It is now the third day of practice and things are starting to get a little more interesting with Arizona as spring ball rolls on. The Wildcats went full pads for the first time this spring head of Saturday's scrimmage. Here's a quick rundown of things from Thursday night's practice as the media got its latest look at the team and had its opportunity to talk with inside receivers coach Theron Aych and receiver Cedric Peterson.
Quick notes/observations
- The pads went on Thursday and it made things a little bit more exciting for the team. There were some different drills than we have seen during the open media portion of practice prior to today. The staff started off by breaking up the team into small groups to work on tackling with offensive and defensive players all mixed together working with a different member of the staff. We didn't get to see much live tackling, but there was some hitting going on in some of the drills especially with the linemen. Josh Donovan left practice with a team doctor although he appeared to be fine, so we'll see what that means since he was been working with the starting unit.
Arizona started early so I'm not sure if that's the reason why, but new defensive tackle Myles Tapusoa was nowhere to be seen during the open portion of today's practice. I definitely don't want to jump to any conclusions here, so we'll see what the deal is soon hopefully.
- We were able to see more of the first and second units on offense working together today and while it should be no real surprise it was interesting to see freshman wideout Boobie Curry working with the first unit today. The rest of the group remained the same with all the usual faces including the other two newcomers working with the first unit, Donovan and Paiton Fears. Cedric Peterson and Devaughn Cooper were the other two starting receivers while Bryce Wolma was the starting tight end working that that group.
- Kevin Sumlin is still using his cart to get around after injuring his ankle during Monday's practice. He's been banged up before, but this one is serious enough that it requires a boot. He doesn't want to wear the boot, he said Tuesday, so he continues to use the cart to get around the practice field.
- As was mentioned in another thread here's a look at the notable visitors who made it out to campus for today's practice. A few of them left practice early, but those players have all been around campus before.
Aych talked about the importance of the 2020 class after practice.
Discussions
- A lot has already been made of Boobie Curry in the first days of his career with the Wildcats. I have always had the impression that he was going to be able to put himself into position to play at some point during his freshman season, he's simply too talented not to. However, it might have actually happened sooner than I thought with the freshman early enrollee already running with the first unit. He was the second wideout opposite Cedric Peterson with the first unit and while it is still early in spring ball it is certainly a good sign for his future and the upcoming season to be working with that first-team offense already. Curry simply has a different look to him and on a team where there aren't a lot of proven players with good size he is unique and that is something Kevin Sumlin mentioned about him back in December when the Houston native signed with the Wildcats.
While he doesn't coach Curry, Aych had plenty of positive things to say about the freshman when he spoke with the media Thursday night.
"Boobie is going to be an exciting player to watch this fall," Aych said. "Boobie has done a really good job, like Jaden [Mitchell], coming in early preparing his body in the weight room for the last couple weeks. So, now as he starts to transition from high school ... I think he's got a great upside. We're looking forward to seeing what he can do the rest of the spring."
Peterson has also been impressed by the freshman with Curry already raising some eyebrows among the other players who feel like he's playing above his age right now.
"I really like Boobie Curry," Peterson said. "He's already like he's an older dude. He's always ready to work and he already has a bunch of tools in toolbox already. We're getting him right and as long as he knows the plays – which he's getting that down – and just getting adapted to that speed he's gonna be for sure ready to play."
While the attention and early success for Curry is not overly surprising, the fact that Aych said if Arizona had a game right now Mitchell would be in a good spot to play does seem a bit more surprising. The Las Vegas native who injured his knee early in his senior season at Desert Pines before sitting out all of last year and delaying his arrival to UA has come in ready to go and has impressed Aych as a slot receiver for the Wildcats.
So much so that he will find himself on the field this year if he can continue the progress he has made so far.
Mitchell's scholarship was given to him by the former coaching staff and it was their decision to have him grey shirt in the 2018 season. So, when Sumlin came on board there wasn't going to be any pressure to honor that scholarship. However, Aych led the charge to keep Mitchell in the fold and the program decided to include him in the 2019 class as had previously been planned before any coaching changes.
It was important to Aych to do so and right now he is certainly happy that was the decision the program came to with Mitchell.
"Coach Sumlin is the ultimate player's coach, first off," Aych said about why the program decided to keep Mitchell as part of the program. "Technically, he committed even before I got here but that's just the type of coach that he is. He's got the Block A on just like the rest of us so we're certainly going to treat him as family and that's how the kids in the locker room have approached him.
"He's earned their respect already just through three practices."
Mitchell has impressed Peterson and leaned on the UA veteran as well despite the two playing separate positions up to this point.
"He's always asking me questions and keeping me on my toes, too," Peterson said. "I like the way he's been bringing the energy as well."
- Peterson and Curry have been the outside receivers with the first unit this week, but the other member of the starting group is someone who has steadily been improving his stock throughout his career, Devaughn Cooper. The redshirt junior has been able to do a little bit more throughout his career and he took things to a new level in 2018. Now he is set to be one of the key parts of the receiver group and there has been plenty of buzz about his progress already this spring. Linebacker Colin Schooler named Cooper as one of the standout players of the offseason and he has impressed more than just UA's defensive star already this spring.
"Devaughn is a very intriguing player," Aych said. "He's probably got the most true receiver experience of anybody in the receiver room – both rooms. He's got some range as you saw a year ago. He's got big playmaking ability. I think for him understanding the day-to-day things that receivers need to prepare for, I think that's where he really brings some skills to the table."
- Leadership has been a theme to the spring so far this week and there is a reason for it. It is now becoming clear that there were quite a bit of leadership problems last season and for the first time we started to get an on-the-record type of idea how the team ended up finishing the season like it did. Peterson opened up a bit about why things turned out like they did in the 2018 season when discussing leadership and it's clear the message that Sumlin wants to get across is being received right now.
"For the most part from the first practice of this spring compared to last spring I feel like we're a better team and a lot more together as a unit," he said. "... I feel like a lot more people bought in and everybody knows. Nobody liked the way we felt last year. Everybody came in from January on and everybody knew what we needed to do to get to that next level. We just can't keep talking about it. We can talk about it as much as we want, but at the end of the day we've gotta come out on the field and perform and do the things that the coaches are teaching us and that we know how to do as well."
Like it or not, Khalil Tate is at the top of that list when it comes to who Arizona will look to for leadership and Peterson, who is one of Tate's closest friends on the team, said there has been progress in that area for the UA quarterback.
"We had a bad season and he didn't like it," Peterson said of Tate. "He was hurt half the season and there was a lot of criticism on the team. We all took it to heart and we just all gotta step up to the plate now and prove everybody wrong. I know that he wants to do the same."
Videos
Quick notes/observations
- The pads went on Thursday and it made things a little bit more exciting for the team. There were some different drills than we have seen during the open media portion of practice prior to today. The staff started off by breaking up the team into small groups to work on tackling with offensive and defensive players all mixed together working with a different member of the staff. We didn't get to see much live tackling, but there was some hitting going on in some of the drills especially with the linemen. Josh Donovan left practice with a team doctor although he appeared to be fine, so we'll see what that means since he was been working with the starting unit.
Arizona started early so I'm not sure if that's the reason why, but new defensive tackle Myles Tapusoa was nowhere to be seen during the open portion of today's practice. I definitely don't want to jump to any conclusions here, so we'll see what the deal is soon hopefully.
- We were able to see more of the first and second units on offense working together today and while it should be no real surprise it was interesting to see freshman wideout Boobie Curry working with the first unit today. The rest of the group remained the same with all the usual faces including the other two newcomers working with the first unit, Donovan and Paiton Fears. Cedric Peterson and Devaughn Cooper were the other two starting receivers while Bryce Wolma was the starting tight end working that that group.
- Kevin Sumlin is still using his cart to get around after injuring his ankle during Monday's practice. He's been banged up before, but this one is serious enough that it requires a boot. He doesn't want to wear the boot, he said Tuesday, so he continues to use the cart to get around the practice field.
- As was mentioned in another thread here's a look at the notable visitors who made it out to campus for today's practice. A few of them left practice early, but those players have all been around campus before.
Aych talked about the importance of the 2020 class after practice.
Discussions
- A lot has already been made of Boobie Curry in the first days of his career with the Wildcats. I have always had the impression that he was going to be able to put himself into position to play at some point during his freshman season, he's simply too talented not to. However, it might have actually happened sooner than I thought with the freshman early enrollee already running with the first unit. He was the second wideout opposite Cedric Peterson with the first unit and while it is still early in spring ball it is certainly a good sign for his future and the upcoming season to be working with that first-team offense already. Curry simply has a different look to him and on a team where there aren't a lot of proven players with good size he is unique and that is something Kevin Sumlin mentioned about him back in December when the Houston native signed with the Wildcats.
While he doesn't coach Curry, Aych had plenty of positive things to say about the freshman when he spoke with the media Thursday night.
"Boobie is going to be an exciting player to watch this fall," Aych said. "Boobie has done a really good job, like Jaden [Mitchell], coming in early preparing his body in the weight room for the last couple weeks. So, now as he starts to transition from high school ... I think he's got a great upside. We're looking forward to seeing what he can do the rest of the spring."
Peterson has also been impressed by the freshman with Curry already raising some eyebrows among the other players who feel like he's playing above his age right now.
"I really like Boobie Curry," Peterson said. "He's already like he's an older dude. He's always ready to work and he already has a bunch of tools in toolbox already. We're getting him right and as long as he knows the plays – which he's getting that down – and just getting adapted to that speed he's gonna be for sure ready to play."
While the attention and early success for Curry is not overly surprising, the fact that Aych said if Arizona had a game right now Mitchell would be in a good spot to play does seem a bit more surprising. The Las Vegas native who injured his knee early in his senior season at Desert Pines before sitting out all of last year and delaying his arrival to UA has come in ready to go and has impressed Aych as a slot receiver for the Wildcats.
So much so that he will find himself on the field this year if he can continue the progress he has made so far.
Mitchell's scholarship was given to him by the former coaching staff and it was their decision to have him grey shirt in the 2018 season. So, when Sumlin came on board there wasn't going to be any pressure to honor that scholarship. However, Aych led the charge to keep Mitchell in the fold and the program decided to include him in the 2019 class as had previously been planned before any coaching changes.
It was important to Aych to do so and right now he is certainly happy that was the decision the program came to with Mitchell.
"Coach Sumlin is the ultimate player's coach, first off," Aych said about why the program decided to keep Mitchell as part of the program. "Technically, he committed even before I got here but that's just the type of coach that he is. He's got the Block A on just like the rest of us so we're certainly going to treat him as family and that's how the kids in the locker room have approached him.
"He's earned their respect already just through three practices."
Mitchell has impressed Peterson and leaned on the UA veteran as well despite the two playing separate positions up to this point.
"He's always asking me questions and keeping me on my toes, too," Peterson said. "I like the way he's been bringing the energy as well."
- Peterson and Curry have been the outside receivers with the first unit this week, but the other member of the starting group is someone who has steadily been improving his stock throughout his career, Devaughn Cooper. The redshirt junior has been able to do a little bit more throughout his career and he took things to a new level in 2018. Now he is set to be one of the key parts of the receiver group and there has been plenty of buzz about his progress already this spring. Linebacker Colin Schooler named Cooper as one of the standout players of the offseason and he has impressed more than just UA's defensive star already this spring.
"Devaughn is a very intriguing player," Aych said. "He's probably got the most true receiver experience of anybody in the receiver room – both rooms. He's got some range as you saw a year ago. He's got big playmaking ability. I think for him understanding the day-to-day things that receivers need to prepare for, I think that's where he really brings some skills to the table."
- Leadership has been a theme to the spring so far this week and there is a reason for it. It is now becoming clear that there were quite a bit of leadership problems last season and for the first time we started to get an on-the-record type of idea how the team ended up finishing the season like it did. Peterson opened up a bit about why things turned out like they did in the 2018 season when discussing leadership and it's clear the message that Sumlin wants to get across is being received right now.
"For the most part from the first practice of this spring compared to last spring I feel like we're a better team and a lot more together as a unit," he said. "... I feel like a lot more people bought in and everybody knows. Nobody liked the way we felt last year. Everybody came in from January on and everybody knew what we needed to do to get to that next level. We just can't keep talking about it. We can talk about it as much as we want, but at the end of the day we've gotta come out on the field and perform and do the things that the coaches are teaching us and that we know how to do as well."
Like it or not, Khalil Tate is at the top of that list when it comes to who Arizona will look to for leadership and Peterson, who is one of Tate's closest friends on the team, said there has been progress in that area for the UA quarterback.
"We had a bad season and he didn't like it," Peterson said of Tate. "He was hurt half the season and there was a lot of criticism on the team. We all took it to heart and we just all gotta step up to the plate now and prove everybody wrong. I know that he wants to do the same."
Videos
