First and foremost, happy holidays to everybody as the calendar gets ready to flip to a new year. Depending on who you ask 2016 has been either a good year or a bad one, but whatever the case it certainly has been interesting. Since it is the middle of the holidays things tend to slow down a bit so this week’s and next week’s War Rooms will be a little more brief than some others.
Let’s get right into this week’s post-Christmas War Room.
Football
This remains a time for Arizona’s coaches to have to work on recruiting from their homes and to get some actual time to relax for a bit. Once January picks up things will kick back into overdrive with recruiting at the forefront.
* Because of that for now we will continue our look at each position group heading into the new year and the rest of the offseason. Last week we took a look at Arizona’s receiver group and alongside those receivers is another group of pass-catchers, the tight ends. Charle Ragle’s unit was able to get a bit deeper this season but the Wildcats didn’t drastically change how they approached the position. 2017 will be the truest test of just how much Rich Rodriguez is willing to work the position more into his offense since the team will have by far its most talented tight end group in his time at UA.
- 2016 overview: It is no secret that Rodriguez’s offense utilizes its tight ends a bit differently than others do. There is less focus on catching passes and being a down-the-field threat and more emphasis on blocking and helping in the run game. That continued in the 3-9 2016 season as the tight end group continued to be used more as an added piece to the running game. In many ways it helped and became a signature of the offense inside the red zone. UA used a lot more of a two-tight-end set inside the 20-yard line to help create some space for the running backs. It was able to do so because for once the group was mostly healthy for probably the first time under Rodriguez and Ragle.
Josh Kern was still the tight end the staff trusted most with his years of experience in the offense, but with Trevor Wood finally healthy he was able to be used much more in the running game and on the field after his latest shoulder injury. Both ended up playing in every game this season for UA but it was Wood who proved to get more involved in the pass offense finishing the year with seven catches for 49 yards.
Kern ended his final season with five catches for 41 yards and a touchdown against Washington that sent the game into overtime.
- 2017 outlook: It will be the Trevor Wood show next season as the redshirt junior takes over the starting role for outgoing senior Kern. Now healthy it will be interesting to see how much the Wildcats start to incorporate the position even more into the offense. It will be the best group of pass-catching tight ends UA has had on its roster under Rodriguez with Brion Anduze also coming off an injury and should be back in the mix. Jamie Nunley will move into the back up role, but UA also will have some important recruits coming in as well.
The two Bryces will be making their way to Tucson with Bryce Gilbert from Higley High in Gilbert coming early in the next couple weeks and Michigan-based Bryce Wolma coming in the summer. Gilbert checks in at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds while Wolma is 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds. It will be hard to judge off the spring and you truly won’t know until the games start just how Rodriguez and his offensive staff will use the tight ends, but at least in camp this year the staff showed more of an openness to go down the field with the ball using those tight ends.
The Wildcats will have the strongest unit to date, however, under Rodriguez with the pieces coming in over the next few months.
* Things have settled down with Arizona’s staff now that Scott Boone is on board as the linebackers coach. There had been some rumblings earlier in the year about Jim Michalczik potentially taking a job with Fresno State but that has died down a bit along with another offensive coach looking at other opportunities. As of now things seem to be settled behind the scenes and UA is moving forward. There is always a chance for more movement as we saw last year, but for now nothing else is in the works.
Football recruiting
Arizona is continuing to roll again into the after having to endure another string of decommitments, but as always it is about who you replace those recruits with and UA generally does a good job of doing so. So far so good as it has found the right pieces to make things work and now it is starting to heat up even before the dead period is over.
* Tuesday brought the latest commitment with high three-star linebacker Colin Schooler making his decision a couple weeks before he was set to take his official visit out to Arizona on Jan. 13. He will still make that trip out to Tucson, but it will be as a committed recruit as the Wildcats locked him up Tuesday.
“I talked to my family for quite a bit throughout this past week and we all agreed that Arizona was the best fit for me,” he said. “I love coach (Marcel) Yates and they just hired coach (Scott) Boone and he recruited me at Nevada and coach Rod (Rodriguez). I really like what they’re building there and I really think they can return to the top of the Pac-12 in the next couple years.”
Arizona picked up a commitment from early enrollee linebacker Jose Ramirez on Christmas Eve and after watching his brother have to wait and wait earlier this year before picking up a late summer offer from Oregon he didn’t want to have that same issue.
“It definitely played a major role in it,” Schooler said. “He luckily got Oregon when he did and he showed me that you can’t take anything for granted. If you’ve got a spot go for it. I’m fortunate enough to have it before Signing Day, unlike him, and I talked to him a lot and he just told me that if you have it just go get it because you never know how long it’s going to be there for.”
Schooler took home the linebacker MVP award at the Rivals Camp Series stop in California earlier this year and even after that and a solid senior season at Mission Viejo High in California the offers still didn’t start pouring in. His recruitment has always been an interesting one and
it has been a mystery why the bigger offers never came. Schooler isn’t worried about it now, but he did say it has shaped his game and how he approaches football now.
“I have no control over how many offers I get,” he said. “All I can do is go out and play football. I try to let the rest take care of itself, but it definitely helped put a chip on my shoulder because listen I have nothing to lose. Nobody thinks I should be here, so basically I just want to prove myself to everybody that I can compete with everyone at this level of play.”
The new Arizona linebacker commit said it hasn’t been decided yet whether he will play inside or outside linebacker but it will be one of those two positions when he makes the transition over to Arizona. At this point he doesn’t plan on taking a visit out to UNLV any longer but he will see Tucson on Jan. 13 like he originally planned.
Schooler had 77 tackles this season including four tackles for loss and also played on both sides of the ball for his Mission Viejo squad.
* Keeping with the theme of Arizona’s commitments starting to heat up again we’re going to take a closer look at who could be next to join the group. For what it’s worth, before his decision Schooler was going to be at the top of his list, but now we’ll have a new prospect to top the list of potential next commitments for UA as it looks to finish out this class.
- Chris Green: As of now there is nothing really holding back the Los Angeles High defensive tackle other than room. Arizona is starting to get tight again when it comes to numbers and making everyone fit. Having a couple more early enrollees would certainly help alleviate that strain and for now it is still looking like the Wildcats would take a pledge from the two-star defensive lineman. When we last spoke to Green he said there was nothing left for Arizona to show him since he has been out to campus before and he was just going through the process of thinking things over with his family. Nevada, the other top contender for him, just hired his high school coach as an assistant but UA is still out in front with him.
- Adrian Ealy: It’s been quiet when it comes to the four-star offensive tackle but things are starting to feel like they are trending Arizona’s direction based on a number of things. First, the trip to Tucson went well and the Louisiana native certainly felt the connection with his home state and the Wildcats. There were some rumors that Oklahoma was starting to look in another direction as other programs have done too. In addition to that it didn’t take long after his trip to UA to announce that he would be making his decision public on Jan. 5. He is supposed to be an early enrollee which would fit right in to what Arizona is looking for at the moment.
The Wildcats are trending in the right direction going into that announcement.
- Anthony Pandy: Now if there is a spot that Arizona is going to be willing to go overboard with in this class it is the linebacker spot and you are already seeing that with prospects such as Ramirez and Schooler jumping on board. However, even before UA had spots to fill because of decommitments it was going after more linebackers. Pandy was one it quickly offered and he is expected to visit Tucson in January. As of now UA is in good shape but the next few weeks will be important. Schooler’s decision could end up changing things, but for now Arizona is right in the thick of things.
Let’s get right into this week’s post-Christmas War Room.
Football
This remains a time for Arizona’s coaches to have to work on recruiting from their homes and to get some actual time to relax for a bit. Once January picks up things will kick back into overdrive with recruiting at the forefront.
* Because of that for now we will continue our look at each position group heading into the new year and the rest of the offseason. Last week we took a look at Arizona’s receiver group and alongside those receivers is another group of pass-catchers, the tight ends. Charle Ragle’s unit was able to get a bit deeper this season but the Wildcats didn’t drastically change how they approached the position. 2017 will be the truest test of just how much Rich Rodriguez is willing to work the position more into his offense since the team will have by far its most talented tight end group in his time at UA.
- 2016 overview: It is no secret that Rodriguez’s offense utilizes its tight ends a bit differently than others do. There is less focus on catching passes and being a down-the-field threat and more emphasis on blocking and helping in the run game. That continued in the 3-9 2016 season as the tight end group continued to be used more as an added piece to the running game. In many ways it helped and became a signature of the offense inside the red zone. UA used a lot more of a two-tight-end set inside the 20-yard line to help create some space for the running backs. It was able to do so because for once the group was mostly healthy for probably the first time under Rodriguez and Ragle.
Josh Kern was still the tight end the staff trusted most with his years of experience in the offense, but with Trevor Wood finally healthy he was able to be used much more in the running game and on the field after his latest shoulder injury. Both ended up playing in every game this season for UA but it was Wood who proved to get more involved in the pass offense finishing the year with seven catches for 49 yards.
Kern ended his final season with five catches for 41 yards and a touchdown against Washington that sent the game into overtime.
- 2017 outlook: It will be the Trevor Wood show next season as the redshirt junior takes over the starting role for outgoing senior Kern. Now healthy it will be interesting to see how much the Wildcats start to incorporate the position even more into the offense. It will be the best group of pass-catching tight ends UA has had on its roster under Rodriguez with Brion Anduze also coming off an injury and should be back in the mix. Jamie Nunley will move into the back up role, but UA also will have some important recruits coming in as well.
The two Bryces will be making their way to Tucson with Bryce Gilbert from Higley High in Gilbert coming early in the next couple weeks and Michigan-based Bryce Wolma coming in the summer. Gilbert checks in at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds while Wolma is 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds. It will be hard to judge off the spring and you truly won’t know until the games start just how Rodriguez and his offensive staff will use the tight ends, but at least in camp this year the staff showed more of an openness to go down the field with the ball using those tight ends.
The Wildcats will have the strongest unit to date, however, under Rodriguez with the pieces coming in over the next few months.
* Things have settled down with Arizona’s staff now that Scott Boone is on board as the linebackers coach. There had been some rumblings earlier in the year about Jim Michalczik potentially taking a job with Fresno State but that has died down a bit along with another offensive coach looking at other opportunities. As of now things seem to be settled behind the scenes and UA is moving forward. There is always a chance for more movement as we saw last year, but for now nothing else is in the works.
Football recruiting
Arizona is continuing to roll again into the after having to endure another string of decommitments, but as always it is about who you replace those recruits with and UA generally does a good job of doing so. So far so good as it has found the right pieces to make things work and now it is starting to heat up even before the dead period is over.
* Tuesday brought the latest commitment with high three-star linebacker Colin Schooler making his decision a couple weeks before he was set to take his official visit out to Arizona on Jan. 13. He will still make that trip out to Tucson, but it will be as a committed recruit as the Wildcats locked him up Tuesday.
“I talked to my family for quite a bit throughout this past week and we all agreed that Arizona was the best fit for me,” he said. “I love coach (Marcel) Yates and they just hired coach (Scott) Boone and he recruited me at Nevada and coach Rod (Rodriguez). I really like what they’re building there and I really think they can return to the top of the Pac-12 in the next couple years.”
Arizona picked up a commitment from early enrollee linebacker Jose Ramirez on Christmas Eve and after watching his brother have to wait and wait earlier this year before picking up a late summer offer from Oregon he didn’t want to have that same issue.
“It definitely played a major role in it,” Schooler said. “He luckily got Oregon when he did and he showed me that you can’t take anything for granted. If you’ve got a spot go for it. I’m fortunate enough to have it before Signing Day, unlike him, and I talked to him a lot and he just told me that if you have it just go get it because you never know how long it’s going to be there for.”
Schooler took home the linebacker MVP award at the Rivals Camp Series stop in California earlier this year and even after that and a solid senior season at Mission Viejo High in California the offers still didn’t start pouring in. His recruitment has always been an interesting one and
it has been a mystery why the bigger offers never came. Schooler isn’t worried about it now, but he did say it has shaped his game and how he approaches football now.
“I have no control over how many offers I get,” he said. “All I can do is go out and play football. I try to let the rest take care of itself, but it definitely helped put a chip on my shoulder because listen I have nothing to lose. Nobody thinks I should be here, so basically I just want to prove myself to everybody that I can compete with everyone at this level of play.”
The new Arizona linebacker commit said it hasn’t been decided yet whether he will play inside or outside linebacker but it will be one of those two positions when he makes the transition over to Arizona. At this point he doesn’t plan on taking a visit out to UNLV any longer but he will see Tucson on Jan. 13 like he originally planned.
Schooler had 77 tackles this season including four tackles for loss and also played on both sides of the ball for his Mission Viejo squad.
* Keeping with the theme of Arizona’s commitments starting to heat up again we’re going to take a closer look at who could be next to join the group. For what it’s worth, before his decision Schooler was going to be at the top of his list, but now we’ll have a new prospect to top the list of potential next commitments for UA as it looks to finish out this class.
- Chris Green: As of now there is nothing really holding back the Los Angeles High defensive tackle other than room. Arizona is starting to get tight again when it comes to numbers and making everyone fit. Having a couple more early enrollees would certainly help alleviate that strain and for now it is still looking like the Wildcats would take a pledge from the two-star defensive lineman. When we last spoke to Green he said there was nothing left for Arizona to show him since he has been out to campus before and he was just going through the process of thinking things over with his family. Nevada, the other top contender for him, just hired his high school coach as an assistant but UA is still out in front with him.
- Adrian Ealy: It’s been quiet when it comes to the four-star offensive tackle but things are starting to feel like they are trending Arizona’s direction based on a number of things. First, the trip to Tucson went well and the Louisiana native certainly felt the connection with his home state and the Wildcats. There were some rumors that Oklahoma was starting to look in another direction as other programs have done too. In addition to that it didn’t take long after his trip to UA to announce that he would be making his decision public on Jan. 5. He is supposed to be an early enrollee which would fit right in to what Arizona is looking for at the moment.
The Wildcats are trending in the right direction going into that announcement.
- Anthony Pandy: Now if there is a spot that Arizona is going to be willing to go overboard with in this class it is the linebacker spot and you are already seeing that with prospects such as Ramirez and Schooler jumping on board. However, even before UA had spots to fill because of decommitments it was going after more linebackers. Pandy was one it quickly offered and he is expected to visit Tucson in January. As of now UA is in good shape but the next few weeks will be important. Schooler’s decision could end up changing things, but for now Arizona is right in the thick of things.
