5. Who will do the kicking and punting for the Wildcats?
Arizona needs to replace two standout specialists: punter Drew Riggleman and kicker Casey Skowron. Riggleman earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors after averaging 45.3 yards per punt last season. Skowron made 18 of 22 field-goal attempts, including 7 of 9 between 40 and 49 yards.
The leading candidate to replace Skowron is redshirt sophomore Josh Pollack, who has minimal experience (two kickoffs, one successful extra point).
“We’ll take a hard look at Josh Pollack. That’s why he’s on scholarship,” special-teams coach Charlie Ragle said. “We think he’s going to be the right guy for the job. But he’s got to go out this spring and show us that.
“It’s probably a little bit different when you come in (and) there’s a guy in place that’s had some success. Where do you fit? He’s kind of been in that shadow of Casey, so to speak, for two years. Now we’ve had a lot of conversations about, it’s his time to be the guy. We’ve got to see that progression from a maturity standpoint, and obviously from a physical standpoint. We hope he’s ready to answer the bell. And I think he will be.”
Walk-on Ollie Graybar will compete with Pollack.
As for the punting job, Ragle said Arizona has “a couple of guys that we feel good about.” Both are walk-ons: redshirt freshman Matt Aragon (Cienega High) and redshirt sophomore Jake Glatting. Pollack also is capable of punting, but Ragle said he’d prefer that Pollack focus on one task.
Ragle didn’t rule out adding another specialist or two to provide further competition in training camp.
