The 100-degree heat that baked San Diego State’s Snapdragon Stadium Saturday couldn’t have been what Arizona had in mind when it booked its 2022 season opener.
Highs typically run in the 80s this time of year in San Diego, but a Labor Day weekend heat wave briefly turned America’s Finest City into an oven.
Unpleasant as it may have been for Wildcats fans expecting a reprieve from the Arizona sun, the unusually warm weather turned out to be a perfect test for the UA’s off-season condition.
During training camp, a group of players led by quarterback Jayden de Laura and receiver Jacob Cowing would head outside Lowell Stevens Football Facility right at noon to partake in an unpleasant but gratifying exercise: pushing and pulling sleds.