With Arizona Football soon returning, who will play linebacker?
Arizona Football is soon returning! And while that part is certainly good news, the unfortunate part may be figuring out who will play linebacker?
It has been a rather busy off-season this year for Arizona Football, especially as we’ve seen the season be canceled, to now reinstated as other conferences have seemingly put pressure on the Pac-12 to compete.
Well with recent events transpiring, the Pac-12 and the Arizona Football season is back on track. And while that is overall good news, however, that could spell bad news for the Wildcats as well.
Arizona Wildcats
In case you forgot, the University of Arizona and the Pac-12 saw quite a number of football transfers this off-season, and given the Wildcats’ struggles and depth issues on the defensive side of the ball, you can start to see where I’m getting at here.
Linebackers Colin Schooler and Tony Fields II are playing at Texas Tech and West Virginia respectively, while former Wildcat safety Scottie Young, Jr. is also playing at West Virginia too.
Given those sizeable transfers, that leaves a lot of holes in Arizona’s defense, particularly at linebacker. So that begs the question, who will play linebacker for the Wildcats, especially in a 3-4 defense?
Well, first off, I got to imagine that senior linebacker Anthony Pandy will have a huge impact and will be the presumptive leader of this defense. Next to Pandy, would likely have to be senior Kylan Wilborn and newly converted linebacker, Jalen Harris.
Outside of that, the Wildcats are going to potentially be breaking in a lot of freshmen.
The good news is that I do happen to like the size, play and athleticism of guys like; Derrick Mourning, Eddie Siaumau-Sanitoa and Derrion Clark. However, that’s where the depth chart seemingly stops. After that, it is a lot of walk-ons, and remember, incoming freshman linebacker Jabar Triplett is still recovering from a torn Achilles as well, so he won’t be available.
See what I mean? It get’s pretty thin for the Wildcats at linebacker.
Who knows, perhaps adding linebacker coaches Andy Buh and Paul Rhoads will help Arizona get better results at linebacker this year, however, it still doesn’t help losing players like Colin or Tony.
More. On Arizona Football. light
At Zona Zealots, we’re hopeful for Arizona Football this year, even if there could be some tough challenges to overcome. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!