Arizona Football: JB Brown and Bam Smith opt out of 2020 season

With the 2020 Arizona Football season nearly here, defensive lineman JB Brown and running back Bam Smith have opted out of the upcoming season.

It has been a busy off-season for the Arizona Football team, as the program has dealt with transfers, the season being pushed out, etc. Well now it gets even wilder as defensive lineman JB Brown and running back Bam Smith have opted out of the upcoming season due to personal reasons.

For those that didn’t see this, the news made the rounds via social media on Friday evening, and it is rather unfortunate, especially when you consider all the talent the Wildcats have lost over the past few months.

Arizona Wildcats

However, this isn’t unprecedented either. As you may have hopefully seen, there have been numerous other players across the country that have been opting out of the upcoming season due to Covid.

Look no further than just a few miles north, as ASU receiver Jordan Kerley has decided to opt out of the upcoming season as well.

For Arizona, losing JB certainly hurts, as the Senior from Southern California was projected to play a bit along the Arizona defensive line, and would certainly would help bolster and deepen that group.

In the 20 games that JB has appeared in with the Wildcats, he has totaled 53 tackles (34 solo), 12.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. And given the lack of a pass rush for the Wildcats the past few years, his presence would have been useful this year.

As for Bam, the news is unfortunate, but luckily for the Wildcats, if there were a position for them to be set at, it is running back.

The Wildcats already have a talented stable of backs with Gary Brightwell, Michael Wiley, Nathan Tilford and talented incoming freshmen, Frank Brown and Jalen John. So it isn’t quite as sizeable of a loss as losing JB, nonetheless, it is unfortunate.

At Zona Zealots, we would like to wish JB and Bam well and hope they can eventually come back! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!