The list – the Pac-12’s top 15 players on the rise for 2016, according to Athlon Sports – includes the usual suspects.
Sophomore quarterback for conference dark horse? Yep. Washington’s Jake Browning is there.
Highly touted and talented sophomore running backs? Yep. UCLA’s Soso Jamabo and USC’s Ronald Jones II made the cut.
Latest transfer brought in to run Oregon’s high-octane offense? Yep. Dakota Prukop is represented.
The list features only one offensive lineman. To author Steven Lassan’s credit, he chose Arizona right guard Jacob Alsadek.
Alsadek is entering his fourth year as a Wildcat and his third as a starter. Lassan writes that Alsadek “should be the anchor for Arizona’s line in 2016.” Barring something unforeseen, he will be.
I had a chance to talk to Alsadek and offensive line coach Jim Michalczik toward the end of spring football about the 6-foot-7, 318-pound redshirt junior’s development. Here’s some of what they had to say:
Alsadek on the value of experience: “Mentally, everything starts to slow down. You start to understand everything better. You understand plays. You understand the whole play. You learn whole schemes, not just what you have to do.”
Alsadek on whether that helps him play faster: “It does. You just understand defenses better. My first year I played slow. I was young. I was 19 years old. I was scared. Then last year I came out and I go, ‘I’m just going to go as hard as I can. I’m just going to come off the ball and see what happens.’ The first game I did all right. The second game I did a lot better. Just play as fast and hard as I can and beat the other guy up.”
Michalczik on Alsadek’s growth as a player: “He’s very consistent. He’s a guy that had to play early and wasn’t ready. He’s working hard to improve his game to take it up another notch.
“He’s a guy who’s gotten by by being big and by being competitive and just fighting his butt off to get the job done. He’s working to take the next step of becoming a good lineman – to be able to use technique, leverage.
“Everything these guys do is not natural. He’s working on the unnatural things. Whereas before we just had to play him.”
