Arizona held its last post-practice media session of the week before opening its season Saturday night against NAU. It was the usual theme as of late as Rich Rodriguez was again not overly thrilled with what he saw today but he also thinks his team is ready to just hit someone else at this point. Some of the players echoed that and here are today's quick notes as we check in with the Wildcats for the final team before Saturday.
* The big news to come out of the day was that two more players were put on scholarship as things with the preseason come to a close. Redshirt sophomore running back Branden Leon and redshirt sophomore linebacker Carrington Vaughn both earned scholarships with the program yesterday Rodriguez said. Both players are going to play a role on this year's team and both have contributed quite a bit already. Arizona doesn't like to have contributors on the field as walk-on players if it can help it and that is one reason both have been put on scholarship. Rodriguez said before practice got underway and again as camp was taking place that he was hopeful he would be able to extend a couple more scholarships once camp was over and Vaughn and Leon were the beneficiaries of it.
Leon played in all 12 games a season ago carrying the ball eight times for 38 yards while also being a contributor on special teams. Vaughn played in 11 games last season and tallied eight tackles and earned Arizona's first sack of the season a year ago.
* Arizona commit Jaden Mitchell tore his ACL last week and will miss the rest of his season. Rodriguez was asked how the program approaches such situations when it comes to scholarships and sticking with those players and he said as long as the recruit shows the program loyalty he won't have his scholarship pulled.
"If a guy is committed to us and we're committed to them in the recruiting process and something happens from an injury standpoint he won't lose his scholarship because of that," Rodriguez said. "The only way they'll lose a scholarship is if they're visiting other schools or they screw up academically or off the field – or something like that. But, just because of bad luck and injuries we'll stay committed to them. If they can't play any more we'll still bring them on and use them as a student assistant and that's happened to us, unfortunately, a couple times in the past. Guys still came to school here and were part of the program as a student assistant or kept their scholarship and remained at U of A."
* Freshman Kylan Wilborn is expected to get the start at STUD linebacker this weekend against NAU and he said there are certainly some nerves going into his first game. The theme we have been hearing across the board and the message the coaches and veterans have been trying to get across to the younger players and freshmen is that they will be nervous for the first play or first series but after that it will be just playing football at that point. That is one reason Rodriguez has stressed the importance of being prepared to his newcomers as they get ready to start contributing and get their careers going.
We also talked with freshman linebacker Tony Fields II today and he said being a starter and in the position he is already before he has played a single game was all really part of his plan and mindset when he picked Arizona and arrived on campus in January. Fields is a confident player and he feels there were not very many doubts in his mind that he would be able to contribute early.
* DC Marcel Yates took some time to talk with the media today and he has a lot on his plate right now with so many young players getting ready to go and play their first games. He said he will watch the film today and figure out just how expansive his playbook can be for Saturday's game. As of now he feels comfortable with the game plan for the contest against NAU but he will make the determinations of how much he will be able to use from the playbook in the next couple days.
"If it's NAU or it's SC to me it's our first game and we need to be ready to play," he said. "As you're calling plays you do have to think about the youth a little bit as far as how much stuff I can call, but as far as our game plan it's in. So, this week we've been harping on certain calls and stuff like that, so at Wednesday's practice they seemed like they had a good feel for it.
"... We'll watch film today and we'll see how it looks, but against the scout team it looked pretty good."
* Redshirt senior Dane Cruikshank made the move over to safety, in part, to help get Lorenzo Burns on the field at cornerback. It was something the staff wanted to do and Yates said today it was about getting his five best defensive backs on the field. Burns was one of them but he also wanted to keep Cruikshank in the mix as well so the move over to spur made the most sense. It was not necessarily the way Cruikshank envisioned it going but he has also seen the positives of the move. The California native said the adjustment to his new position has been an easier one because of how much he watched and learned about the other spots when he was at cornerback. That has helped speed up the learning curve and put him in position to be effective right away.
"It's been a smooth transition moving over from corner to spur, because I have such a good coach – coach Yates," he said. "We stay in the film room and spend a lot of time with each other and not only that but I kind of knew my whole way around the secondary and now I just know it even better."
When it comes to Burns, Cruikshank has no bitterness about the staff wanting to get the redshirt freshman on the field at his old position. The redshirt senior said he has been helping the young cornerback and even feels he could be an improvement over himself and help the team more there than Cruikshank could himself.
"I'm very confident," Cruikshank said about Burns' abilities at the cornerback spot. "I feel he might even play better than me just from seeing the mistakes I made last year and I'm always there for him helping him. Lorenzo is really good, so I don't think there will be any drop off. We're just trying to put the best athletes on the field and I'm the bigger player so they moved me closer into the box which is the spur position."
* The big news to come out of the day was that two more players were put on scholarship as things with the preseason come to a close. Redshirt sophomore running back Branden Leon and redshirt sophomore linebacker Carrington Vaughn both earned scholarships with the program yesterday Rodriguez said. Both players are going to play a role on this year's team and both have contributed quite a bit already. Arizona doesn't like to have contributors on the field as walk-on players if it can help it and that is one reason both have been put on scholarship. Rodriguez said before practice got underway and again as camp was taking place that he was hopeful he would be able to extend a couple more scholarships once camp was over and Vaughn and Leon were the beneficiaries of it.
Leon played in all 12 games a season ago carrying the ball eight times for 38 yards while also being a contributor on special teams. Vaughn played in 11 games last season and tallied eight tackles and earned Arizona's first sack of the season a year ago.
* Arizona commit Jaden Mitchell tore his ACL last week and will miss the rest of his season. Rodriguez was asked how the program approaches such situations when it comes to scholarships and sticking with those players and he said as long as the recruit shows the program loyalty he won't have his scholarship pulled.
"If a guy is committed to us and we're committed to them in the recruiting process and something happens from an injury standpoint he won't lose his scholarship because of that," Rodriguez said. "The only way they'll lose a scholarship is if they're visiting other schools or they screw up academically or off the field – or something like that. But, just because of bad luck and injuries we'll stay committed to them. If they can't play any more we'll still bring them on and use them as a student assistant and that's happened to us, unfortunately, a couple times in the past. Guys still came to school here and were part of the program as a student assistant or kept their scholarship and remained at U of A."
* Freshman Kylan Wilborn is expected to get the start at STUD linebacker this weekend against NAU and he said there are certainly some nerves going into his first game. The theme we have been hearing across the board and the message the coaches and veterans have been trying to get across to the younger players and freshmen is that they will be nervous for the first play or first series but after that it will be just playing football at that point. That is one reason Rodriguez has stressed the importance of being prepared to his newcomers as they get ready to start contributing and get their careers going.
We also talked with freshman linebacker Tony Fields II today and he said being a starter and in the position he is already before he has played a single game was all really part of his plan and mindset when he picked Arizona and arrived on campus in January. Fields is a confident player and he feels there were not very many doubts in his mind that he would be able to contribute early.
* DC Marcel Yates took some time to talk with the media today and he has a lot on his plate right now with so many young players getting ready to go and play their first games. He said he will watch the film today and figure out just how expansive his playbook can be for Saturday's game. As of now he feels comfortable with the game plan for the contest against NAU but he will make the determinations of how much he will be able to use from the playbook in the next couple days.
"If it's NAU or it's SC to me it's our first game and we need to be ready to play," he said. "As you're calling plays you do have to think about the youth a little bit as far as how much stuff I can call, but as far as our game plan it's in. So, this week we've been harping on certain calls and stuff like that, so at Wednesday's practice they seemed like they had a good feel for it.
"... We'll watch film today and we'll see how it looks, but against the scout team it looked pretty good."
* Redshirt senior Dane Cruikshank made the move over to safety, in part, to help get Lorenzo Burns on the field at cornerback. It was something the staff wanted to do and Yates said today it was about getting his five best defensive backs on the field. Burns was one of them but he also wanted to keep Cruikshank in the mix as well so the move over to spur made the most sense. It was not necessarily the way Cruikshank envisioned it going but he has also seen the positives of the move. The California native said the adjustment to his new position has been an easier one because of how much he watched and learned about the other spots when he was at cornerback. That has helped speed up the learning curve and put him in position to be effective right away.
"It's been a smooth transition moving over from corner to spur, because I have such a good coach – coach Yates," he said. "We stay in the film room and spend a lot of time with each other and not only that but I kind of knew my whole way around the secondary and now I just know it even better."
When it comes to Burns, Cruikshank has no bitterness about the staff wanting to get the redshirt freshman on the field at his old position. The redshirt senior said he has been helping the young cornerback and even feels he could be an improvement over himself and help the team more there than Cruikshank could himself.
"I'm very confident," Cruikshank said about Burns' abilities at the cornerback spot. "I feel he might even play better than me just from seeing the mistakes I made last year and I'm always there for him helping him. Lorenzo is really good, so I don't think there will be any drop off. We're just trying to put the best athletes on the field and I'm the bigger player so they moved me closer into the box which is the spur position."
