Thursday night was an interesting one for Arizona. Nobody, not even those in charge of setting up interviews after practice, knew what Rich Rodriguez had planned but the day before the team goes into full pads the UA head coach decided to cut practice short by about 45 minutes or so and get the team some ice cream. It's something he'll do from time to time and with Friday expected to be a high intensity day he decided to give the team a bit of a break on the fourth day of camp.
That meant not very much going on with practice but we were still able to learn some things. Here's a rundown of what was addressed after Thursday night's practice.
* The team has a certain schedule it has to stick to when it comes to using certain elements of their uniforms and since the team can't go full pads until the fifth practice that means things are going to be getting a little more intense soon. That was one reason the UA head coach decided to cut practice short and give the team a little reward for a good week of work. In addition to that the team has been lifting in the morning and then having practice at night and from the sounds of it the lifting sessions have been pretty intense so Rodriguez said that is almost like having a two-a-day practice schedule so he wanted to give the team a little break and a treat with an ice cream truck.
"The ice cream man came so we had to stop," Rodriguez said. "We had to have one more practice in shells and the next couple days are going to be hard, and the freshmen have really been going hard since Sunday because you know they had a Practice Zero. In our minds it was really like a two-a-day because they lifted today. They lifted yesterday morning and lifted today in the morning, so it's been a good four or five days of work so it was a little bit of an hour reprieve for them."
* Arizona went away from its usual practice schedule because of the shortened practice so Rodriguez said the team didn't have a ton of "group work" that it did Thursday. So for now the defense continues to lead things so far in camp with a 2-1 advantage. Friday's practice is going to be the one that shifts the team into a new gear and Rodriguez said about 75 percent of it will be something that is competitive and matches up the defense against the offense.
* The quarterbacks in particular is who Rodriguez wasn't happy with on Wednesday and he is confident the group will get it figure out by the time the season rolls around. He is interested to see how competitive things get when the pads go on and things become a bit more real. For him the progress needs to come, as it usually does from his vantage point, between the ears. He said the athletic ability and the ability to pass is there for all of his guys but he wants to see decision making improve more across the board over the next few weeks.
"To me it's not that hard," Rodriguez said. "It's checkers not chess because there's only 11 people. You don't have to think 10 moves ahead just one move ahead. We've got a lot in than normally this part of camp, but the execution has got to come in the next three weeks. And I think it will. The competition is going to bring out the best in all of them I think."
* If you missed it yesterday Arizona received two points in the USA Today Coaches Poll that will take college football into the preseason and the Wildcats were ahead of UCLA that had just one. Rodriguez is a voter in the poll so there were many questions on social media about the UA head coach being the one to pick his own team. He didn't exactly deny doing so Thursday night.
"Well, you know, I'm a voter," he said. "but the vote is not published that I vote until the end so sometimes I look at the list but sometimes I kind of just trust to the staff so I'm not really sure whether it was or not. I mean polls are fun but they probably shouldn't have a poll until mid-October, but it's got you interested in it. You know obviously I have more confidence in us than everybody else does and I think we have more confidence in ourselves.
"But isn't there one coach who says, 'you are what you're record says you are?' So, until we win games we are what people say we are. Hopefully we'll have a chip on our shoulder to prove people otherwise."
* Many of the players booked it out of the facility before the media arrived since we were not informed about the practice ending early until after it actually happened that meant less chances to talk with more players, but I did get a chance to talk with Jack Banda who is playing the stud position right now for the team and is now officially listed as a defensive end and linebacker on the roster. He didn't want to go into a ton of detail about his exact duties but at least for now he said it looks much more like another defensive end than it does a linebacker.
"We've got kind of a new position coach, Coach (Brian) Knorr," Banda said. "And we have a linebacker that gets down and sometimes he stands up – a defensive end/linebacker. I don't know what everyone calls it but I just know where I'm supposed to be at. ... There's some differences but it's mainly the same thing."
Arizona is certainly looking like it will be moving toward more of a four-man front this season and we are starting to get more and more hints about that as things go on in camp.
That meant not very much going on with practice but we were still able to learn some things. Here's a rundown of what was addressed after Thursday night's practice.
* The team has a certain schedule it has to stick to when it comes to using certain elements of their uniforms and since the team can't go full pads until the fifth practice that means things are going to be getting a little more intense soon. That was one reason the UA head coach decided to cut practice short and give the team a little reward for a good week of work. In addition to that the team has been lifting in the morning and then having practice at night and from the sounds of it the lifting sessions have been pretty intense so Rodriguez said that is almost like having a two-a-day practice schedule so he wanted to give the team a little break and a treat with an ice cream truck.
"The ice cream man came so we had to stop," Rodriguez said. "We had to have one more practice in shells and the next couple days are going to be hard, and the freshmen have really been going hard since Sunday because you know they had a Practice Zero. In our minds it was really like a two-a-day because they lifted today. They lifted yesterday morning and lifted today in the morning, so it's been a good four or five days of work so it was a little bit of an hour reprieve for them."
* Arizona went away from its usual practice schedule because of the shortened practice so Rodriguez said the team didn't have a ton of "group work" that it did Thursday. So for now the defense continues to lead things so far in camp with a 2-1 advantage. Friday's practice is going to be the one that shifts the team into a new gear and Rodriguez said about 75 percent of it will be something that is competitive and matches up the defense against the offense.
* The quarterbacks in particular is who Rodriguez wasn't happy with on Wednesday and he is confident the group will get it figure out by the time the season rolls around. He is interested to see how competitive things get when the pads go on and things become a bit more real. For him the progress needs to come, as it usually does from his vantage point, between the ears. He said the athletic ability and the ability to pass is there for all of his guys but he wants to see decision making improve more across the board over the next few weeks.
"To me it's not that hard," Rodriguez said. "It's checkers not chess because there's only 11 people. You don't have to think 10 moves ahead just one move ahead. We've got a lot in than normally this part of camp, but the execution has got to come in the next three weeks. And I think it will. The competition is going to bring out the best in all of them I think."
* If you missed it yesterday Arizona received two points in the USA Today Coaches Poll that will take college football into the preseason and the Wildcats were ahead of UCLA that had just one. Rodriguez is a voter in the poll so there were many questions on social media about the UA head coach being the one to pick his own team. He didn't exactly deny doing so Thursday night.
"Well, you know, I'm a voter," he said. "but the vote is not published that I vote until the end so sometimes I look at the list but sometimes I kind of just trust to the staff so I'm not really sure whether it was or not. I mean polls are fun but they probably shouldn't have a poll until mid-October, but it's got you interested in it. You know obviously I have more confidence in us than everybody else does and I think we have more confidence in ourselves.
"But isn't there one coach who says, 'you are what you're record says you are?' So, until we win games we are what people say we are. Hopefully we'll have a chip on our shoulder to prove people otherwise."
* Many of the players booked it out of the facility before the media arrived since we were not informed about the practice ending early until after it actually happened that meant less chances to talk with more players, but I did get a chance to talk with Jack Banda who is playing the stud position right now for the team and is now officially listed as a defensive end and linebacker on the roster. He didn't want to go into a ton of detail about his exact duties but at least for now he said it looks much more like another defensive end than it does a linebacker.
"We've got kind of a new position coach, Coach (Brian) Knorr," Banda said. "And we have a linebacker that gets down and sometimes he stands up – a defensive end/linebacker. I don't know what everyone calls it but I just know where I'm supposed to be at. ... There's some differences but it's mainly the same thing."
Arizona is certainly looking like it will be moving toward more of a four-man front this season and we are starting to get more and more hints about that as things go on in camp.
