Notes and top takeaways: Arizona spring scrimmage No. 2

Matt Moreno · Apr 18, 2021

Arizona held its second scrimmage of the spring Saturday night as Jedd Fisch decided to switch things up by moving practice to the night time. The Wildcats were on the field for just around two hours and there was plenty to see as both sides of the ball made some standout plays. It was the best chance to see what the team is made of right now and while Fisch wasn't completely happy with everything he saw there were absolutely some positives to see Saturday night inside Arizona Stadium.

Here are my top takeaways as well as some notes after Saturday's scrimmage.

Top takeaways

• Rating the QB performances

I mentioned heading into Saturday's practice that the quarterbacks would have my attention on an important day for that group. Fisch and the offensive staff only used a few different players at the position throughout the evening with Gunner Cruz and Will Plummer receiving the most amount of reps. The duo mixed in at different times with the first unit though Cruz earned the "start" by guiding the first drive of the game. The Wildcats tried to go big to open the scrimmage with a deep ball from Cruz intended for Brian Casteel. The ball was overthrown and that is something that Fisch said he has been talking to the Washington State transfer about since that has been a bit of a consistent theme for Cruz on deep passes. He has the arm strength but his accuracy on deep throws will have to improve. He ended up being intercepted by Jaydin Young on the opening drive. He bounced back with a nice night the rest of the scrimmage including connecting with Stanley Berryhill III for one of the biggest plays of the game, a 70-yard connection on a slant that Berryhill took to the end zone. Cruz also found tight end Stacey Marshall for a red zone touchdown on his second drive. Plummer capped a solid week with another strong performance Saturday night with some more impressive throws that he has not made during earlier parts of spring ball. He had several touchdown passes as he was able to spread the ball around with Jalen Johnson, Jamarye Joiner and Tayvian Cunningham all being on the receiving end of touchdown passes from Plummer. The gap has certainly closed between the top two quarterbacks and Plummer put together the better week of the two in my opinion.

Kevin Doyle was able to make an appearance in the scrimmage and he ended up being part of the biggest play of the night on a touchdown pass to Jamarye Joiner that ended with a one-handed catch for the UA receiver through some traffic. It would have been one of the best plays of the season had it been in a real game. It was impressive and showcased Doyle's ability to find his go-to receiver. He still has not seen the field much during the live portions of practice, but maybe that play gets him more involved moving forward over the final week.

• The defense is starting to look for real

It's difficult to truly evaluate what a team will look like once the games start, but Arizona's defense has been making steady improvements this spring. Saturday night's scrimmage was another impressive one for the group as there were several interceptions, plenty of big tackles and a strong performance by the defensive line once again. That group is starting to look like the most talented from top to bottom on the defensive side of the ball and there is certainly a lot of depth there as well. Defensive coordinator Don Brown was plenty pleased with what he saw Saturday night and overall is confident in the direction of the group. The interior of the defensive line continues to look like a strength of the team with Trevon Mason and Kyon Barrs leading the way. They have made life difficult on the offensive line this spring and have continued to look the part of starting players in the Pac-12.

Outside of the interception early for Young against Cruz, the top highlight play for the defense came on a scoop and score for Eddie Siaumau-Sanitoa that ignited the defense and ended with the UA linebacker kicking the ball into the stands as he celebrated with his teammates. The score ended up tied in the practice, but the bigger plays came from the defense Saturday night in my opinion and I thought that group performed better from start to finish.

• Arizona's receivers have their best showing

Arizona's receiver unit has gone through some ebbs and flows this spring, but Saturday night was its top performance as a group in my opinion. There were the highlight plays from Berryhill and Joiner, but there were also some strong catches that didn't go for scores from the group. The receiver unit seems to be feeling more comfortable in the new scheme on offense and there are certainly plenty of wrinkles those players have had to learn. It is not a spread system like most of the players are used to, so there has been a bit of a learning curve. A month into spring ball it feels like those players are starting to understand where they need to be to make plays while also getting on the same page as the quarterbacks. Saturday night Fisch said that Berryhill, who had another strong performance, has made the most positive plays among the group this spring and more importantly has made the fewest negative plays among the receivers. He looks like a true No. 1 option right now with how he is practicing and could be sitting on a big season for the Wildcats.

• It won't be fun to play against Don Brown's defense this season

If Saturday night's scrimmage is an indicator it will not be an easy time going up against the Arizona defense this year. The scrimmage was arguably the most physical the group has been all spring and it made several big hits throughout the evening to break up passes and stop running backs in their tracks on numerous occasions. There were still mistakes, to be sure, but only a couple of them were truly costly in the scrimmage. The missed tackles that took place on the big catch and run by Berryhill cannot happen for the Wildcats to have success, but outside of there was a ton of aggressive play and mostly locked-in defenders. The safety unit, in particular, came up with some big hits on the night with Jaxen Turner having one of the top plays on that side of the ball on a big hit against tight end Alex Lines that took the big UNLV transfer off his feet on a pass over the middle. Linebackers DJ Mourning and Anthony Pandy both had big hits on running plays with Pandy's going for a loss against Bam Smith. Mourning's big stop came on the same drive as he stopped Smith in his tracks on a rushing attempt to the short side of the field.

Notes

- Arizona worked some more special teams on Saturday night with two separate special teams scenarios starting with punt and punt return. Stanley Berryhill was used as the first-team punt returner while Tayvian Cunningham was the second player to receive punts. Jamarye Joiner also had an opportunity to return a punt during that portion of practice. Berryhill, Cunningham and cornerback Isaiah Rutherford were a few of the players used to return kickoffs during the scrimmage.

- Stevie Rocker was used a bit more since Drake Anderson was dinged up and didn't play during Saturday's scrimmage. The freshman made the most of his opportunity with a couple big plays including a couple touchdown runs of different varieties. His first came on a stretch play that allowed Rocker to use his speed to get to the outside to the right before he came back later in the scrimmage by using his size to pound the ball into the end zone on a 1-yard rushing score in the red zone portion of practice.

Video interviews

Head coach Jedd Fisch

Defensive coordinator Don Brown

Receiver Stanley Berryhill III

hmuir · Apr 18, 2021