Arizona football players, coaches eager for Saturday’s spring game

Arizona Wildcats wide receiver Boobie Curry wants to be on the winning team for Saturday’s spring game and doesn’t want to eat hot dogs afterward.

The outcome of the Wildcats’ spring game determines what each team will be eating post-contest, and the winning side will get something a little more extravagant, according to Curry.

“Coach says whoever the winner gets to eat from the food trucks and the loser eats hot dogs,” Curry said in a press conference on Thursday. “So I want no hot dogs, I grew up eating hot dogs a lot. I want … some wings, funnel cakes, stuff like that. I want to enjoy food like that. I don’t want hot dogs.”

Even though Curry was excited about the food trucks, whatever is on the menu takes a backseat to the other festivities that head coach Jedd Fisch and the Wildcats athletics department have organized for Fisch’s first spring game.

Fisch has only been on the job since January but has been tasked with regaining support after the football program struggled under former head coach Kevin Sumlin.

He’s put together a fan-friendly list of former Wildcats who will appear Saturday, with Tedy Bruschi and Rob Gronkowski serving as guest coaches for the game. Fisch will serve as a moderator.

“Maybe I’ll help the officials with spotting a little bit,” Fisch said. “That’s an important role and then keeping balance and equity so we have a good football game all the way through. I might have to make some trades. … As the commissioner of the spring game.”

Bruschi and Gronkowski aren’t the only prominent Wildcats involved in the spring contest, as Wildcats men’s and women’s head basketball coaches Tommy Lloyd and Adia Barnes will be making appearances.

“I tried to stay really involved with the spring game and what our plan of attack is going to be,” Fisch said. “I reached out to coach Lloyd. … Coach Lloyd and coach Barnes are going to be the two captains of the two teams. Coach Barnes will be the captain of team Bruschi as they’re similar in age, and they were here at the same time. Coach Lloyd is the newbie. He’s with coach Gronk on his sideline.”

With the excitement of guest appearances, fans in attendance and a return to playing football after he opted out of the 2020 season, Wildcats defensive lineman J.B. Brown is ready to experience the feeling of game day for the first time in a long time.

“I can’t wait,” Brown said. “It’s a great atmosphere already coming in. … We’re getting buzz around the city, I feel like coach Fisch did a great job getting the city to come in and I’m excited. I’m ready to go.”

The Wildcats spring game will kick off at 12 p.m. MST Saturday and can be watched on the Pac-12 Network.