Arizona Football Position Breakdown: The Defensive Line

Working on our next position breakdown of the Arizona Football team, we try to analyze the defensive line, and just what that position looks like heading into 2017.

Where to start? If you weren’t aware by now, it is that Arizona Football hasn’t had much success or luck at the defensive line, since head coach Rich Rodriguez arrived in Tucson nearly six years ago.

Now into his sixth season with the Wildcats, it will certainly be interesting what kind of group we have moving forward. On paper, it seems that size and depth may still be somewhat of an issue, but the experience returning may ultimately be helpful to our overall success.

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Gone are seniors Aiulua Fanene and Sani Fuimaono. Additionally, Calvin Allen announced he would be transferring, and of course redshirt freshman, Justin Holt made it known that he would be retiring due to medical reasons.

Call it bad recruiting, bad luck, bad evaluations, or a combination of all the three; it is certainly no secret Arizona has struggled at this position of late.

The scheme may have partially been a result, as I’m sure not many high schools kids were looking to come into what used to be a 3-3-5 defense. Under former defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel, linemen were eating up space, helping set-up other teammates to create plays.

Now nearly two years removed from the departure of Casteel, Arizona has to continue to make improvements defensively.

A position that saw just 22 sacks as a team last year, this years’ group has to do a better job of getting to the quarterback. By doing so, they relieve a lot of pressure off our defensive backs and certainly make the defense a more dynamic group as a whole. /

Returning in 2017 is; the senior-to-be Parker Zellers, a former walk-on who seems to have predicated himself on being an undersized defensive lineman, with the unique ability to create havoc in the backfield. Zellers accounted for three sacks last season.

Also returning is; Justin Belknap, Larry Tharpe Jr., Finton Connolly, Jack Banda and Luca Bruno among others. Perhaps appearing for the Wildcats for the first time may be junior college transfer Sione Taufahema, and redshirt freshmen Jalen Cochran & Francisco Nelson.

It is worth noting the Wildcats will also be bringing in freshmen Jalen Harris, and My-King Johnson, arguably the two best pass rushers in the state coming out of high school. However, it ‘s hard to say if either will have an impact this upcoming season as it is always difficult for a true freshman to get significant minutes.

Collectively speaking there are certainly still concerns at the defensive linemen, but the experience will prove to be beneficial. The overall talent seems to be improving at the position as well, which will also be huge moving forward.

The 2016 season certainly wasn’t a memorable one, but the group did seem to get better as the season progressed, really showing their potential in their thumping of rival ASU.

Defensive line coach Vince Amey and defensive coordinator Marcel Yates will be in their second years coaching this defense, and perhaps with another year implementing their schemes, this group will be better in 2017. After all, one of the only places to go from near the bottom is up.

Here is Taufahema hard at work in a Spring practice drill:

Here’s a little bit of Arizona DT newcomer Sione Taufahema during spring practice over the weekend pic.twitter.com/4rBQkcSGYJ
— Matt Moreno (@MattRMoreno) February 20, 2017

Must Read: Arizona Football Position Breakdown: The Linebackers

At Zona Zealots, we’re certainly interested in seeing how this group performs. We are confident that 2017 will be a better year, and hopefully, the defensive line can be a big part of that success. Bear Down, Arizona!

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