So far Jedd Fisch has said a lot of the right things since taking over as Arizona's new head coach. It will be the actions in the coming years that determine his success, however. Fisch is not stepping into an ideal situation in Tucson with the Wildcats currently on a 12-game losing streak having just finished up a winless season that ended with a 70-7 loss to rival Arizona State.

The roster is depleted after several players either moved on or have plans to move on before the start of next season. Recruiting did not take off under previous head coach Kevin Sumlin, either, leaving the Wildcats with one of the lowest-rated early signing classes this month.

Fisch is a first-time head coach who is in the process of putting together his first coaching staff that he promises will leave fans impressed. That group will have a tall task and Fisch seems to have a grasp of that already though he remains optimistic that the Wildcats will have improvements under his watch.

"We need to be able to get to the successes that we've had here in the 90s," Fisch said over the weekend when asked what has made the job of being UA's head coach such a difficult one. "That's just the bottom line. I don't think there's an easy way to answer that question other than we have to recognize what's gone on. There's been some years, I know RichRod had a 10-4 season. I know that coach Stoops had a bunch of eight, nine win seasons, and we have to find a way to have that type of consistent winning.

"But, we have everything we possibly need. We have a great campus, we have great facilities, we have an opportunity to be able to have plenty of different majors on campus. And we have a softball team, a basketball team, a women's basketball team, we have a tennis team, we have all the varsity sports that win. And, we need to find a way to do the same."

Arizona has never been the Rose Bowl and the UA football program has had more disappointing years than successful ones. That Dick Tomey was able to guide the Wildcats to a successful stretch during his time leading the team is something that fans will always point at as proof that success can happen for UA.

Fisch understands that and has tried to rekindle a connection to the past because of it, but getting back to that point is part of the work that is ahead for the UA head coach.

"Well, I would say that really the biggest challenges were the fact that they haven't won as much as you'd like them to," he said when discussing the challenges he saw at Arizona before taking the job. "So you have to turn over a culture, you have to change a culture from what was done to what you believe in. And when you have a 12-game losing streak, right, we have to end that. Before you know how to win, you have to know how not to lose. And we have to teach our team how not to lose first and foremost.

"And we have to have that mentality of not turning the football over. We have to have the mentality of not being penalized football team, we have to find a way to understand time of possession, we have to find a way to understand field position. And if we can start educating our players on situational football and start educating our players on how to win some games by not losing them. I think we'll be able to start to change."

Fisch officially arrived to Tucson earlier this week and he continues to assemble his coaching staff while also keeping tabs on the current team and recruiting. The Wildcats went 0-5 this season and have already lost a couple key playmakers as starting quarterback Grant Gunnell announced his plans to transfer to Memphis while top receiver Stanley Berryhill III will be leaving UA for Ball State, he said. Several other key contributors have already entered the NCAA transfer portal as well.

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