Arizona Football: Disappointing 2020 NFL Draft disheartening

The Pac-12 ended up having 32 out of the 255 total NFL Draft picks, however, none of them were from the Arizona Football program.

Another year, another NFL Draft and once again barely any if any Arizona Football players heard their names called. This is a huge reason four and five-star players don’t commit to Arizona, and also why they struggle to recruit as a whole.

When Utah State quarterback Jordan Love goes in the first round, and then you see Oregon State University 6-foot-6 QB Jake Luton go in the 6th round, 10th pick (No.189 overall) you gotta assume they were looking at his height?

Arizona Wildcats Football

Free Agency is where the Arizona Wildcats could prevail, and thank goodness for that. The Wildcats in the draft have had impressive games, seasons, and have competed against very tough Power Five competition, making it harder to perform.

A few Appalachian State players, Boise State players, and some schools we haven’t heard too much about like Marshall and even Fresno State have players drafted or chosen prior to a Wildcat, which has to make you shake your head. Even Hawaii’s QB Cole McDonald and James Madison’s QB Ben DaNucci and two others from Iowa and Mississippi State and went in the 7th round.

As far as the Pac-12, three players were drafted in Round 1, Oregon QB Justin Herbert went No. 6 overall to the Chargers. In Round 2, another three Pac-12 players were drafted. Round 3 was huge with six out of 36 players hailing from the Pac-12.

Round 4 outdid Round 3 by one extra player, with seven Pac-12 players going in the fourth round, three more were taken in Round 5, seven again in Round 6, and three to round out the last and final draft round (7). Stanford OLB Casey Toohill was the last Pac-12 player to hear his name called in the 7th Round going No. 233 overall.

Here is how it went down for each program for the Pac-12, with 32 players were taken out of the total possible 255 picks in the 2020 NFL Draft.

• 7 for UTAH
• 4 for Oregon (One in the First Round)
• 3 for Colorado
• 3 for UCLA
• 3 for OSU
• 3 for Cal
• 2 for Stanford
• 2 for ASU (One in the First Round)
• 2 for Washington
• 2 for USC (One in the First Round)
• 1 for Washington State

Is the message ‘play for Utah or Oregon and don’t play for Arizona?’ Those schools are proving that development and the right coaches matter. Arizona Football is the only Pac-12 program who had none of their players drafted. A Pro Day could have really helped. The Pro Day is how Will Parks made his stamp and caught the eye of the Denver Broncos.

Will just signed with his home team, the Philadelphia Eagles this off-season, proving his worth and value.

It’s clear that Michael Eletise and now all his former Arizona teammates he played with that recently entered the transfer portal may have made the right decision. Don’t underestimate the impact of the coaching staff and how they treated the stars they inherited along with fighting and disagreeing on the sidelines during games, being absent from team meetings.

Players talk, and now the recruits are hearing from former players and transferring players. They are seeing how going to Arizona is not a road to the NFL. They are seeing the mess that was in Tucson last season that culminated with breakdowns/ fights on sidelines and in-team meetings.

We didn’t see much promotion of the players in the draft from the Arizona Football program, but we did see some from USC and other schools. Where was coach Sumlin? Did he get on the phone with any NFL coaches and GM’s to discuss why they need to draft his players, take any blame at all? That would have been the right thing to do. Obviously, NFL teams didn’t feel pressure to draft Wildcats, they probably thought they could get them as an un-drafted Free Agents (UDFA).

It’s not only embarrassing, it’s disheartening. We feel for the players who put their trust in the Arizona program. With budget issues the way they are, there wasn’t much the AD Dave Heeke could do, already paying Rich Rodriguez on his contract, and the program cannot afford to change head coaches at this point. Let’s hope the new coaches can make a difference, but having Mazzone there for another season doesn’t give us much confidence on the offensive side of the ball.

It’s just so sad. We sat through 255 picks, and we can’t fathom why the NFL feels none of our Arizona Wildcats were good enough to land in the top 255 players in the nation. How much of that has to do with the coaching staff at the players program? Attitude (some players drafted the announcers said had a bad attitude)? Surely Jace Whittaker, JJ Taylor and Khalil Tate, Cody Creason, Justin Belknap, and Finton Connolly, will be proving themselves in an NFL training camp.