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Arizona Football: Has the Wildcats Defense Given up?

By Shereen Rayan

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Dec 31, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats linebacker Scooby Wright III (33) with offensive lineman Carter Wood (66) and defensive lineman Reggie Gilbert (84) against the Boise State Broncos in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl at Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Football team wants to win, the fans want them to win, winning will help the coaches do their job, but has the Arizona defense given up?

What a season the Arizona football team has had so far. Even though Wildcats hold a 5-3 record, sometimes it feels like their record is more like 0-8. That’s because we are coming off a fantastic and hard fought 2014 season and any adversity the team faces, the Wildcats fans internalize and wonder why they let themselves be positive.

In life, there are ups, and there are downs, it’s how you deal with the rough patches that help you enjoy the fun parts. Or in other words, when the going gets tough the tough bear down!

For the Wildcats to go 10-4 last season, a lot had to go their way, and it did go their way enough times to make for the teams best season in years. Tucson was able to do a lot of celebrating; the Wildcats beat Oregon at home, they beat Cal in the final seconds and then won the Territorial Cup. This season not so much has gone their way, but there is still time for some exciting games.

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Last season the Wildcats were healthy. Last season Anu Solomon was on fire most of the time, remember the Hill Mary? And last season Scooby Wright III was winning awards left and right, and Derrick Turituri was healthy and played in all but one game. The team eeked out wins in close games by turning up their efforts in the second half, beating their opponent by seven points or less in six out of ten wins.

Wildcats fans tend to forget, last year’s wins were not easy, they remember how much fun they had when their team won. Last week, the Wildcats were on the losing end of what ended up to be a very close game.

This season is nothing like last season except the team started out strong in the preseason; the team was poised to be the underdog and repeat as Pac-12 South Champions. There were such high expectations from Arizona fans, and for the first three games, it looked like the Wildcats were going to prove a lot of experts wrong. During the UCLA Game, on GameDay, reality set in and things changed for everyone involved.

The Wildcats went 3-0 in preseason non-conference play. Then came the defensive injuries, sixteen of them, five deep at middle linebacker some positions at some times; Wildcats lost Wright and Turituri.

Don’t be fooled, injuries have plagued the Wildcats just like it plagued the Los Angeles Lakers last year, sometimes there’s no way around losing key players. It is an excuse; just not one Coach Rich Rodriguez is using this week.

Jul 31, 2015; Burbank, CA, USA; Arizona Wildcats safety Will Parks at Pac-12 Media Day at Warner Bros. Studios. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Wildcats defense has been dismal as of late, and they know it. Last Saturday night couldn’t have been much fun, and if they felt even a smidgen worse that the Wildcats fans and coaches did, it had to be hard.  Let’s hope they use that feeling as motivation.

Arizona’s defense has failed this season in 24 out of 24 attempts to stop other Pac-12 opponents from scoring in the Red Zone. Six of those scores came in their last game against Wazzu. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize that if the Wildcats defense can excel at the basics, they could have possibly won the game last week.

There is a difference between wanting to do something and actually doing it. Even just being aware of where the football is on the field at all times would help to be able to get turnovers. In basketball, coaches often talk about ball awareness, ‘know where the ball is at all times.’ This is how they teach players how to steal the ball from opponents.

Last week there were plays where the defense seemed to be surprised to see the football right next to them, and by the time the realized it, it was too late to force a turnover. It seemed as if many times, the players just watched the play unfold.

The Cougars quarterback Luke Falk had a field day with Arizona’s cornerbacks, he had all the time in the world to pass to his wide receivers.  Pressuring the quarterback and tightening up the backfield is crucial to stopping the passing game and the Wildcats have to find a way to make this happen. Just one more turnover or one more stop in the red-zone could have given the Wildcats a win last week.

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see Arizona’s defense step up their efforts on the field? Absolutely. Have the given up? No, quite the opposite, and maybe neither should the fans.

What about the coaching? Wildcats fans beg the team to change their defensive scheme mid-season. That might be easier if the team had a bye week. The question should be, what has Arizona’s coaching staff not done to change things around? First things first, if you want to do anything well, you have to practice, and you have to be serious about practicing with the right attitude.

This week Coach Rods defense is taking training seriously, and he is pleased. He’s been meeting more with his defensive coaches this week and has full confidence in them.

Senior Will Parks has been putting in extra effort this week in training. Parks told Ryan Finley of Tucson.com that the team has been training from the age of six and that failing is like “losing something that’s really important to you.”

https://twitter.com/PhillyWill11/status/659380849213747200

Coach Casteel has had a heck of a time trying to make the 3-3-5 defensive scheme work without the pieces he needs to make it work. This last week, he went with a different defensive scheme, a 4-7, and it didn’t seem to help much in the outcome of the game. That should shut up all the Wildcats fans complaining about the 3-3-5 defense if they can even understand or notice how that scheme looks on the field.

"UA defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel essentially eliminated linebackers from Saturday’s schemes and played a 4-7 alignment. Four rushers. Seven in coverage. It gave Arizona a numbers advantage in the secondary, but it was nullified because the UA’s four rushers couldn’t put enough pressure on Falk. – Greg Hanson, Tucson.com"

The defense knows what they have to do, now they just need to want it, apply what they have learned and do the best they can with the right attitude. They haven’t given up.

Next: But what about the Offense?

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