It’s finally here. Game week has arrived in Tucson as Arizona gets ready to take on Northern Arizona on Saturday night. The Wildcats will get back to work Tuesday after having Monday off and will practice Wednesday and Thursday before heading off to La Paloma. Because it is an important week we will break the War Room up into two parts this week with this first part focusing on football but make sure to check back later for a breakdown of recruiting for both the football program and basketball program.
It’s a busy time so lets get right into it.
Football
* We’ll start with the first bit of concrete news we have had on the depth chart all month long. Up until Monday everything we discussed was based on our projections talking to those within the program and watching the limited opportunities to watch the team over the course of camp. However, Monday the team released its official depth chart for Saturday’s game and there were certainly some interesting elements. For this week’s War Room we are going to breakdown every spot and take a closer look at how things ended up looking for Rich Rodriguez and his staff.
First, here is just a general overview of what jumped out. There were 12 freshmen listed on the two-deep depth chart overall with three being named outright starters at their positions – all on defense – and one, Colin Schooler, being named a co-starter. Arizona is going to be young and we knew that already and Monday’s depth chart showed that. In addition to that there were plenty of “ors” on the list and that was something that was expected as well.
- Quarterbacks: The quarterback group went about as expected outside of Brandon Dawkins being named the outright starter. It is not a shock that Rodriguez decided to put an “or” between the redshirt junior and backup Khalil Tate. The expectation still is that Dawkins will get the start while Tate will get time at some point in the game on Saturday. Dawkins has been the most consistent quarterback this month but Tate is a special talent and the staff will find ways to get him in games this season. Rodriguez said that Tate is still “trying to close the gap” on Dawkins and is still competing for that starting job. That’s one reason Dawkins wasn’t named the outright starter.
Behind those two listed in this order were freshmen Donovan Tate “or” Rhett Rodriguez. At this point Arizona is going to roll with four guys at the position taking the reps and Rodriguez said he has confidence in all four right now. He said the situation should clear itself up by the end of the week although as of now Dawkins is expected to start Saturday.
- Running backs: At the running back spot there were not any surprises with Nick Wilson and JJ Taylor listed as co-starters with an “or” between their names. Wilson was listed first, and that was expected but the duo should split the workload in a lot of ways. Behind those two is the running back who has been running third since the spring with senior Zach Green getting the nod there. There was some surprise on social media about Nathan Tilford not making the two-deep depth chart at running back but based on all the things we have seen it shouldn’t be a surprise. Arizona should find a way to use him this season but he is running behind the rest of the group as of now. Rodriguez also mentioned Brandon Leon as being the other man in the rotation for the Wildcats although he was also not listed on the depth chart.
Arizona is going to have plenty of options at the position and the depth chart both reflected that and went according to plan.
- Receivers: The receiver spots are certainly interesting looking but make sense when you look back at who was talked about most over the course of camp. It is a spot that Rodriguez is not totally comfortable with yet so there could be a good amount of movement still to come as the games get going.
Starting at one outside receiver position Cedric Peterson locked down his outside receiver spot on Monday’s official depth chart as he was listed ahead of Cam Denson and Brian Casteel who had an “or” between them. All three will play this year but Peterson has been the projected starter there and that is how it worked out. At the other outside receiver spot things went as expected at the top with Shawn Poindexter getting the starting nod but a bit of a surprise came behind him with redshirt junior Donovan Walker getting the call ahead of Zach Benjamin. The UTEP transfer is someone who started to emerge as a legitimate rotation option in the last couple weeks and Arizona believes he can be a deep threat and he is someone they are excited to use this year.
In the slot, again, things went about as expected. On one side Arizona has Shun Brown who has emerged as the team’s most talented receiver entering his junior year and behind him is Arizona’s fastest man, Tyrell Johnson. Both receivers will play a lot this season and be expected to provide the Wildcats with plenty of help in the slot. On the other side in the slot is Tony Ellison as the projected starter when the Wildcats use four receivers. Ellison is someone who gets talked about every spring and every training camp but he has yet to put it all together on the field. This year he will have his chance to start and make an impact. Behind him is freshman Gary Brightwell who will get his fair share of action this season as well. Brightwell is someone who quickly showed that he is going to be a factor on this team and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him eventually take over the starting role in the slot at some point based on the things we have been hearing about him in camp.
- Tight ends: Some players were left off the depth chart because of injury and while Rodriguez didn’t want to go into it until the injury report is released on Thursday he did mention that many of the omissions were because of injury. That presents some other players with a chance to step into bigger roles and among that group will be freshman tight end Bryce Wolma who is the reserve behind Trevor Wood and will step in for the injured Jamie Nunley in Saturday’s game. Wolma is someone who didn’t look the part in shorts and a helmet on the first day of camp but once the pads went on that changed. He provides the type of size Arizona needs at the position and has the pass-catching ability that could show itself more this season.
Arizona has some different ideas in mind and isn’t afraid to use more than one tight end on the field at times so Wolma should get his chance to play and get in the action this Saturday. He made some good strides in camp and it will be his opportunity to get some more playing time as things move forward.
- Offensive line: It is one of Arizona’s weakest spots behind the starters and it is one group that can’t have injuries, yet that has already started to happen and it is showing up on the two-deep depth chart. The starting unit was as expected Monday when the list was released with Nathan Eldridge holding down the center spot flanked by Jacob Alsadek at right guard and Christian Boettcher at left guard. Gerhard de Beer is fully healthy and he is back in the mix at right tackle with Cody Creason being listed first but an “or” between the two. Layth Friekh continues to hold down his left tackle spot and will do so this year in his final college season.
Where things were just a bit different was behind that group. Alex Kosinksi remains the backup to Alsadek at the right guard spot and Michael Eletise continues to try and push Boettcher while Levi Walton remains second on the Wildcats’ center list. However, Bryson Cain was projected to be the backup left tackle and Rodriguez said Monday he would normally be part of the eight-man rotation UA wants to have but he is injured. An injury with this group means you are going to get someone with no experience stepping in. Arizona’s third unit offensive line has not been good but with most of them being freshmen it is not as bad as it would seem as long as the others ahead of them stay healthy. Enter redshirt freshman Josh McCauley who will step in for Cain at the left tackle spot behind Friekh. McCauley is someone that we have heard some about mainly from Alsadek who loves what the walk-on from Mesa brings to the table.
McCauley is not exactly completely ready just yet but any injury was going to change things for UA and now the second-year player will get his chance to show what he can do.
It’s a busy time so lets get right into it.
Football
* We’ll start with the first bit of concrete news we have had on the depth chart all month long. Up until Monday everything we discussed was based on our projections talking to those within the program and watching the limited opportunities to watch the team over the course of camp. However, Monday the team released its official depth chart for Saturday’s game and there were certainly some interesting elements. For this week’s War Room we are going to breakdown every spot and take a closer look at how things ended up looking for Rich Rodriguez and his staff.
First, here is just a general overview of what jumped out. There were 12 freshmen listed on the two-deep depth chart overall with three being named outright starters at their positions – all on defense – and one, Colin Schooler, being named a co-starter. Arizona is going to be young and we knew that already and Monday’s depth chart showed that. In addition to that there were plenty of “ors” on the list and that was something that was expected as well.
- Quarterbacks: The quarterback group went about as expected outside of Brandon Dawkins being named the outright starter. It is not a shock that Rodriguez decided to put an “or” between the redshirt junior and backup Khalil Tate. The expectation still is that Dawkins will get the start while Tate will get time at some point in the game on Saturday. Dawkins has been the most consistent quarterback this month but Tate is a special talent and the staff will find ways to get him in games this season. Rodriguez said that Tate is still “trying to close the gap” on Dawkins and is still competing for that starting job. That’s one reason Dawkins wasn’t named the outright starter.
Behind those two listed in this order were freshmen Donovan Tate “or” Rhett Rodriguez. At this point Arizona is going to roll with four guys at the position taking the reps and Rodriguez said he has confidence in all four right now. He said the situation should clear itself up by the end of the week although as of now Dawkins is expected to start Saturday.
- Running backs: At the running back spot there were not any surprises with Nick Wilson and JJ Taylor listed as co-starters with an “or” between their names. Wilson was listed first, and that was expected but the duo should split the workload in a lot of ways. Behind those two is the running back who has been running third since the spring with senior Zach Green getting the nod there. There was some surprise on social media about Nathan Tilford not making the two-deep depth chart at running back but based on all the things we have seen it shouldn’t be a surprise. Arizona should find a way to use him this season but he is running behind the rest of the group as of now. Rodriguez also mentioned Brandon Leon as being the other man in the rotation for the Wildcats although he was also not listed on the depth chart.
Arizona is going to have plenty of options at the position and the depth chart both reflected that and went according to plan.
- Receivers: The receiver spots are certainly interesting looking but make sense when you look back at who was talked about most over the course of camp. It is a spot that Rodriguez is not totally comfortable with yet so there could be a good amount of movement still to come as the games get going.
Starting at one outside receiver position Cedric Peterson locked down his outside receiver spot on Monday’s official depth chart as he was listed ahead of Cam Denson and Brian Casteel who had an “or” between them. All three will play this year but Peterson has been the projected starter there and that is how it worked out. At the other outside receiver spot things went as expected at the top with Shawn Poindexter getting the starting nod but a bit of a surprise came behind him with redshirt junior Donovan Walker getting the call ahead of Zach Benjamin. The UTEP transfer is someone who started to emerge as a legitimate rotation option in the last couple weeks and Arizona believes he can be a deep threat and he is someone they are excited to use this year.
In the slot, again, things went about as expected. On one side Arizona has Shun Brown who has emerged as the team’s most talented receiver entering his junior year and behind him is Arizona’s fastest man, Tyrell Johnson. Both receivers will play a lot this season and be expected to provide the Wildcats with plenty of help in the slot. On the other side in the slot is Tony Ellison as the projected starter when the Wildcats use four receivers. Ellison is someone who gets talked about every spring and every training camp but he has yet to put it all together on the field. This year he will have his chance to start and make an impact. Behind him is freshman Gary Brightwell who will get his fair share of action this season as well. Brightwell is someone who quickly showed that he is going to be a factor on this team and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him eventually take over the starting role in the slot at some point based on the things we have been hearing about him in camp.
- Tight ends: Some players were left off the depth chart because of injury and while Rodriguez didn’t want to go into it until the injury report is released on Thursday he did mention that many of the omissions were because of injury. That presents some other players with a chance to step into bigger roles and among that group will be freshman tight end Bryce Wolma who is the reserve behind Trevor Wood and will step in for the injured Jamie Nunley in Saturday’s game. Wolma is someone who didn’t look the part in shorts and a helmet on the first day of camp but once the pads went on that changed. He provides the type of size Arizona needs at the position and has the pass-catching ability that could show itself more this season.
Arizona has some different ideas in mind and isn’t afraid to use more than one tight end on the field at times so Wolma should get his chance to play and get in the action this Saturday. He made some good strides in camp and it will be his opportunity to get some more playing time as things move forward.
- Offensive line: It is one of Arizona’s weakest spots behind the starters and it is one group that can’t have injuries, yet that has already started to happen and it is showing up on the two-deep depth chart. The starting unit was as expected Monday when the list was released with Nathan Eldridge holding down the center spot flanked by Jacob Alsadek at right guard and Christian Boettcher at left guard. Gerhard de Beer is fully healthy and he is back in the mix at right tackle with Cody Creason being listed first but an “or” between the two. Layth Friekh continues to hold down his left tackle spot and will do so this year in his final college season.
Where things were just a bit different was behind that group. Alex Kosinksi remains the backup to Alsadek at the right guard spot and Michael Eletise continues to try and push Boettcher while Levi Walton remains second on the Wildcats’ center list. However, Bryson Cain was projected to be the backup left tackle and Rodriguez said Monday he would normally be part of the eight-man rotation UA wants to have but he is injured. An injury with this group means you are going to get someone with no experience stepping in. Arizona’s third unit offensive line has not been good but with most of them being freshmen it is not as bad as it would seem as long as the others ahead of them stay healthy. Enter redshirt freshman Josh McCauley who will step in for Cain at the left tackle spot behind Friekh. McCauley is someone that we have heard some about mainly from Alsadek who loves what the walk-on from Mesa brings to the table.
McCauley is not exactly completely ready just yet but any injury was going to change things for UA and now the second-year player will get his chance to show what he can do.
