Arizona is on the downslope of spring practice now with just two more to go this week. It was another morning session Monday as things slowly start to come to a close here this week. Here are today's quick notes after having a chance to talk with players and coaches after practice.
* We'll start with the new hire and quality control/analyst BJ Denker who made his return to Tucson recently. He will have a number of responsibilities with the team, but it is clear recruiting will be a big part of what makes up his day-to-day duties. Rich Rodriguez said the former UA quarterback will be in charge of junior college recruiting with California schools being a big part of his focus. Rodriguez has been wanting to bring back Denker in some capacity.
He'll also be able to help out during practice on offense and Rodriguez said he'll essentially be another set of eyes to help the coaches because of his experience in the offense. Overall, though, it sounds like recruiting will be a big part of what his job will be about.
* Josh Pollack, as it has been noted, had much more of a workload than the staff would have liked. The hope is that some of those jobs end up going to some others including Lucas Havrisik coming in, but Rodriguez said today was a particularly good day for the Arizona kicker and that is just in line with how his spring has gone. Rodriguez said there will be some tweaks to what the team does on special teams to see if it will help improve things, but some of what went wrong last year in his mind was due to personnel as well as execution.
* Kahi Neves has not been participating in practice lately and after practice I have been seeing him in a different kind of attire than I have ever seen before. He has been in just shorts and a shirt plus a vest that a construction worker might wear. It all came together today when Rodriguez was asked about it and without actually saying it the redshirt freshman linebacker is currently suspended and trying to work his way back by doing community service to work his way back on to the field. Rodriguez wouldn't go into more detail than that but for now he is not practicing with the team really in any way.
* Tony Fields continues to be the talk of spring ball as even now Vince Amey had jumped into it when I asked him today about how the pass rushing efforts are coming together. I have said for a long time that I feel Fields could be what Arizona envisioned Tellas Jones being at one point. Somewhat of a do-everything type of linebacker. Fields has better size than Jones and that will allow him to do some different things and one of those jobs will now be rushing the passser. Amey singled out the freshman as someone he's excited about coming out of spring ball.
* Jalen Cochran looked like he was able to do more today but injury wise things are amazing for Arizona still. Cam Denson remains in a boot and Cedric Peterson has been slow to get back after a foot injury of his own. Those are two receivers Arizona is planning to use quite a bit. As far as the rest of the receiver group Shun Brown has been the most consistent and once again (we do this every year) Tony Ellison has been someone who impressed the staff this spring. It feels like a story that runs every camp, but Ellison just hasn't been able to put it together on the field yet. Rodriguez had some praise for him Monday morning.
* We'll start with the new hire and quality control/analyst BJ Denker who made his return to Tucson recently. He will have a number of responsibilities with the team, but it is clear recruiting will be a big part of what makes up his day-to-day duties. Rich Rodriguez said the former UA quarterback will be in charge of junior college recruiting with California schools being a big part of his focus. Rodriguez has been wanting to bring back Denker in some capacity.
He'll also be able to help out during practice on offense and Rodriguez said he'll essentially be another set of eyes to help the coaches because of his experience in the offense. Overall, though, it sounds like recruiting will be a big part of what his job will be about.
* Josh Pollack, as it has been noted, had much more of a workload than the staff would have liked. The hope is that some of those jobs end up going to some others including Lucas Havrisik coming in, but Rodriguez said today was a particularly good day for the Arizona kicker and that is just in line with how his spring has gone. Rodriguez said there will be some tweaks to what the team does on special teams to see if it will help improve things, but some of what went wrong last year in his mind was due to personnel as well as execution.
* Kahi Neves has not been participating in practice lately and after practice I have been seeing him in a different kind of attire than I have ever seen before. He has been in just shorts and a shirt plus a vest that a construction worker might wear. It all came together today when Rodriguez was asked about it and without actually saying it the redshirt freshman linebacker is currently suspended and trying to work his way back by doing community service to work his way back on to the field. Rodriguez wouldn't go into more detail than that but for now he is not practicing with the team really in any way.
* Tony Fields continues to be the talk of spring ball as even now Vince Amey had jumped into it when I asked him today about how the pass rushing efforts are coming together. I have said for a long time that I feel Fields could be what Arizona envisioned Tellas Jones being at one point. Somewhat of a do-everything type of linebacker. Fields has better size than Jones and that will allow him to do some different things and one of those jobs will now be rushing the passser. Amey singled out the freshman as someone he's excited about coming out of spring ball.
* Jalen Cochran looked like he was able to do more today but injury wise things are amazing for Arizona still. Cam Denson remains in a boot and Cedric Peterson has been slow to get back after a foot injury of his own. Those are two receivers Arizona is planning to use quite a bit. As far as the rest of the receiver group Shun Brown has been the most consistent and once again (we do this every year) Tony Ellison has been someone who impressed the staff this spring. It feels like a story that runs every camp, but Ellison just hasn't been able to put it together on the field yet. Rodriguez had some praise for him Monday morning.
