telling a guy what to do or running on the field and coaching a guy right after the play,� Brennan said.

As the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ turn their attention to game week and the season opener against Hawaii on Aug. 30, here are notable items Brennan, quarterback Noah Fifita, offensive coordinator Seth Doege and defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales discussed to put a bow on training camp:

Brennan, on the team’s growth in training camp: “By design, we’ve had an extremely physical training camp. That part of it, I love how the players embraced it. I think the coaching staff is leaning into that space a lot. I know y’all talked to Coach Doege and Coach Gonzales and they talked a lot about playing with violence and physicality and how important that is for our football program.

“I think there has been a high standard for that in training camp. The players have done a great job pushing through the nicks and the bumps and the bruises and practicing their tails off every day. Guys have a clear understanding of how we want to play and what redline is and what that needs to look like, and I think we’re making good progress there.�

Fifita, on the offense’s progress in training camp: “I think we’ve made a lot of progress from the beginning of fall camp. If you really look at how far we’ve come from spring ball and throughout the summer, I think we’ve come a long way. The guys are buying in. The belief in our building, especially on our side of the ball, it’s real right now. You can give a lot of credit to Coach Doege and the coaching staff for that. We’re not where we want to be, we’re not where we need to be, but we’re really excited about how far we’ve come.�

Doege, on ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™s depth and speed at wide receiver: “It seems like there’s a different guy every day that comes on. It might be (Tre Spivey’s) day, it might be (Luke Wysong’s) day. It might be (Devin Hyatt’s) day. Each day this camp, somebody has showcased something that you’re like, ‘This guy has ability and can really hurt people.’ ... I’m excited about the group because (wide receivers coach Bobby Wade) is probably one of the better coaches I’ve ever been around.

“He does a good job managing that room because that could be difficult with that many personalities and skillsets to try and figure our where to put people, and he’s done a great job with that.

“I’m excited about the group now because they’re getting settled in on the scheme, when it comes to split rules and we have a bunch of choice routes, so there’s a variety of routes you can run on a variety of coverages, so you have to make quick decisions and be dynamic in your routes and catch the ball and explode after the catch.

“I’m excited about those guys finally settling into the scheme. They’re really starting to play fast — and get lined up faster, which is going to be dangerous, I think.�

Fifita, on Spivey: “Spivey, in my opinion, has something. He’s a generational talent, in a sense, because of his size but more importantly, his body control and his competitiveness. You saw glimpses of it throughout the spring and the summer and you kind of knew once he settled into the playbook and he stopped thinking so much, he’s going to see big strides and you saw him take those strides throughout fall camp. ... He’s playing extremely confident right now and he’s a weapon for us.�

Doege, on ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™s offensive line: “I’m excited about the group. (Hawaii transfer Ka’ena Decambra) has taken on the center role and has become the voice of that group. He’s really quiet around the coaches, but when you walk away and he has the entire group to himself, he’s taken ownership, which I want the center to do. He’s extremely smart and has picked up our (identification) process and our communication calls. He’s very good at it.

“I think (right guard Alexander Doost) has made a tremendous stride from where he was in the spring to now. I think he was always strong, but he would get tired very quickly and not be able to strain as much as he is right now, so he’s in way better shape than he was.

“(Texas Tech transfer tackle) Ty Buchanan is playing elite football right now. Ty is really good on the edge. We’ve moved (Michael Wooten) around a little bit. He’s done an awesome job. From the spring to the fall, Michael Wooten is a different player.

“All of those guys have done a good job. ... When I think about (Michigan transfer tackle Tristan Bounds) in the spring, I was like, ‘I don’t know if we can do it.’ He can play at this level. I feel really good about the group. It’s obviously a work in progress — it always is when it’s an O-Line room with so many new faces, but there’s a ton of camaraderie in that unit, and (offensive line coach Josh Oglesby) does a great job.

“They love him. Man, they love him. They’re always around him and they’re always meeting. They meet more than anybody on the team, those O-Linemen. They love it and there’s a lot of camaraderie. They play really, really hard. Because of that, they’re going to give us a chance.�

Gonzales, on ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™s defensive line: “Defensively, up front, I think we have five guys that we consider starters for three or four spots between (redshirt senior defensive end) Tre Smith, (defensive tackle) Tiaoalii Savea, (Cerritos College transfer defensive tackle Leroy Palu), (UT Martin transfer defensive tackle) Deshawn McKnight and (redshirt sophomore defensive end Dominic Lolesio).

“(Alcorn State transfer defensive end) Malachi Bailey has had a really good camp and has come on the last couple of days, especially when the competition increased and he ran with the ones. On the interior behind those guys, between (Northwestern State transfer) Chancellor Owens, (redshirt sophomore Jarra “Bear� Anderson) and (redshirt sophomore Julian Savaiinaea), we’ve got three pieces that give us something. ... We’re going to line up some stuff that looks pretty funky now. It’s what we do, but it’ll cause people some problems and I think we created depth with different looks and what we got.�

Brennan, on ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™s offensive players settling into Doege’s uptempo scheme: “I think we have a pretty good feel for it. I really do. Some of that stuff is hard because you don’t really know until you play, until you’re out there with an opponent on the field, fans in the stands and the stress and the pressure those things create. I think Noah has been playing at a high level all of training camp. He has really good command of the scheme.

“There are little details that we’re still tinkering and fine-tuning over the next couple of practices. I think the other part of it, as we get into the game plan, instead of the entire offense being in, it gets streamlined. You’re operating off the bar menu and not the full menu. Because of that, I think those things will get cleaned up quickly.�

Fifita, on differences in the new offense compared to last season: “I think they’ll be surprised with how fast we play. We play at an extremely high tempo. Coach Doege is always pushing the envelope on tempo and I think they’ll see explosiveness. We have guys that can take the top off any second. It’s going to be real exciting.�

Brennan, on the team’s buy-in this season: “I think it feels better and the players will tell you that. ... It was a complicated way to start (last season). I don’t think I did a good job of managing that and establishing how we were going to do business here as a program. That was one of the things, as we got through the season and the ups and downs and frustrations of the season, that was very clear to me how we needed to move forward as a program.�

Pick your poison

The college football season officially kicks off on Saturday, and the Week 0 slate features four of ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™s opponents this season.

The “Farmageddonâ€� matchup between No. 22 Iowa State and 17th-ranked Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland, begins Saturday at 9 a.m. on ESPN. Even though KSU is a Big 12 opponent, it’s a nonconference game for ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ on Friday, Sept. 12. After a bye week, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ travels to Ames, Iowa, for its Big 12 opener against Iowa State.

Kansas, which comes to Tucson on Nov. 8, is hosting Fresno State on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on Fox.

The ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™ season-opening opponent, Hawaii, hosts Stanford at 4:30 p.m. on CBS and Paramount+.

When Brennan was asked if it’s a positive or a negative for Hawaii to play a game before facing ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥, the UA head coach said, “I think it’s both.â€�

“Them having a chance to play and get the kinks out and do some of that stuff, the procedure stuff, get hit, get tackled and play some real football, I think there’s value to that,� Brennan said. “There’s also value in us getting to see them play. I think both things can be true. ... We’ll continue to tighten the game plan on all three phases and see what that looks like.�

Extra points

– ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ officially added New Zealand native and Garden City Community College (Kansas) transfer Zac Siulepa to its roster. Siulepa is listed at 6-6, 389 pounds and is the second-heaviest Wildcat behind 409-pound offensive lineman Siale Uluave. Siulepa joined the team last week. If the sophomore contributes this season, it’ll likely be for the second half of the season. Said Gonzales: “We gotta get him into shape a little bit, but he moves around good and doesn’t look as big as he is. He’s leaner than he looks, which is a positive.â€�

– Former ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ quarterback Jayden de Laura attended practice on Thursday. De Laura, who quarterbacked the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ for two seasons in 2022 and ‘23, is in town for the IFL championship. De Laura has 34 touchdowns and three interceptions for the Vegas Knight Hawks in his first season in the IFL. Vegas faces the Green Bay Blizzard at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Tucson Arena.