Arizona opened spring football practice Saturday afternoon; there will be no true “Spring Game.” Rich Rodriguez instead prefers a “showcase” on March 2, four weeks before the end of spring drills.
It’s likely RichRod will fill his assistant coaching vacancies for a receivers coach and a special teams coach by the football showcase, a Thursday night event.
What if he swung for the fences and hired Chuck Cecil as the UA’s special teams coach? It would be a Ruthian home run.
Cecil, who is currently out of work after 16 years as a defensive coach (and coordinator) for the NFL’s Rams and Titans, was perhaps the greatest special teams player in Pac-10 history. He blocked six kicks and twice tackled punters before they could punt.
RichRod has a modest coaching tree.
Arizona State coach Todd Graham and Tennessee coach Butch Jones, who coached QBs for RichRod in 2005-06, is basically it. Except for his successor at West Virginia, the late Bill Stewart, no other RichRod assistant at West Virginia, Michigan or Arizona has gone on to be head coach or a high-profile NFL or college coordinator. Most of those he has employed in Tucson have been behind-the-scenes role players. No Sonny Dykes. No Mark Stoops. No Homer Smith or Larry Mac Duff.
Last year, RichRod declined to interview Arizona Hall of Fame linebacker Ricky Hunley, who hoped to be the Wildcats’ defensive line coach.
For a program reeling from two bad seasons, persuading a Wildcat legend and college Hall of Famer like Cecil to return to his alma mater — to fix a broken special teams system — might give Arizona a badly needed image change and a better football team.
