51ºÚÁÏÍø

This year will be the 40th anniversary of Arizona's nine-win 1986 season that was capped by a victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels at the Aloha Bowl. 

"I'm getting a little older," Cecil joked. "But it beats the alternative. I woke up again and it's another great day."

Cecil, who's now an assistant coach on Brent Brennan's staff at Arizona, was one of the Wildcats' handful of leaders in 1986. Cecil starred at safety in UA's defense and had a 106-yard pick-six against fourth-ranked Arizona State in Tucson. Cecil's interception returned for a touchdown is widely considered the greatest play in UA football history. 

The Wildcats' 34-17 win over Arizona State, along with the Sun Devils' tie with Washington State, prevented ASU from playing for a national championship. Instead, the one-loss Sun Devils beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl. 

The week after beating ASU, Arizona lost to Stanford, 29-24, at the Coca-Cola Classic in Tokyo, and ended the season with a 30-21 win over North Carolina at the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu.

Arizona finished the season No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and had wins over Houston, Colorado State, Oregon, Colorado, Oregon State, Cal, Washington State, ASU and North Carolina, with losses to UCLA, USC and Stanford. 

Arizona running back and Tucson native David Adams, who signed with the Wildcats out of Sunnyside High School, said his last season playing for the hometown Wildcats "was extremely positive." 

"We were a good team and there is nothing negative I could say about it," Adams said. "We didn't accomplish all of the things we wanted to, but we played well and we were a good group together. When you see people 40 years later and you still love them, that's a fantastic feeling."

Adams became the first Arizona running back to lead the Pac-10 in rushing yards (1,175 yards). UA quarterback Alfred Jenkins — who led the Pac-10 in attempts, passing yards and interceptions in 1984 — ended his time in Tucson with the seventh-most career passing yards (6,016). 

After the season ended, Arizona head coach Larry Smith accepted the head coaching job at USC. He was the last head coach to leave the Wildcats for another job until Jedd Fisch departed for Washington after the 2023 season. Smith went 48-28-3 in seven seasons at Arizona. He was succeeded by the late Dick Tomey, who became the winningest coach in Arizona history. 

Smith's final Wildcats team "is one of the best teams in Arizona history," Cecil said. It's one of eight UA teams to win nine or more games in a season. 

"We played some good football," said Cecil, who's a College Football Hall of Famer. "We had a lot of dudes on that team, a lot of guys that can play. ... It was a good football team.

"It's funny just looking back having played as long as I did and now having coached for 20-something years, it's cool to look back and reflect on the nice chemistry we had on that team. The boys were bought in and it paid off." 

Cecil and Adams recently joined "Spears & Ali" on ESPN Tucson to take a trip down memory lane to reminisce on their favorite times from that 1986 season.

What is your favorite memory of the 1986 season?

DA: "Getting the ball all the time. ... John Horton, myself, Alfred Jenkins and our offensive line was fantastic. It was just a good feeling. We were supposed to be an average team and we were much better than that." 

What made Smith successful as a head coach, in your opinion?

DA: "First of all, he had a good eye for talent. He didn't B.S. about anything. He would creatively tell the truth, but you couldn't call it a lie. It was interesting. He would say, 'You'll play as a freshman.' The whole class got redshirted, so what happened when you came back? You were still a freshman. He didn't lie to you, but he creatively told the truth. It was interesting to figure out the game plan for all of us." 

°ä°ä:Ìý"Very clear with his messaging. There was no hemming and hawing. It was about doing it right. Coach Brennan reminds me of Coach Smith in a lot of ways — a lot of great ways. It's very clear to the players what he's asking them to do, and the staff is in great alignment, as well as far as clarity. From a player's standpoint, you know what you're being asked to do and what you need to do. It's a good thing. That was Larry Smith's foundation. He was very demanding, he didn't play around, you did things right, and he was vocal at times. He was just great. I loved him. He was awesome, to the say the least."

What was your favorite win from the season?

DA: "Oh, Arizona State, of course. People from North Carolina and even USC, the chances running into them is slim to none. But you could run into somebody from Tucson that went to ASU and it's nice to run into somebody you beat." 

Is it fair to say the Territorial Cup was your favorite win of the '86 season?

CC: "Obviously one of my favorite memories for a lot of different reasons. Beating the team up north — the 'scummies' — was always special. That was their only loss that year. They went on to win the Rose Bowl, and I think they would've been national champions if we didn't beat them, so I was proud of that and happy about that. It was a great game and they were legit — they were really good. To stomp on them and get the win was really nice."

How was the trip to Japan?

DA: "Man, let me tell you something, that was the coolest thing. We went to Japan to play Stanford, went back to Hawaii to play North Carolina and then I went back to Hawaii for an all-star game. I was just an international guy that year. It was beautiful. It's different.

"When you go to Japan, you can walk up to someone speaking English, you ask them a question and then they don't know how to speak English. It was really weird. Overall, they were friendly, but being Black in Japan was still new to them, so they were looking at me like, 'Does this (skin) rub off or what?'" 

CC: "Talk about something that is an outlier in college football, that was it. They took our Stanford game and moved it to the week after our last game. After what is supposed to be your last game, you get on a plane and fly to Japan, which was a new experience. The time there with the players was comical.

"To be honest, Stanford was a team we should've beaten by two or three touchdowns. We wound up losing for a number of reasons. There were so many different variables in travel. For a lot of us, it was the first time experiencing time change. A lot of the kids, me as well, we were trying to get adjusted to the time.

"It was different. ... It was like a premature bowl game. When you go to Japan, you can't talk to anybody. If you say 'yes' or 'no,' they look at you like you have something coming out of your head. They didn't understand anything we said. It was a cool experience, just going to a different country. It was quite the escapade." 

How was the experience at the Aloha Bowl?

DA: "They were supposed to beat the hell out of us. ... Then you saw what happened." 

CC: "That one was special. It was my first time in Hawaii. I grew up in California, so I knew about Hawaii. It was everything you'd dreamed it would be. Our hotel was right on the beach, so it was really cool.

"The other part that's funny is North Carolina was really good, but at the functions we went to the week leading up to the bowl game, they talked so much junk and so much trash.

"They felt like we weren't even worthy of being there. They almost laughed at us that they had to play us. It was like, 'OK, I've got something for ya.' Getting the win over them was satisfying." 

How did the players respond to Smith leaving for USC? Were you guys supportive or sour?

CC: "Everybody was disappointed — absolutely, 100%. For me, I saw him after the game in one of the restaurants near the hotel, and I put my hand out, shook his hand and wished him luck at USC in every game except for one, which is against us. I'm not lying, it was right after the game in Hawaii. He hadn't announced, but I looked at him like, 'I know you're going.'

"I appreciated everything he did for me. USC had always been his dream job, so it was the next step for him. It was like when Jedd went to Washington. I respect everything he did for the program and wished him the best of luck moving on." 

How does the 1986 team stack up against the other great teams in program history?

CC: "I don't want to get too sentimental, but it's clearly one of the top 10 teams in Arizona history. We had a very solid team, very good offense, very good defense and our kicking game was great. The boys bought in and played hard. Honestly, and I know this might sound silly, but our team this year reminds me of that team.

"The boys are all-in right now. They are in like they haven't been in the last 10 years. They're working hard, they're running and they're bringing each other along. That was one of the things we had in 1986, there was a lot of player accountability involved, which is always a great thing and when you've got that, it's valuable. It was one of the greatest teams and I'm just blessed to be a part of that."