What are reasonable expectations for the Arizona Football defense?
With 63 days until the first Arizona Football game against Hawaii, that got us thinking what are some reasonable expectations for the defense?
My my how it’s been quite some time since we’ve seen a dominant, err… hell even just a competitive defense at Arizona. Long gone are the days, where Arizona Football and defense were synonymous.
To quantify this or really put this into perspective for fans, since 2011, Arizona’s defenses have ranked; 107th (2011), 104th (2012), 39th (2013), 79th (2014), 106th (2015), 117th (2016), 109th (2017) and 98th (2018).
Arizona Wildcats
Things have been inconsistent to say the least, and as we’ve grown to see over the years, it’s that the Wildcats and defense are distant strangers.
This past year can partly be attributed to some injuries, however, in year three under defensive coordinator Marcel Yates, we saw minimal improvement.
Heading into 2019, could we see significant improvement from this group? Well, it’s definitely possible, since the Wildcats return quite a numbers of players that either started or saw decent playing time last season.
As it stands, here is who is returning for the Cats!
Defensive Line:
Linebackers/ Edge Rusher:
Linebackers:
- Colin Schooler
- Tony Fields II
- Anthony Pandy
- Day Day Coleman (moved from safety)
Cornerback:
- Jace Whittaker (missed most of 2018 due to injury)
- Lorenzo Burns
- Azizi Hearn
- McKenzie Barnes
Safeties:
That’s a decent amount of talent out of that group, and out of the ‘true starters’, Arizona returns virtually nine of 11 starters from the ASU game. In addition to that, the Wildcats will have Issaiah Johnson available from his redshirt season. Plus, Myles Tapusoa and Trevon Mason both come in as junior college transfers, also playing on the defensive line like Johnson.
Beyond that, Arizona could perhaps see potential impacts/ contributions from incoming newcomers; Maurice Gaines (corner), Christian Roland-Wallace (corner), Bobby Wolfe (corner) and perhaps Kwabena Watson (edge rusher) most notably among a few others.
So in year four with Yates, it’s put up or shut up time. Since coming to Tucson in 2016, his defenses have been 117th, 109th and 98th. While we’ve seen minimal improvement year over year, there is still plenty of criticism directed his way as it’s been a rather slow process in truly changing the perception of this group.
To be honest, I still see this defensive front struggling a little bit, and with limited depth and a lack of dominant production, I think this will again be Arizona’s Achilles heel however, this is probably the most depth they’ve had in some time.
Linebackers should be solid, but things get dicey if Schooler and/ or Fields were to get injured. Beyond that, the secondary should be solid! Having Whittaker back will be huge, and the additions of Roland-Wallace, Wolfe, Gaines in addition to having Burns and Barnes will make this probably their deepest and most talented group at corner in quite some time.
Overall, I think this is a unit that will be better in 2019, but it’s hard to say just how good they will be. I think this is a group that on paper, should finish in the Top 70s, but sometimes things don’t work out they way you hope.
Either way, it’s time for Yates to put out a serviceable group!
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At Zona Zealots, we’re excited for the soon return of Arizona Football and are anxious to see how this group performs next year! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!