Welcome to my site!
For those of you that do not know me (or know of me), I spent the last 11 years working for Arizona Athletics in the Communications/Sports Information Department before leaving this spring to accept a non-sports related communications job. I have been to every football game – home and road – during that span, and attended nearly every single football practice over that period, too. I was fortunate to develop relationships with 100s of student-athletes along with dozens of coaches and staff members from the Mike Stoops, Rich Rodriguez and Kevin Sumlin regimes, in addition to the other sports I worked with.
My time with UA Athletics was a dream of mine come true with experiences and relationships developed along the way that I continue to cherish. The pinnacle for me was surely being a part of Andy Lopez’s baseball program for seven years, highlighted by the remarkable 2012 national championship team. Coach Lopez remains one of the most influential teachers (sport, life, otherwise) I have the privilege of knowing. On the football front, I was fortunate to know most every national football writer and worked with the television crews weekly during the season, including a couple visits from the College GameDay gang. I assisted the media operations team at the 2016 CFP National Championship game in Glendale and the Fiesta Bowl when it held a semifinal game a year later. But really, the joy was being around young men and women each day dedicated to bettering themselves in the their sport, in the classroom and for their futures.
That is where today’s media climate does not properly portray what college athletics is truly about. It’s not about the wins and losses, it’s not about the billion dollar TV contracts and it’s not about the million dollar coaches. It is about the four to five years in college that the 18 to 22-year old men and women have to prepare themselves for the rest of their lives. It was that growth process, especially after graduating when they come back to campus established with a career and/or family, that is most rewarding to witness inside a college athletics department. The headlines, and social media, don’t often tell you those success stories. Now I get the opportunity to step back and cheer on those student-athletes from a new perspective.
So with that said, let me be clear and tell you what this blog is NOT: I am not here to break news or share secrets. Michael Lev at the Arizona Daily Star and a few others locally provide fair insight into the football program and are outstanding on the news-breaking front. I won’t offer any secrets or hash out internal affairs either. Good, bad or indifferent, it’s not my place to take public certain conversations or information I was privy to while working for the program. I have great respect for everyone that has contributed to the success of Arizona football during my time (eight bowl trips in 11 seasons was pretty fun).
Instead, I am here primarily for one purpose: to advance the year-round conversation of Arizona Athletics, especially football because we need to build support for this program in every way possible. I intend to do this simply by offering my perspectives, which surely will be shaped from some of my past work experiences as well as my own beliefs. I invite any and all to join in my conversations along the way.
In addition, you will see my commentary on other UA Athletics programs, the college football landscape and occasionally some national sports topics of interest. However, I will mostly keep the discussions here local to the Wildcats, the Pac-12 and other sports relevant across Arizona.
To get things started, I have posted several Arizona football stories, a Pac-12 preview and my view on why it’s important every Arizona fan become a season ticket holder. This is a personal agenda I want to push as much as possible, so much so I’ve included links to buy tickets here on my site that I will often reference especially leading into home games (no, I’m not getting paid by UA Athletics for this message).
As the college football season arrives, I will review the previous UA game, preview the upcoming contest and make predictions for the Pac-12 and Top 25 games being played each week. If there is any interest, I’ll consider doing an occasional mailbag to take some questions and offer my perspectives on items not addressed in my stories throughout the year.
Again, this site is not going to break news. It will be based entirely on my perspectives and thoughts I want to share, which hopefully advance the conversations and create excitement for sports, especially the Arizona Wildcats.
Please feel free to write to me anytime with your thoughts, questions or suggestions for content so we can keep the conversation going.
Thank you and Bear Down!
Blair Willis
University of Arizona Class ‘07
Former UA Football/Baseball SID