Now that the weekend has had a chance to play out here is the breakdown of where things stand with the secondary at Arizona. First I'll give a rundown of who's in and who's out plus what options the Wildcats have with a group that is extremely thin entering the fourth week of their season.
IN
• The result is Arizona is not going to be able to avoid playing walk ons the rest of the season as it did Saturday night against UCLA. UA now has six scholarship players to play at four different secondary positions. UA is going to be particularly thin at cornerback moving forward and as I had noticed last night, the Wildcats did not take CRW or Burns off the field against UCLA. They both played all 78 defensive snaps in the game. Mays and Jaydin Young are going to be the primary backups for Turner and Short as things stand now unless Wallace can get healthy. Mays played 24 snaps against the Bruins and had four tackles. Young played 10 snaps and had one tackle in the loss. Stukes, Edwards and Sullivan all played on special teams in Saturday's game. There's no room for an injury at either cornerback spot right now. There simply aren't any other players who will be natural at the position.
• It's not expected to be in the secondary as of now, but there is certainly some belief that more players will soon join the group of opt-outs before the end of the season and likely as soon as this week. Players who are not getting much of an opportunity are certainly the first to look at but it will be interesting to see if other players that have been able to see action this year also follow them.
IN
- *CB Lorenzo Burns (RS Sr.)
- *FS Jarrius Wallace (RS Sr.) – injured
- *FS Rhedi Short (RS Jr.)
- *FS Isaiah Mays (Jr.)
- *CB Christian Roland-Wallace (Soph.)
- *SS Jaxen Turner (Soph.)
- S Quinn Sullivan (Soph. - WO)
- DB Donte Bowers Jr. (Fr. - WO)
- DB Trey Cartledge (Fr. - WO)
- DB Adama Fall (Fr. - WO)
- DB RJ Edwards (Fr. - WO)
- DB Jaydin Young (Fr. - WO)
- Treydan Stukes (Fr. - WO)
(Scholarship players noted with *)
OUT- CB Malik Hausman (RS Jr.) – opting out
- SS Christian Young (Jr.) – opting out
- CB McKenzie Barnes (Jr.) – opting out
- CB Bobby Wolfe (Soph.) – opting out
- CB Khary Crump (Fr.) – transferring
- DB Edric Whitley (Fr.) – transferring
• So here's the deal, the opt-out decisions for both Hausman and Barnes have been made official and neither one of them made the trip to Los Angeles with the team. Wolfe has indicated on his social media accounts that he is opting out. It technically hasn't become official yet, but at this point there's no reason to believe he's going to reverse course. That trio joins the other group of three defensive backs that decided to move on earlier in the week.• The result is Arizona is not going to be able to avoid playing walk ons the rest of the season as it did Saturday night against UCLA. UA now has six scholarship players to play at four different secondary positions. UA is going to be particularly thin at cornerback moving forward and as I had noticed last night, the Wildcats did not take CRW or Burns off the field against UCLA. They both played all 78 defensive snaps in the game. Mays and Jaydin Young are going to be the primary backups for Turner and Short as things stand now unless Wallace can get healthy. Mays played 24 snaps against the Bruins and had four tackles. Young played 10 snaps and had one tackle in the loss. Stukes, Edwards and Sullivan all played on special teams in Saturday's game. There's no room for an injury at either cornerback spot right now. There simply aren't any other players who will be natural at the position.
• It's not expected to be in the secondary as of now, but there is certainly some belief that more players will soon join the group of opt-outs before the end of the season and likely as soon as this week. Players who are not getting much of an opportunity are certainly the first to look at but it will be interesting to see if other players that have been able to see action this year also follow them.
