The Arizona Wildcats are set to begin training camp Thursday. To get you ready, we’re examining each position between now and then. We’ll do it twice a day through Wednesday. Two-a-days, you might call them.
DEFENSIVE LINEMEN
Returning starters: RS JR Luca Bruno, SR Sani Fuimaono
Also returning: RS JR Calvin Allen, RS JR Jack Banda, RS FR Justin Belknap, SO Darrell Cloy Jr., RS FR Finton Connolly, RS SR Aiulua Fanene, RS SO Marcus Griffin, RS JR Parker Zellers
Newcomer(s): FR Justin Holt
Burning question: Does Arizona’s defensive line have enough heft to hold up against the powerful offenses on the Wildcats’ schedule?
Fuimaono looked fantastic, as if he’d used his time in L.A. to go on one of those movie-star crash diets. If featured in an ad for one, he would have been the “after” shot.
The 6-foot-1 senior defensive linemen checked in at Pac-12 Media Days at a fit, trim 267 pounds – nearly 50 less than his playing weight last season. He altered his diet and said he felt as good as he appeared. His joints no longer ached. Fuimaono was ready to make plays.
Which he very well might as part of a reconfigured defensive line – which is part of a rejiggered Arizona defense. We don’t yet know exactly what it will look like. But it won’t be overwhelmingly big.
Among the three projected starters, only Bruno is listed at 300-plus pounds (305, per the latest UA roster). Nose tackle Zellers checks in at 247 – an astonishing figure in 2016.
Only three UA D-linemen tip the scales at 300 or more pounds: Bruno (who’s coming off a foot injury), Fanene and Griffin. The latter two have played sparingly during their UA careers. Griffin is a breakout candidate this year but has much to prove.
It isn’t as if the other defensive linemen are Lilliputians. Connolly is listed at 6-5, 280; Allen at 6-6, 281.
It also isn’t absolutely imperative for D-linemen to be freakishly large. Reggie Gilbert, Arizona’s most productive lineman last season, played at about 262 pounds. Size isn’t everything.
But it is something. It does matter to some degree – especially when you’re facing the big, physical teams that occupy much of Arizona’s early schedule.
Much like Arizona’s defense, we don’t know precisely what opening opponent BYU’s offense will look like under a new coaching staff. We do know that the average weight of their projected starting offensive line is 316.4 pounds. The lightest lineman in that group is 6-8, 295-pound redshirt sophomore Austin Hoyt.
Arizona opens Pac-12 play against Washington, UCLA, Utah, USC and Stanford. Each averaged at least 163.8 rushing yards per game in 2015.
There are ways to overcome a lack of size. Technique. Effort. Heart. New position coach Vince Amey will have to coax all that and more out of Arizona’s undersized, undermanned defensive line to avoid a repeat of last season’s struggles.
