It was back to work for Arizona on Tuesday after a couple days off. That will be the schedule for the Wildcats as things start to get going with school now in session. Mondays will now just be Rich Rodriguez at the weekly press conference and the players will get a couple days off from practice after games now.
Tuesday was the first of the "normal" practices with camp over as things moved permanently to the mornings. Now that things are getting closer to actual games Rodriguez has been less cheery lately but he's still happy with the attitude. Here's a look at today's quick notes from after practice.
* Rodriguez was happy with how the defense looked during Saturday's practice more than he was with his offense and that was the theme Tuesday as well. He said the execution hasn't quite been what he would hope but he has also put a lot more on the quarterbacks now earlier more than he did in other years.
"I thought the defensive intensity was good," he said of Saturday's scrimmage. "Our offense, assignment wise, wasn't as bad as I thought. I thought watching we had some mistakes, but they just did some neat stuff defensively and we had a few mistakes here and there. It wasn't as bad mistake-wise as maybe I thought at the initial time. The effort was pretty good. It wasn't all bad."
* The 105-man camp roster is now over and the Wildcats are back to their usual 120-man roster for the season. Rodriguez said he wishes he could have 130 players because he likes to have as many as he possibly can, but players such as Francisco Nelson, Zach Werlinger and Anthony Mariscal were some of the players now able to practice today with the extra roster additions.
"I like having a lot of guys," Rodriguez said. "It makes practice better and you have a good scout team. Even some of the guys who weren't in the 105 still have a chance to help us this year at times and we've had guys who have done that come on when school started and worked their way up the depth chart."
* Thiyo Lukusa is enrolled at Arizona now and is involved with the team but is not cleared to practice yet. The Michigan State transfer offensive lineman will join the team this semester as a walk-on and Rodriguez said he will be part of the scout team before moving forward with the process to get him on scholarship. As long as he shows what he needs to he will end up on scholarship at some point from the sounds of it after he sits and redshirts this season.
I asked Rodriguez about his story and how he lost his love for the game since for Arizona loving the game is a vital part of the program. The UA head coach said that was one of the big questions when they explored adding Lukusa to the team.
Either Rodriguez was playing coy or truly didn't remember, but he said he couldn't remember how it all came together with Lukusa coming to Tucson. He said it wasn't necessarily Chris Singletary's connections to Michigan that did it.
"I think he (Singletary) knew of him, but I don't remember exactly how that whole thing got started," Rodriguez said. "I knew he was originally going to attend Arizona Western so he was going to have to sit out no matter where he went other than junior college. So we thought, 'OK, he'll be a walk-on and pay his own way to prove himself' and I think he's got a chance to help us in the future."
I know that there were some rumors about Lukusa being kicked off the team at Michigan State and drugs being an issue but from everything I've heard on Arizona's side there were no issues with that at all and it wasn't a problem in East Lansing or the cause of why he's not on the team any more.
* At this point Rodriguez said the team is only doing about 20-25 minutes of work with the scout team at this point but that will grow by the end of this week before full preparation for NAU starts next week. One spot that is going to be interesting is the third quarterback spot. Werlinger has just now started practicing so the odds are good that it will be a freshman and as of now Rodriguez said the criteria for picking that third guy will come down to who can help put the team in the end zone. He said it is more of a simple process and that is what it all comes down to for him.
* On the injury front DeAndre' Miller is off the crutches now that he had early in camp and is in a boot, but still not practicing in any capacity. At this point it looks like it will be something that keeps him out to start the year but we'll see where things are at a week from now.
Tuesday was the first of the "normal" practices with camp over as things moved permanently to the mornings. Now that things are getting closer to actual games Rodriguez has been less cheery lately but he's still happy with the attitude. Here's a look at today's quick notes from after practice.
* Rodriguez was happy with how the defense looked during Saturday's practice more than he was with his offense and that was the theme Tuesday as well. He said the execution hasn't quite been what he would hope but he has also put a lot more on the quarterbacks now earlier more than he did in other years.
"I thought the defensive intensity was good," he said of Saturday's scrimmage. "Our offense, assignment wise, wasn't as bad as I thought. I thought watching we had some mistakes, but they just did some neat stuff defensively and we had a few mistakes here and there. It wasn't as bad mistake-wise as maybe I thought at the initial time. The effort was pretty good. It wasn't all bad."
* The 105-man camp roster is now over and the Wildcats are back to their usual 120-man roster for the season. Rodriguez said he wishes he could have 130 players because he likes to have as many as he possibly can, but players such as Francisco Nelson, Zach Werlinger and Anthony Mariscal were some of the players now able to practice today with the extra roster additions.
"I like having a lot of guys," Rodriguez said. "It makes practice better and you have a good scout team. Even some of the guys who weren't in the 105 still have a chance to help us this year at times and we've had guys who have done that come on when school started and worked their way up the depth chart."
* Thiyo Lukusa is enrolled at Arizona now and is involved with the team but is not cleared to practice yet. The Michigan State transfer offensive lineman will join the team this semester as a walk-on and Rodriguez said he will be part of the scout team before moving forward with the process to get him on scholarship. As long as he shows what he needs to he will end up on scholarship at some point from the sounds of it after he sits and redshirts this season.
I asked Rodriguez about his story and how he lost his love for the game since for Arizona loving the game is a vital part of the program. The UA head coach said that was one of the big questions when they explored adding Lukusa to the team.
Either Rodriguez was playing coy or truly didn't remember, but he said he couldn't remember how it all came together with Lukusa coming to Tucson. He said it wasn't necessarily Chris Singletary's connections to Michigan that did it.
"I think he (Singletary) knew of him, but I don't remember exactly how that whole thing got started," Rodriguez said. "I knew he was originally going to attend Arizona Western so he was going to have to sit out no matter where he went other than junior college. So we thought, 'OK, he'll be a walk-on and pay his own way to prove himself' and I think he's got a chance to help us in the future."
I know that there were some rumors about Lukusa being kicked off the team at Michigan State and drugs being an issue but from everything I've heard on Arizona's side there were no issues with that at all and it wasn't a problem in East Lansing or the cause of why he's not on the team any more.
* At this point Rodriguez said the team is only doing about 20-25 minutes of work with the scout team at this point but that will grow by the end of this week before full preparation for NAU starts next week. One spot that is going to be interesting is the third quarterback spot. Werlinger has just now started practicing so the odds are good that it will be a freshman and as of now Rodriguez said the criteria for picking that third guy will come down to who can help put the team in the end zone. He said it is more of a simple process and that is what it all comes down to for him.
* On the injury front DeAndre' Miller is off the crutches now that he had early in camp and is in a boot, but still not practicing in any capacity. At this point it looks like it will be something that keeps him out to start the year but we'll see where things are at a week from now.
