Arizona is back on the grind this week once again and things are looking up for the Wildcats as fall gets ready to turn to winter. The month of December is an interesting one in college sports and for the Wildcats all the parts that make up the month have impacted UA in one way or another.
On the football side there is a bowl game to get prepared for with the ‘Cats headed to Northern California in a couple weeks to take on Purdue in the Foster Farms Bowl, but it feels like that might be only the third-most important thing going on at the moment. There is, of course, the ongoing search for an offensive line coach that Rich Rodriguez has planed to wrap up some time before the bowl game on Dec. 27.
There have not been many concrete candidates emerge as of yet, but there are some options for the Wildcats and we will take a closer look at those.
In addition to that coaching search there is also the early signing period that is now just over a week away and that means a lot of the questions about recruiting will begin to get answered. Not every recruit currently committed to the Wildcats is expected to sign but Arizona will get more clarity about its class when the early period is over.
We have the latest on where things stand with recruiting covered for you in this week’s War Room.
On the basketball side, Sean Miller’s team is back in the top 25 this week after another strong showing with wins over Texas A&M and Alabama in the last seven days. Rawle Alkins also made his return over the weekend giving the Wildcats their full squad back. We’ll take a look at the team and where it goes from here now that it is back to full strength.
There’s only a few more weeks left in December, so get the latest as UA closes out 2017. Here is this week’s War Room.
Football
This will be the last week of practice for Arizona before it breaks and then heads to the Bay Area for its bowl game, and in the meantime there is a lot going on for the Wildcats. UA will have a few more practices this week while the coaching staff continues to split its time with the team and recruiting. Up to this point the bowl preparations have been split between getting ready for Purdue, working on the current active players getting ready and fine tuning things for the final game plus some work for the younger players as well.
* Rodriguez is having to split his time in different ares with one of the places being the upcoming hires he has to make. In January the rule allowing teams to hire a 10th assistant coach will go into place and that will mean another hire for the UA head coach to make but his priority right now is on the offensive line. This week he mentioned that the next candidate will not need coordinator experience and simply has to have experience coaching the offensive line.
Dana Dimel was one name we heard even before the news of Jim Michalczik’s departure to Oregon State started making the rounds. Dimel ended up taking the head coaching job at UTEP taking him out of the running. There are two in-house candidates for UA and both are intriguing in their own ways and in different ways.
In this week’s War Room we thought we’d take a look at the two candidates already involved with the team to give a better idea of what each brings to the table.
- Kyle Quinn (graduate assistant)
Quinn has been on the coaching staff since 2015 after playing his college career with the Wildcats for five seasons ending in 2012. In the years between that Quinn worked at making an NFL roster before returning to Northern California and his high school as an assistant at Liberty High in Brentwood, California. As a graduate assistant Quinn has a hand in everything from video to working with the offensive line to recruiting. He is someone offensive line recruits bring up quite often when discussing the program and getting to know the staff.
For the past few seasons he has been Michalczik’s right-hand man working with the offensive line during practice and helping where he can during games. He is someone the players like and have confidence in. He will get his chance to coach the linemen leading up to the bowl game.
Player quote: “Kyle could coach us now if he wanted to, but he doesn’t have very much credentials. He’s doing a great job.” - Redshirt senior offensive guard Jacob Alsadek.
Our take: Quinn would be the go-to guy for Arizona if it stays within the current staff and the focus is on recruiting. He already has a familiarity with recruits and the recruiting landscape, and on that side of things his ties to the Northern California would be important as the Wildcats look to replace Michalczik who had strong ties to the Bay Area. There have been some prospects whose early contact within the program has been through Quinn before the rest of the coaches take over with the actual recruiting. He is someone the players respect, but as Alsadek said the question would be his experience. It would be a bold move to go from a veteran coach with NFL coaching experience to a graduate assistant who has never controlled his own group at the college level. There are typically steps before a coach can reach that point, but the recruiting element would give him an edge if that is where Rodriguez ultimately decides to lean.
- Glenn Parker (broadcaster/analyst-special assistant)
The next in-house option would be to hire TV broadcaster and another former Wildcat with Parker stepping down from the announcer’s booth and onto the field full time with the program. The former UA offensive lineman has plenty of experience playing the game both in college and in the NFL. Going back to the offseason and beyond that even the last couple years Parker has been helping Arizona’s offensive linemen outside of the usual practice scenario with Alsadek being one of the primary players he works with.
Parker has taken on an advisory role with the program this season and he will be the other coach helping the team in the bowl game as Rodriguez has been able to secure NCAA approval on the former Wildcat standout to be an on-field coach leading up to the Foster Farms Bowl.
The 12-year NFL player is originally from Southern California but has lived in Tucson for some time.
Player quote: “I’ve been working with Glenn for a while and he’s been doing a great job. It seems like those two guys together (Parker and Quinn) it just seemed like they mesh well and everybody was responding well and everybody wanted to work.” - Alsadek on Parker’s role this month as an assistant coach.
Our take: Parker has the type of playing background that will resonate with players and recruits. His abilities on the field in the past have to be respected and he has a connection with the current team that will be hard to find with an outsider. Bringing someone from “off the street” can be interesting but Parker has also already had experience teaching the position with the work he’s done with Alsadek and others at Arizona. Recruiting will, of course, be the question with Parker as it is much more than simply being personable or connecting with recruits. There is a lot of work and it is a grind that can take some getting used to. His ties to Southern California could also be helpful on the front as the state remains a big priority for the Wildcats.
It would certainly be taking a chance for the Wildcats to hire Parker, but he will get an audition for the job this month and that could help give him a leg up on the rest of the candidates. Him being willing to coach the offensive line through the bowl game gives at least a glimpse that he is at least interested in being a full-time coach and that will be an important part of the process as Rodriguez looks at his options.
Football recruiting
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? Well, it is a busy time that is for sure. As teams, including Arizona, get ready for bowl season to begin this week there is also the new early signing period that is sitting on every team’s mind. It is new and there is still some uncertainty on what exactly will happen for the three-day period that begins next Wednesday. Rodriguez predicts that across the country 70 percent of recruits will sign in the early period with his belief that his own program will sign anywhere from 15-17 of its current class.
Those who don’t sign Rodriguez will no longer consider them committed to the program and will likely seek out other options or open up the program’s options. It is making for an interesting time and a big December with continued visits taking place.
* Last weekend was the big visit weekend for the Wildcats. It had its last big group on campus made up of all commits and that could be it for a while. Rodriguez said the program may have one or two more recruits on campus this weekend, but he wants to avoid the campus being empty and with the semester coming to a close and students returning home he isn’t sold on it being the best weekend to have visitors.
The rest of Arizona’s class was able to make it to campus over the weekend, however, and we will take a look at each and where things stand heading into the early signing period.
- Nahe Sulunga: The three-star former Colorado State commit made his way to campus over the weekend for his official visit. He’s a little bigger than we anticipated and while he is coming to Arizona as a defensive end he certainly has the body type to at least contribute inside if needed at some point in his career. Sulunga should sign next week, but there is always the chance he waits it out to see if any other offers come along.
On the football side there is a bowl game to get prepared for with the ‘Cats headed to Northern California in a couple weeks to take on Purdue in the Foster Farms Bowl, but it feels like that might be only the third-most important thing going on at the moment. There is, of course, the ongoing search for an offensive line coach that Rich Rodriguez has planed to wrap up some time before the bowl game on Dec. 27.
There have not been many concrete candidates emerge as of yet, but there are some options for the Wildcats and we will take a closer look at those.
In addition to that coaching search there is also the early signing period that is now just over a week away and that means a lot of the questions about recruiting will begin to get answered. Not every recruit currently committed to the Wildcats is expected to sign but Arizona will get more clarity about its class when the early period is over.
We have the latest on where things stand with recruiting covered for you in this week’s War Room.
On the basketball side, Sean Miller’s team is back in the top 25 this week after another strong showing with wins over Texas A&M and Alabama in the last seven days. Rawle Alkins also made his return over the weekend giving the Wildcats their full squad back. We’ll take a look at the team and where it goes from here now that it is back to full strength.
There’s only a few more weeks left in December, so get the latest as UA closes out 2017. Here is this week’s War Room.
Football
This will be the last week of practice for Arizona before it breaks and then heads to the Bay Area for its bowl game, and in the meantime there is a lot going on for the Wildcats. UA will have a few more practices this week while the coaching staff continues to split its time with the team and recruiting. Up to this point the bowl preparations have been split between getting ready for Purdue, working on the current active players getting ready and fine tuning things for the final game plus some work for the younger players as well.
* Rodriguez is having to split his time in different ares with one of the places being the upcoming hires he has to make. In January the rule allowing teams to hire a 10th assistant coach will go into place and that will mean another hire for the UA head coach to make but his priority right now is on the offensive line. This week he mentioned that the next candidate will not need coordinator experience and simply has to have experience coaching the offensive line.
Dana Dimel was one name we heard even before the news of Jim Michalczik’s departure to Oregon State started making the rounds. Dimel ended up taking the head coaching job at UTEP taking him out of the running. There are two in-house candidates for UA and both are intriguing in their own ways and in different ways.
In this week’s War Room we thought we’d take a look at the two candidates already involved with the team to give a better idea of what each brings to the table.
- Kyle Quinn (graduate assistant)
Quinn has been on the coaching staff since 2015 after playing his college career with the Wildcats for five seasons ending in 2012. In the years between that Quinn worked at making an NFL roster before returning to Northern California and his high school as an assistant at Liberty High in Brentwood, California. As a graduate assistant Quinn has a hand in everything from video to working with the offensive line to recruiting. He is someone offensive line recruits bring up quite often when discussing the program and getting to know the staff.
For the past few seasons he has been Michalczik’s right-hand man working with the offensive line during practice and helping where he can during games. He is someone the players like and have confidence in. He will get his chance to coach the linemen leading up to the bowl game.
Player quote: “Kyle could coach us now if he wanted to, but he doesn’t have very much credentials. He’s doing a great job.” - Redshirt senior offensive guard Jacob Alsadek.
Our take: Quinn would be the go-to guy for Arizona if it stays within the current staff and the focus is on recruiting. He already has a familiarity with recruits and the recruiting landscape, and on that side of things his ties to the Northern California would be important as the Wildcats look to replace Michalczik who had strong ties to the Bay Area. There have been some prospects whose early contact within the program has been through Quinn before the rest of the coaches take over with the actual recruiting. He is someone the players respect, but as Alsadek said the question would be his experience. It would be a bold move to go from a veteran coach with NFL coaching experience to a graduate assistant who has never controlled his own group at the college level. There are typically steps before a coach can reach that point, but the recruiting element would give him an edge if that is where Rodriguez ultimately decides to lean.
- Glenn Parker (broadcaster/analyst-special assistant)
The next in-house option would be to hire TV broadcaster and another former Wildcat with Parker stepping down from the announcer’s booth and onto the field full time with the program. The former UA offensive lineman has plenty of experience playing the game both in college and in the NFL. Going back to the offseason and beyond that even the last couple years Parker has been helping Arizona’s offensive linemen outside of the usual practice scenario with Alsadek being one of the primary players he works with.
Parker has taken on an advisory role with the program this season and he will be the other coach helping the team in the bowl game as Rodriguez has been able to secure NCAA approval on the former Wildcat standout to be an on-field coach leading up to the Foster Farms Bowl.
The 12-year NFL player is originally from Southern California but has lived in Tucson for some time.
Player quote: “I’ve been working with Glenn for a while and he’s been doing a great job. It seems like those two guys together (Parker and Quinn) it just seemed like they mesh well and everybody was responding well and everybody wanted to work.” - Alsadek on Parker’s role this month as an assistant coach.
Our take: Parker has the type of playing background that will resonate with players and recruits. His abilities on the field in the past have to be respected and he has a connection with the current team that will be hard to find with an outsider. Bringing someone from “off the street” can be interesting but Parker has also already had experience teaching the position with the work he’s done with Alsadek and others at Arizona. Recruiting will, of course, be the question with Parker as it is much more than simply being personable or connecting with recruits. There is a lot of work and it is a grind that can take some getting used to. His ties to Southern California could also be helpful on the front as the state remains a big priority for the Wildcats.
It would certainly be taking a chance for the Wildcats to hire Parker, but he will get an audition for the job this month and that could help give him a leg up on the rest of the candidates. Him being willing to coach the offensive line through the bowl game gives at least a glimpse that he is at least interested in being a full-time coach and that will be an important part of the process as Rodriguez looks at his options.
Football recruiting
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? Well, it is a busy time that is for sure. As teams, including Arizona, get ready for bowl season to begin this week there is also the new early signing period that is sitting on every team’s mind. It is new and there is still some uncertainty on what exactly will happen for the three-day period that begins next Wednesday. Rodriguez predicts that across the country 70 percent of recruits will sign in the early period with his belief that his own program will sign anywhere from 15-17 of its current class.
Those who don’t sign Rodriguez will no longer consider them committed to the program and will likely seek out other options or open up the program’s options. It is making for an interesting time and a big December with continued visits taking place.
* Last weekend was the big visit weekend for the Wildcats. It had its last big group on campus made up of all commits and that could be it for a while. Rodriguez said the program may have one or two more recruits on campus this weekend, but he wants to avoid the campus being empty and with the semester coming to a close and students returning home he isn’t sold on it being the best weekend to have visitors.
The rest of Arizona’s class was able to make it to campus over the weekend, however, and we will take a look at each and where things stand heading into the early signing period.
- Nahe Sulunga: The three-star former Colorado State commit made his way to campus over the weekend for his official visit. He’s a little bigger than we anticipated and while he is coming to Arizona as a defensive end he certainly has the body type to at least contribute inside if needed at some point in his career. Sulunga should sign next week, but there is always the chance he waits it out to see if any other offers come along.
