Arizona Football Head Coach Kevin Sumlin press conference highlights

Arizona Football Head Coach Kevin Sumlin held his first game-week press conference on Monday heading into game plan preparations to beat the BYU Cougars.

Arizona Football head coach Kevin Sumlin held his first press conference in his tenure at Arizona before the BYU game coming up this Saturday night at 7:45 pm in Tucson. The game will be shown on ESPN, and our own Site Expert Eric Townsend breaks down the matchup in his post, “Arizona Football: Wildcats Week One Match-up with BYU.”

Sumlin started his press conference talking about how happy he is that he can have five more players on his team roster per the new rule because of injuries and such as the season progresses. He’s happy with the way his guys are getting better and handling the fall camp and that it helped to have guys start over the summer.

“BYU is a well-coached team; you know they finished sixth in the country last year in total defense with a lot of their players back. And it will be as large a team as we’ll face this year, this is going to be a large football team,” explained Sumlin.

Sumlin said he and his staff have spoken to different coaches ferreting out what to concentrate on to beat the Cougars. BYU’s defense seems to be what Sumlin is focused on, and he is working on alignment and assignment.

Bomb Shell! Santino Marchiol was informed Monday morning that he is no longer with the Wildcats according to Sumlin. Sumlin didn’t have to give the reason; the internet has been buzzing about a HUDL video now taken down where it is presumed he referred to a black player as a “Monkey” according to Justin Spears of Tucson.com who stated that the Dallas Morning News first reported the story. Shocking this language is still used at all, but it is not welcome in Tucson, thank goodness.

Arizona Wildcats

Another Texas A&M transfer center Robert Congel is not eligible to play this season. The reason this question was asked is that we do not know the status of Nathan Eldridge after his injury. Eldrige is predicted to be NFL Draft worthy and is listed on the 2018 Rimington Trophy Watch List.

Michael Lev, Tucson.com, Tweeted out this report from the press conference, “Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin indicated that veteran OLs Nathan Eldridge and Alex Kosinski aren’t in the mix as of now. Believed to be injury-related, but Sumlin wouldn’t say. Also said freshman OT Donovan Laie, who has impressed, was recently hurt but should be back next week.”

Having Eldrige out and Congel not able to play may prove to be a challenge for the Wildcats as they have seasoned centers in both, so now who will be the next man up? Ourlads.com has Junior OL Steven Bailey who is 6-foot-3 and weighs 318 pounds as the backup center, but we think redshirt sophomore Josh McCauley is the likely choice.

“We have made some strides certainly in the last three or four days with the mock game — We’re not in pads today,” explained Sumlin, “We are in shocks working schematics, then tomorrow, Wednesday, we’ll be back in pads — we’ll probably get a depth chart out to you sometime this week.”

Arizona Alumni have to be jealous of today’s University of Arizona’s ZonaZoo, as Dave Heeke listened and is trying hard to make sure Arizona Football is an enjoyable experience. Remember Eegees slushies are back and there will be a lot of new food choices available!

Here is the full press conference:

“Our guys are excited, and I think our students are excited — our students are fired up, and you can really feel it on campus,” said Sumlin, “I think there’s some excitement — everybody wishes us good luck, and the majority of them say they’ll be there.” Sumlin feels fans do have an effect, they can play a role in the game, “The more, the merrier,, the louder the better” Well, you heard coach, go support this team!