Arizona wrapped up its practice week Wednesday going a little longer than expected for the shorter more walk-through type of practice before heading off to El Paso tomorrow. Rich Rodriguez has certainly seemed more content with this week as opposed to other years in a week after a loss. It's been consistent with his demeanor for most of the last six weeks so it is not all that surprising. Here are today's quick practice notes.
* Well, it was already leaning this way and Rodriguez wasn't exactly hiding it but he will start Brandon Dawkins this week against UTEP and give the redshirt junior a chance to continue to show what he can do. I do know the shoulder injury to Khalil Tate is sounding a little more severe than it seemed, but even if both players were healthy it feels like the move would be the same to keep rolling with Dawkins. A day after Dawkins himself said he had an injured hand and leg against Houston, Rodriguez snipped at a reporter for bringing it up in a question only to say that Dawkins will start and the hope is that the starting QB can improve and play better than he did Saturday.
Rodriguez added that he thinks Dawkins has a chance to be "really, really good."
* So what about Rhett Rodriguez and Donovan Tate? Playing a third quarterback in the game against Houston would have been understandable with both of the two other signal callers clearly dealing with some injury issues. However, Rodriguez didn't do that. He was asked about his confidence level in the other quarterbacks should it get to that point and right now he thinks mentally both players are farther ahead than regular freshmen but he wouldn't elaborate too much beyond that.
"For being freshmen they have a pretty good grasp about everything," Rodriguez said. "Certainly they don't have the experience Brandon does and even Khalil has been in the system a year longer, so that experience will help a little bit. From a mental standpoint, as far as true freshmen go, they're as advanced mentally as any true freshmen we've had."
* As much as the quarterbacks were an issue in the loss to Houston if not for a long kickoff return that went 81 yards, a botched snap on a missed field goal try and a shanked punt early in the game on the special teams units the game could have and likely would have had a different outcome. That is one reason Arizona has decided to change some things this week with the special teams units. Nathan Tilford will be a bigger part of things and there are some other personnel changes coming because that is one area Rodriguez doesn't want to see start to decline again after a strong opening game against NAU.
"The kickoff return was ridiculous and it should never happen," he said. "So that was embarrassing. We had a miscue on a field goal. We had a couple mistakes. We had a couple things that were good too, but some of the things that we have to correct on special teams have to get fixed in a hurry.
"We changed some things around, changed some personnel to get that fixed."
* Defensive coordinator Marcel Yates spoke with the media for the first time since his side of the ball had a good game against Houston. He was more pleased with how the group performed in that game and felt there was a greater confidence for his group.
"It was better," he said. "We had more energy. We started off shaky in the first half, but we finished up strong in the second half I thought."
Yates thought his young players in particular felt more comfortable in the second go around this season leading to a better performance.
* Tristan Cooper, one of Arizona's contributors from El Paso, said he expects to have about 30 people at the game this Friday night to come out and see him. Before Arizona offered, if you remember, he was strongly leaning toward staying home rather than going with Illinois or Purdue but then the Wildcats came through with an offer and he said it was an easy decision from that point.
NOTE: Can you all do me a favor and let me know if the videos I'm including in this post and on the front page are playing for you? We're testing out a new uploading system and it's giving me some funky numbers on the back end so I want to make sure everything is working for all of you to view the videos. Thanks!
* Well, it was already leaning this way and Rodriguez wasn't exactly hiding it but he will start Brandon Dawkins this week against UTEP and give the redshirt junior a chance to continue to show what he can do. I do know the shoulder injury to Khalil Tate is sounding a little more severe than it seemed, but even if both players were healthy it feels like the move would be the same to keep rolling with Dawkins. A day after Dawkins himself said he had an injured hand and leg against Houston, Rodriguez snipped at a reporter for bringing it up in a question only to say that Dawkins will start and the hope is that the starting QB can improve and play better than he did Saturday.
Rodriguez added that he thinks Dawkins has a chance to be "really, really good."
* So what about Rhett Rodriguez and Donovan Tate? Playing a third quarterback in the game against Houston would have been understandable with both of the two other signal callers clearly dealing with some injury issues. However, Rodriguez didn't do that. He was asked about his confidence level in the other quarterbacks should it get to that point and right now he thinks mentally both players are farther ahead than regular freshmen but he wouldn't elaborate too much beyond that.
"For being freshmen they have a pretty good grasp about everything," Rodriguez said. "Certainly they don't have the experience Brandon does and even Khalil has been in the system a year longer, so that experience will help a little bit. From a mental standpoint, as far as true freshmen go, they're as advanced mentally as any true freshmen we've had."
* As much as the quarterbacks were an issue in the loss to Houston if not for a long kickoff return that went 81 yards, a botched snap on a missed field goal try and a shanked punt early in the game on the special teams units the game could have and likely would have had a different outcome. That is one reason Arizona has decided to change some things this week with the special teams units. Nathan Tilford will be a bigger part of things and there are some other personnel changes coming because that is one area Rodriguez doesn't want to see start to decline again after a strong opening game against NAU.
"The kickoff return was ridiculous and it should never happen," he said. "So that was embarrassing. We had a miscue on a field goal. We had a couple mistakes. We had a couple things that were good too, but some of the things that we have to correct on special teams have to get fixed in a hurry.
"We changed some things around, changed some personnel to get that fixed."
* Defensive coordinator Marcel Yates spoke with the media for the first time since his side of the ball had a good game against Houston. He was more pleased with how the group performed in that game and felt there was a greater confidence for his group.
"It was better," he said. "We had more energy. We started off shaky in the first half, but we finished up strong in the second half I thought."
Yates thought his young players in particular felt more comfortable in the second go around this season leading to a better performance.
* Tristan Cooper, one of Arizona's contributors from El Paso, said he expects to have about 30 people at the game this Friday night to come out and see him. Before Arizona offered, if you remember, he was strongly leaning toward staying home rather than going with Illinois or Purdue but then the Wildcats came through with an offer and he said it was an easy decision from that point.
NOTE: Can you all do me a favor and let me know if the videos I'm including in this post and on the front page are playing for you? We're testing out a new uploading system and it's giving me some funky numbers on the back end so I want to make sure everything is working for all of you to view the videos. Thanks!
