Arizona is wrapping up its work week with one more practice to go before heading up to Tempe on Friday for Saturday's game with Arizona State. The Wildcats will take the whole team up to the game and while not all will dress the coaching staff sees it as a good opportunity to bond as the regular season comes to a close. The team was in a pretty good mood today as it nears the big game.
* We'll start with the group up front on defense and it is still a bit of a mess but manageable for one game. Both Justin Belknap and Dereck Boles were being carted around after practice and I just don't see how either one takes the field Saturday. Marcus Griffin and walk-on Matt Thomas are going to be used more in this game and Larry Tharpe Jr. is getting moved back inside to help there as well. Finton Connolly is expected to get the start at nose Saturday and Jamardre Harris-Cobb has been moved to the defensive line this week but has only been used on the scout team so far. It will be interesting if he can get in there at all once the game gets moving.
"Closer, yeah," Rodriguez said when I asked if the staff is nearing a decision on what it will do up front. "I don't know if we have all the final answers, we've got another practice tomorrow and a walk-through Friday. The guys that we have that may have been in a back-up role will have to step up a little bit. Some of the things we're experimenting with, other people, we'll see what happens the next couple days."
* Arizona huddled last year against the Sun Devils to help solve some of the potential sign-stealing issues and that will again be the plan in some part Saturday, Rodriguez said.
"Every week we've practiced more huddling than we ever have," he said. "But, yeah, we're doing more of that this week."
* Rodriguez said he does anticipate the program being active in pursuit of transfers and grad transfers and that does impact the 2018 recruiting class because the staff then has to make sure and leave a spot open for that transfer. Here is a video of Rodriguez answering some of my recruiting questions including one about the early signing period and its impact on limiting late flips.
Marcel Yates mentioned the late flips before I could ask him, but having two signing periods is either going to allow teams to sign recruits before other programs try to flip them or at least give a program like Arizona ample time to figure out a plan if a school flips a prospect in the early period.
"If you look at the history we've lost guys late who are pretty good players," Yates said. "So now, if we can get those pretty good players to sign early now it kind of hurts those schools are trying to get the top-tier guys and they're all going for the same guy. If they don't get those guys they go and steal those guys in January but we're going to get that kid signed now in December – our original guy that we wanted."
Yates also added that nothing has changed from his perspective and Arizona is still looking to find defensive linemen, pass rushers and cornerbacks to help finish out this class on the defensive side of the ball.
* I had a chance to chat with Yates today and he was pretty open about the issues on defense. He didn't want to get into all that is wrong with the group right now but he thinks all of it can be corrected.
"Guys gotta fit the gaps, get lined up, use their hands," he said about what needs to improve. "And it's not just the d-line it's the linebackers, corners safeties – it's the whole defense. ... When you go out there and play you gotta play and do your job. You always look at the cause, if it's the scheme or a fit and a guy not doing his job. We go back and look at every play look at could I have made a better call or is there a guy not executing his job?
"So, we just gotta play and make plays."
Yates said he doesn't want to use fatigue and having so many young players on his team as an excuse so he's just trying to get it figured out right now. One thing he has been pleased with this year is the amount of turnovers the defense is creating but he also wants to see more. He said that the defense isn't at a point where it can't have turnovers and still win games. His goal is to have the defense get three takeaways each game. Arizona has fallen short of that over the last few contests.
* We'll start with the group up front on defense and it is still a bit of a mess but manageable for one game. Both Justin Belknap and Dereck Boles were being carted around after practice and I just don't see how either one takes the field Saturday. Marcus Griffin and walk-on Matt Thomas are going to be used more in this game and Larry Tharpe Jr. is getting moved back inside to help there as well. Finton Connolly is expected to get the start at nose Saturday and Jamardre Harris-Cobb has been moved to the defensive line this week but has only been used on the scout team so far. It will be interesting if he can get in there at all once the game gets moving.
"Closer, yeah," Rodriguez said when I asked if the staff is nearing a decision on what it will do up front. "I don't know if we have all the final answers, we've got another practice tomorrow and a walk-through Friday. The guys that we have that may have been in a back-up role will have to step up a little bit. Some of the things we're experimenting with, other people, we'll see what happens the next couple days."
* Arizona huddled last year against the Sun Devils to help solve some of the potential sign-stealing issues and that will again be the plan in some part Saturday, Rodriguez said.
"Every week we've practiced more huddling than we ever have," he said. "But, yeah, we're doing more of that this week."
* Rodriguez said he does anticipate the program being active in pursuit of transfers and grad transfers and that does impact the 2018 recruiting class because the staff then has to make sure and leave a spot open for that transfer. Here is a video of Rodriguez answering some of my recruiting questions including one about the early signing period and its impact on limiting late flips.
Marcel Yates mentioned the late flips before I could ask him, but having two signing periods is either going to allow teams to sign recruits before other programs try to flip them or at least give a program like Arizona ample time to figure out a plan if a school flips a prospect in the early period.
"If you look at the history we've lost guys late who are pretty good players," Yates said. "So now, if we can get those pretty good players to sign early now it kind of hurts those schools are trying to get the top-tier guys and they're all going for the same guy. If they don't get those guys they go and steal those guys in January but we're going to get that kid signed now in December – our original guy that we wanted."
Yates also added that nothing has changed from his perspective and Arizona is still looking to find defensive linemen, pass rushers and cornerbacks to help finish out this class on the defensive side of the ball.
* I had a chance to chat with Yates today and he was pretty open about the issues on defense. He didn't want to get into all that is wrong with the group right now but he thinks all of it can be corrected.
"Guys gotta fit the gaps, get lined up, use their hands," he said about what needs to improve. "And it's not just the d-line it's the linebackers, corners safeties – it's the whole defense. ... When you go out there and play you gotta play and do your job. You always look at the cause, if it's the scheme or a fit and a guy not doing his job. We go back and look at every play look at could I have made a better call or is there a guy not executing his job?
"So, we just gotta play and make plays."
Yates said he doesn't want to use fatigue and having so many young players on his team as an excuse so he's just trying to get it figured out right now. One thing he has been pleased with this year is the amount of turnovers the defense is creating but he also wants to see more. He said that the defense isn't at a point where it can't have turnovers and still win games. His goal is to have the defense get three takeaways each game. Arizona has fallen short of that over the last few contests.
