Arizona Football: It’s time to unleash the freshmen!

With Arizona Football losing yet another game in what should be a learning year, it is time for Kevin Sumlin to turn to some of his freshmen.

The Arizona Football ship has been headed in the wrong direction for a long time now. The captains of the boat (the coaches) and those helping to stir the boat (the players) have gotten complacent, and losing has suddenly become acceptable.

However, if the team is to make a change and turn things around, the time is NOW. But how do they do that? To me, it’s time for Kevin Sumlin and the Wildcats to play the freshman next Saturday who are hungry and eager to play!

Arizona Wildcats

The post games speeches and the same rhetoric is getting old. We have heard it multiple times over this nine-game losing streak. It’s goes like this, “we need to coach better” or “we didn’t come out ready to play” and now it is “we want to win and we are tired of losing”.

Nothing and I repeat, nothing showed me that the starters who took the field on Saturday against Washington are tired of losing. Same can be said for the coaches who looked too careless about what was going on in between the white lines.

It was not until the fourth quarter that the Wildcats started to fight back, showing a little bit of grit that is needed to end this nine-game losing streak. Granted it was against some of Washington’s back-ups, but still it was encouraging.

So what did it start with? Well, the freshmen were finally able to get their first cracks at the college football game.

The first to stand out was Ma’Jon Wright, a freshman wide receiver that seems to have that “it” factor. Playing mostly in just the fourth quarter, Wright ended the game as the second leading receiver with 58 yards and a one-handed TD catch.

The other freshman player that seemed to be a difference maker was Jalen John. On a night that the Wildcats seemed to struggle in running the football, John finished the evening with four rushes for 30 yards and a catch for 9 yards. In the limited action behind Gary Brightwell, Jalen was able to show some promise at the running back position.

As for the defense, we all know the struggles this program has faced in getting to the QB and creating pressure for about the past decade. That is until Paris Shand stepped on the field.

Standing 6-feet-5 inches and  weighing 275 pounds, the freshman was able to get a sack along with two tackles, providing some much needed help on defense. In the little action we saw of Shand, he definitely earned himself more playing time in the near future, or at least I hope.

At 0-2 this season and now with nine-straight losses in total, it can’t hurt to put some of these young guns out there more often. See if they can provide the spark to snap this losing streak that has gone over a year now.

Arizona needs a jolt into the program and are in desperate need of more play makers. Why not be a little more creative and innovative? After all, this is basically a scrimmage year.

As a football program, we have hit rock bottom. But as fans we need to remain positive as success will taste that much sweeter when it turns around at some point. As always, Bear Down and Go Cats!