Arizona Football fires Marcel Yates and LB’s coach, John Rushing

After starting the year 4-1 and now falling to 4-4, the Arizona Football team has made some staffing changes, with Marcel Yates and John Rushing out.

Football is a tough, performance-driven sport, and in the ultra-competitive world of college athletics, the Arizona Football team is certainly no stranger to that.

For those needing a brief, history lesson, the Wildcats started the year 4-1, but have subsequently fallen to 4-4, losing some tough games to Washington, USC and Stanford and in the process getting outscored, 133-72.

Arizona Wildcats

Now, there certainly can be a number of people to blame during the Wildcats’ woes here including players, but at the end of the day it always falls on the coaches, and most namely the head coach.

However, not even two full years into the Sumlin Era, it’s hard to hold head coach Kevin Sumlin too accountable, because in reality that’s not enough time to have brought in a majority of ‘your players’ that you recruited nor is it enough time to instill your system and to change the culture.

Remember, Sumlin came in late, being hired in the middle of January 2018. He essentially had three weeks before signing day, and really didn’t bring in anyone new to the class. Most were already guys recruited by Rich Rodriguez.

Nonetheless, the responsibility and the overall product does fall on him.

So not being impervious to making changes, Sumlin felt he needed to shake up the defense, which aside from some a few decent series and games this season, has been awful to say the least.

Now in his fourth season with the program, Sumlin decided to get rid of defensive coordinator, Marcel Yates. But also in a surprising move, Sumlin has let go of linebacker coach, John Rushing.

To be honest, Yates was likely done this season anyways with his contract running out in January of 2020, but I do think the timing is more surprising.

Arizona must think it can make enough moves now to maybe salvage the season, and I’m sure some fans aren’t too made about the moves in general.

With Yates and Rushing out, the Wildcats will turn to former Wildcat legend Chuck Cecil to take over as defensive coordinator, and former Arizona linebacker Hank Hobson will become coach of the linebackers.

With just four games left on the season, it’ll be interesting to see how this team responds, and whether they can turn it around in such a short amount of time.

At Zona Zealots, we’re hopeful with the staffing changes and will still cheer our Cats on regardless. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!