Arizona football has seen a change in play on the field, but not much of a difference of fans in the stands. What was supposed to be a sellout game consisted of many empty seats throughout Arizona Stadium. Despite the lack of fans for the homecoming game, the atmosphere around campus showed that students and alumni were ready to Bear Down.

Arizona alumni show students how tailgating is done

Homecoming week was full of events that eventually led up to Saturday’s game against the Washington State Cougars. The tailgate covered more ground than previous games, but despite the performance of the football team and homecoming, students still didn’t pour onto campus until closer to kick-off. 

Instead of students running around on the grass, Arizona alumni walked around the tailgate and enjoyed their time back on campus. The homecoming parade brought life to the tailgate as they homecoming court, along with the alumni band, marched around the UA mall. 

The tailgate was a time for alumni to reminisce on their time as a Wildcat and talk with their fellow classmates. 

Was ZonaZoo in the house tonight?

Slowly but surely the student section continued to fill up during the first half of the game. Previous home games the ZonaZoo would have people looking around asking, “where are the students?” but this game the empty seats eventually filled up. 

During the game against the Cougs it was a sea of red in the ZonaZoo, but when it hit halftime the red began to fade. For the students that did stay were able to witness Lucas Havrisik’s 57-yard kick to make the score 23-14 going into the half. 

Tate turns things around for Arizona 

At the beginning of Arizona’s season the Wildcats weren’t expected to make it to a bowl game, but after quarterback Khalil Tate’s performance on the field, students seem to be optimistic for the rest of the season. 

Arizona was the least talented group in the division and was expected to most likely come out on the bottom, which was a risk for head coach Rich Rodriguez. The Wildcats turned the table on the season and have improved to 6-2 overall. 

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