Shortly before boarding a flight west on Sunday night, Saquon Barkley put a positive spin on the New York Giants’ unusual detour.
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea to get away, spend some time with your team,” Barkley told reporters.
The Giants have relocated to a Tucson resort for the week, and will practice three times at the UA starting Wednesday before flying on to Los Angeles to face the Chargers. Coach Joe Judge announced his Tucson plan last week, before the team’s 20-9 loss to the Dolphins in Miami.
The Giants flew to Tucson late Sunday; coaches moved into the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility offices on Monday morning.
Judge is already impressed.
“Yeah, I’ll tell you what, the University of Arizona has been very, very accommodating and they’ve done a great job as far as letting us use their facilities,” he told reporters on Monday. “Our office setups, our meeting rooms, the weight room, the training room, the workout facilities, the field that we’re going to use for practice — really, everything’s been first class and these guys have done everything that we’ve asked. They’ve bent over backwards. They couldn’t be more hospitable (to) us.”
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Here’s everything you need to know about the Giants’ time in Tucson:
What’s the plan?
The Giants will practice on the Dick Tomey Practice Fields and inside the Davis Sports Center on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons before traveling on to Los Angeles. Practices are closed to the public.
Giants head coach Joe Judge has been pleased with how his team has been treated this week. “The University of Arizona has been very, very accommodating and they’ve done a great job as far as letting us use their facilities,” he said.
Why Tucson?
The weather, obviously. Wednesday’s forecast calls for a high of 72 in the Old Pueblo. In New Jersey, where the Giants play? A high of 43.
Has this happened before?
In 1924, Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne brought his team — led by the famed “Four Horsemen” — to Tucson by train on its way to play Stanford in the Rose Bowl. The Irish came back eight more times between 1925-40, practicing at the UA while on their way to Los Angeles to play USC.
In 1980, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers played an exhibition game at Arizona Stadium. The Arizona Cardinals have held infrequent preseason and offseason workouts on the UA campus through the years.
This week marks the first time an NFL team has practiced in Tucson during the season.
How are the Giants doing?
It’s been a rough season for the Giants, who are 4-8 and in last place in the NFC East. Quarterbacks Daniel Jones and Mike Glennon are hurt, leaving open the possibility that former Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm — who joined the team just a week ago from the Bills’ practice squad — will start in Los Angeles. Barkley and receiver Kenny Golladay have battled injuries, and linebacker Blake Martinez — the former Canyon del Oro High School and Stanford star — is lost for the year with a torn ACL.
Given their injury issues — and the day-to-day needs of an NFL team — Judge and the Giants paid special attention to the training rooms at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility before heading west. He said “the most important thing for us is that our players have what it takes to prepare to go out there on the field.”
“One thing about coming to a major college like this, these guys have just about everything you can imagine,” Judge told the media on Monday. “One, because of just the functionality of using it and having a larger roster, but then also the recruiting, the arms war they have to have, every bell and whistle you can possibly present to a recruit has to be visible when they come on an official visit.
“The one thing they have here is plenty of facilities, and it’s a beautiful facility. It’s a great area to be in. … In terms of everything we can do out here, yeah, it’s great. Really a first-class operation.”
Any other Tucson connections?
In addition to Martinez, the Giants’ roster also includes former Wildcats running back Gary Brightwell. In four seasons (2017-20) at the UA, Brightwell rushed 245 times for 1,305 yards and 10 scores. He was a sixth-round pick of the Giants last spring. Tom Quinn, a Wildcats linebacker from 1986-90, is in his 16th season on the Giants’ staff. He is the team’s assistant special teams coordinator.
What will they do?
It’s a business trip for the Giants, whose season is in danger of cratering. And Judge told reporters Monday that he wouldn’t sacrifice game prep in favor of team bonding.
That said, the Giants had Tuesday off and will have lots of down-time the rest of the week. There will be opportunities to lounge by the pool, hit a few golf balls or check out a basketball game. Judge has been known to take his teams to TopGolf for bonding.
“In terms of getting out and going to a restaurant together, having some fellowship, there’s plenty of time for that,” Judge told reporters. “In terms of doing anything as a team, we’ve talked about a number of things in captains’ meetings. We wouldn’t do anything that will take away from our weekly prep. It wouldn’t be anything in lieu of practice or in lieu of a meeting, but something additional on the back end. We’ve talked about a couple of possibilities and I’ll touch base with the captains again later on to see if there’s anything they’re interested in doing.”
On Sunday, Barkley told reporters the Giants’ plan to “relax, breathe, come together collectively (and) figure out what we’ve got to do better.”
“I don’t see any fault or any negative things that can come out of spending time together as a team, getting to know each other more, especially this part of the season where we’ve got to try to make a run at it and try to win every game we can,” he said.
