Kevin Sumlin held his second press conference of the season Monday afternoon with his team getting ready to take on Northern Arizona this Saturday in the home opener at Arizona Stadium. It was the first time spoke with the media since the team's loss to Hawaii a couple Saturday's ago. That meant an opportunity for the media to ask about some of the burning questions about the game.
Here are some of the notable takeaways from Monday's press conference that featured answers to several of the topics that have been discussed since the 45-38 defeat.
* I know the biggest topic both during and after the game has been the Arizona defense and how poorly it looked against the Hawaii offense giving up nearly 600 yards to the Warriors in the loss. Sumlin was, of course, asked about it Monday and much of what he had to say were things that were clear when watching the team namely the inability to cover and the lack of a pass rush. He focused quite a bit on the pass rush element of the defense when speaking with the media Monday.
* One change you are likely to see coming this week and as the team moves ahead this season is Jace Whittaker playing a lot more like he did in the second half and covering a slot receiver. Sumlin said the senior is more valuable to defense when he's in that spot and with what freshmen corners Christian Roland-Wallace and Bobby Wolfe showed the coaching staff there is some more flexibility in the secondary now. The expectation is that Wolfe can handle the job at corner covering wideouts giving Whittaker a chance to move inside and play against slot receivers.
* Another big topic discussed after the loss was the play calling on the offensive side of the ball especially at the start of the game that led to another slow start from the Wildcats. UA opened up the game with three passing plays and Sumlin was asked about that and why offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone decided to do that while having a back like JJ Taylor and not using him. The UA head coach said it's all about the numbers and how many players are in the box when it comes to the RPO offense.
* When it comes to Taylor, Sumlin said that the redshirt junior running back "probably" should have had more than the 15 touches he was able to get in the game against Hawaii. Taylor, who led the Pac-12 Conference in all-purpose yards last season, only had six carries in the first half of the game as the Wildcats focused on the passing game against the Warriors.
* Sumlin did not provide an update on cornerback Lorenzo Burns who left the game against Hawaii with what is believed to have been a concussion. The UA head coach simply said he was out, but declined to provide an update on the situation.
* One of the players who was most responsible for the poor showing by Arizona's defense was veteran safety Scottie Young Jr. who had all kinds of issues in coverage. Sumlin was asked about the junior from San Diego and the UA head coach mentioned that he sat next to Young on the flight home and watched the game film back. Sumlin said that young was disappointed in his performance and there are things the staff is looking at to help him have a better showing.
"Some of it was by alignment and knowing where his help was," Sumlin said Monday. "There's some things that we have gone to work on the last week to change up some of those alignments and to give our guys a little better chance. I think they put him back on his heels early in the game. ... He was not very happy about his performance and we talked about that on the plane since it was six, seven hours.
"There's some things he can do to help himself from an alignment standpoint and there's some things he did last week in practice from a technique standpoint that I think he's looking forward to playing this weekend."
* Sumlin was asked about the team morale at this stage after the early loss to Hawaii. He said there is good and bad to having a bye week after a game like that, but there was more time to assess the team and figure out what has to happen for the team to get on the winning side.
"It gave us an opportunity last week to really look at personnel," he said. "... This whole thing works together. Offense, everybody wants to point at different things but we weren't very good when it came time to win the game offensively, defensively or special teams wise. ... So there are a lot of things that we talked about last week, and last week was more about us than it was about opponents.
"... I think the conversations that we had were very open amongst our coaching staff, amongst our players. That's the only way I know how to get better."
* Consistency continues to be a major theme for Sumlin this season and it is something he has stressed going back to the spring. It remains a major talking point after the first game of the season and something he continues to hammer home to his players.
"We were not very consistent and that's why I keep pointing to it," he said. "How we do that, how we work towards that becomes important. The things that we saw coming into that first game all pointed to, 'hey, we're growing up as a team and we're more consistent.' But, life pays off on performance and our performance was not very good and was not consistent. That will still be the message.
"I think our guys understand that, because there's some things that we did very well a week ago. There's some things we were awful at. That is inconsistency and the message is talent-wise whatever you are, whoever you are if we don't know what we're gonna get out of you consistently then you're gonna hurt this football team. Then you can stand on the sideline next to me.
* On a positive note, Sumlin was asked about receiver and special teams standout Thomas Reid III earning a scholarship from the program. The UA head coach called it "awesome" and spoke highly about the veteran and why he thought Reid was deserving of being put on scholarship.
Full press conference video
Here are some of the notable takeaways from Monday's press conference that featured answers to several of the topics that have been discussed since the 45-38 defeat.
* I know the biggest topic both during and after the game has been the Arizona defense and how poorly it looked against the Hawaii offense giving up nearly 600 yards to the Warriors in the loss. Sumlin was, of course, asked about it Monday and much of what he had to say were things that were clear when watching the team namely the inability to cover and the lack of a pass rush. He focused quite a bit on the pass rush element of the defense when speaking with the media Monday.
* One change you are likely to see coming this week and as the team moves ahead this season is Jace Whittaker playing a lot more like he did in the second half and covering a slot receiver. Sumlin said the senior is more valuable to defense when he's in that spot and with what freshmen corners Christian Roland-Wallace and Bobby Wolfe showed the coaching staff there is some more flexibility in the secondary now. The expectation is that Wolfe can handle the job at corner covering wideouts giving Whittaker a chance to move inside and play against slot receivers.
* Another big topic discussed after the loss was the play calling on the offensive side of the ball especially at the start of the game that led to another slow start from the Wildcats. UA opened up the game with three passing plays and Sumlin was asked about that and why offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone decided to do that while having a back like JJ Taylor and not using him. The UA head coach said it's all about the numbers and how many players are in the box when it comes to the RPO offense.
* When it comes to Taylor, Sumlin said that the redshirt junior running back "probably" should have had more than the 15 touches he was able to get in the game against Hawaii. Taylor, who led the Pac-12 Conference in all-purpose yards last season, only had six carries in the first half of the game as the Wildcats focused on the passing game against the Warriors.
* Sumlin did not provide an update on cornerback Lorenzo Burns who left the game against Hawaii with what is believed to have been a concussion. The UA head coach simply said he was out, but declined to provide an update on the situation.
* One of the players who was most responsible for the poor showing by Arizona's defense was veteran safety Scottie Young Jr. who had all kinds of issues in coverage. Sumlin was asked about the junior from San Diego and the UA head coach mentioned that he sat next to Young on the flight home and watched the game film back. Sumlin said that young was disappointed in his performance and there are things the staff is looking at to help him have a better showing.
"Some of it was by alignment and knowing where his help was," Sumlin said Monday. "There's some things that we have gone to work on the last week to change up some of those alignments and to give our guys a little better chance. I think they put him back on his heels early in the game. ... He was not very happy about his performance and we talked about that on the plane since it was six, seven hours.
"There's some things he can do to help himself from an alignment standpoint and there's some things he did last week in practice from a technique standpoint that I think he's looking forward to playing this weekend."
* Sumlin was asked about the team morale at this stage after the early loss to Hawaii. He said there is good and bad to having a bye week after a game like that, but there was more time to assess the team and figure out what has to happen for the team to get on the winning side.
"It gave us an opportunity last week to really look at personnel," he said. "... This whole thing works together. Offense, everybody wants to point at different things but we weren't very good when it came time to win the game offensively, defensively or special teams wise. ... So there are a lot of things that we talked about last week, and last week was more about us than it was about opponents.
"... I think the conversations that we had were very open amongst our coaching staff, amongst our players. That's the only way I know how to get better."
* Consistency continues to be a major theme for Sumlin this season and it is something he has stressed going back to the spring. It remains a major talking point after the first game of the season and something he continues to hammer home to his players.
"We were not very consistent and that's why I keep pointing to it," he said. "How we do that, how we work towards that becomes important. The things that we saw coming into that first game all pointed to, 'hey, we're growing up as a team and we're more consistent.' But, life pays off on performance and our performance was not very good and was not consistent. That will still be the message.
"I think our guys understand that, because there's some things that we did very well a week ago. There's some things we were awful at. That is inconsistency and the message is talent-wise whatever you are, whoever you are if we don't know what we're gonna get out of you consistently then you're gonna hurt this football team. Then you can stand on the sideline next to me.
* On a positive note, Sumlin was asked about receiver and special teams standout Thomas Reid III earning a scholarship from the program. The UA head coach called it "awesome" and spoke highly about the veteran and why he thought Reid was deserving of being put on scholarship.
Full press conference video
