It remains a busy time all around for Arizona with both the football and basketball coaching staffs heavy into the recruiting season now as spring is in full swing. We’ll take a look at both sports in this week’s War Room during this important stretch.
Here is this week’s War Room, let’s get into it.
Football
We’ll start with football this week and the program is now a couple weekends removed from its spring game. The team is back into its offseason routine working on getting stronger in the weight room and keeping his shape before player-run workouts over the summer. Spring ball was considered a success by the coaching staff.
The evaluations will continue into the rest of the offseason with the staff now having some fresh tape to work from as well as the evaluations they did during the 15 spring practices the team went through. As of now there has been one player who decided it would be best to leave the program and the expectation is that there will be some more by the time training camp rolls around.
* For now though, we thought it would be a good time to gather up all the things we heard and were able to see throughout the spring and come up with a list of players who helped themselves most over the 15 practices the Wildcats went through from March through April. There were certainly some unexpected standouts who started to emerge as likely candidates for more playing time in the 2018 season, and while the sample size was small a good spring tends to mean good things once the season arrives as well.
Here’s the list of players who either impressed us the final two weeks of spring ball or were players we heard about most throughout the month who put themselves in the best position to succeed come August.
- Shawn Poindexter: We’ll start with someone who was already a starter, but as much as Poindexter saw the field in the 2017 season he didn’t truly shine like he did this spring. The big wideout proved to be one of Khalil Tate’s favorite targets and for a group that was a bit lackluster during the spring he was a bright spot. Poindexter made a jump in development prior to last season and he again looked improved by the end of spring ball. Right now he looks poised to be the No. 1 option for the Wildcats in the passing game and that is a step up from where he was a year ago.
- PJ Johnson: A newcomer to the defensive line the junior college transfer who was once at Sacramento State didn’t take long to start making a good impression with the Wildcats. It’s the perfect time for a player like Johnson to make a move with a new staff coming on board and no roles truly defined just yet. The big defensive tackle looks different when compared to the rest of the group and while he still needs to trim down some he showed a good amount of activity in the spring. He had a big hit on Nathan Tilford during the spring game and he is a defensive lineman who will eat up blockers and provide some help for Dereck Boles up front. It would be a surprise if Johnson doesn’t end up a significant part of the rotation this fall.
- Branden Leon: The former walk-on running back who earned a scholarship last season never truly was able to get on the field consistently last season, but with a couple seniors moving on after the year was up it has opened up some more room this season. Leon was a standout of the spring game and his tough-nosed running style provides a nice switch up to the rest of the group. The feeling is Arizona is going to use a lot of its running back group this season and Leon has positioned himself to be a bigger part of the rotation after what he showed this spring.
- Anthony Pandy: Head coach Kevin Sumlin mentioned after the spring game that the linebacker group was the one standout group of the entire spring and it wasn’t just because of players like Colin Schooler and Tony Fields II. In addition to mentioning that, defensive coordinator Marcel Yates also mentioned that the reserves had made a jump in production over the course the spring highlighting specifically the sophomore from California. Pandy has played a variety of roles for the Wildcats but he has settled in at the will linebacker role for the time being behind Fields. He plays the game with an aggression that isn’t seen with as many of the other players and his ability to stay active and tackle showed in the spring game. He will be a big part of the rotation at linebacker in the fall taking some pressure off Fields and the rest of the starting group.
- Jarrius Wallace: The redshirt sophomore from Louisiana took advantage last season when he had time to hit the field with starting free safety Scottie Young Jr. nursing an injury late in the season. He carried that progress over to the spring as Young missed the month of practice while serving a suspension. The belief right now is that Young will be back in action once training camp opens up later this year, but Wallace sure did do a lot to cement his position as the likely starter heading into the season. If Wallace doesn’t win that job he will still be a big part of the rotation and he has made some more improvements to his game this offseason. He has a natural knack for finding the ball and he has an aggression that stands out as well.
- Tristan Cooper: We planned on discussing just five players, but it was hard to avoid another one of the aggressive safeties the Wildcats had with the starting unit late in the spring. Cooper ended up being used more as a reserve last season after being a starter earlier in his career. However, now that Dane Cruikshank has moved on and is getting ready for the NFL Draft it has left an opening at the spur position for UA. Cooper was the player who stepped up and into that starting role once again this spring and he looked much improved from where he was last season. He provided some big hits in the spring game and open scrimmage and he has the height the staff is looking for on the back end. Xavier Bell could end up challenging him, but right now Cooper has the inside track on the starting job at the position.
Here is this week’s War Room, let’s get into it.
Football
We’ll start with football this week and the program is now a couple weekends removed from its spring game. The team is back into its offseason routine working on getting stronger in the weight room and keeping his shape before player-run workouts over the summer. Spring ball was considered a success by the coaching staff.
The evaluations will continue into the rest of the offseason with the staff now having some fresh tape to work from as well as the evaluations they did during the 15 spring practices the team went through. As of now there has been one player who decided it would be best to leave the program and the expectation is that there will be some more by the time training camp rolls around.
* For now though, we thought it would be a good time to gather up all the things we heard and were able to see throughout the spring and come up with a list of players who helped themselves most over the 15 practices the Wildcats went through from March through April. There were certainly some unexpected standouts who started to emerge as likely candidates for more playing time in the 2018 season, and while the sample size was small a good spring tends to mean good things once the season arrives as well.
Here’s the list of players who either impressed us the final two weeks of spring ball or were players we heard about most throughout the month who put themselves in the best position to succeed come August.
- Shawn Poindexter: We’ll start with someone who was already a starter, but as much as Poindexter saw the field in the 2017 season he didn’t truly shine like he did this spring. The big wideout proved to be one of Khalil Tate’s favorite targets and for a group that was a bit lackluster during the spring he was a bright spot. Poindexter made a jump in development prior to last season and he again looked improved by the end of spring ball. Right now he looks poised to be the No. 1 option for the Wildcats in the passing game and that is a step up from where he was a year ago.
- PJ Johnson: A newcomer to the defensive line the junior college transfer who was once at Sacramento State didn’t take long to start making a good impression with the Wildcats. It’s the perfect time for a player like Johnson to make a move with a new staff coming on board and no roles truly defined just yet. The big defensive tackle looks different when compared to the rest of the group and while he still needs to trim down some he showed a good amount of activity in the spring. He had a big hit on Nathan Tilford during the spring game and he is a defensive lineman who will eat up blockers and provide some help for Dereck Boles up front. It would be a surprise if Johnson doesn’t end up a significant part of the rotation this fall.
- Branden Leon: The former walk-on running back who earned a scholarship last season never truly was able to get on the field consistently last season, but with a couple seniors moving on after the year was up it has opened up some more room this season. Leon was a standout of the spring game and his tough-nosed running style provides a nice switch up to the rest of the group. The feeling is Arizona is going to use a lot of its running back group this season and Leon has positioned himself to be a bigger part of the rotation after what he showed this spring.
- Anthony Pandy: Head coach Kevin Sumlin mentioned after the spring game that the linebacker group was the one standout group of the entire spring and it wasn’t just because of players like Colin Schooler and Tony Fields II. In addition to mentioning that, defensive coordinator Marcel Yates also mentioned that the reserves had made a jump in production over the course the spring highlighting specifically the sophomore from California. Pandy has played a variety of roles for the Wildcats but he has settled in at the will linebacker role for the time being behind Fields. He plays the game with an aggression that isn’t seen with as many of the other players and his ability to stay active and tackle showed in the spring game. He will be a big part of the rotation at linebacker in the fall taking some pressure off Fields and the rest of the starting group.
- Jarrius Wallace: The redshirt sophomore from Louisiana took advantage last season when he had time to hit the field with starting free safety Scottie Young Jr. nursing an injury late in the season. He carried that progress over to the spring as Young missed the month of practice while serving a suspension. The belief right now is that Young will be back in action once training camp opens up later this year, but Wallace sure did do a lot to cement his position as the likely starter heading into the season. If Wallace doesn’t win that job he will still be a big part of the rotation and he has made some more improvements to his game this offseason. He has a natural knack for finding the ball and he has an aggression that stands out as well.
- Tristan Cooper: We planned on discussing just five players, but it was hard to avoid another one of the aggressive safeties the Wildcats had with the starting unit late in the spring. Cooper ended up being used more as a reserve last season after being a starter earlier in his career. However, now that Dane Cruikshank has moved on and is getting ready for the NFL Draft it has left an opening at the spur position for UA. Cooper was the player who stepped up and into that starting role once again this spring and he looked much improved from where he was last season. He provided some big hits in the spring game and open scrimmage and he has the height the staff is looking for on the back end. Xavier Bell could end up challenging him, but right now Cooper has the inside track on the starting job at the position.
