When it comes to in-game decisions, Kevin Sumlin has skewed conservative during his time as head coach of the Arizona Wildcats. Sometimes it has worked; sometimes it hasn’t. UA fans still haven’t forgiven him for going into four-minute-offense mode with 13 minutes left against Arizona State last season.
Two-thirds of the way through his second year, Sumlin has decided to go for it. He is determined to win at least two more games to ensure bowl eligibility — maybe even desperate to do so. He is refusing to punt on the season.
Sumlin’s first gamble came at the all-important quarterback position, where he decided to platoon freshman Grant Gunnell with senior Khalil Tate rather than redshirt the touted Texan. Sumlin then fired two of his assistants, defensive coordinator Marcel Yates and linebackers coach John Rushing.
Those aren’t moves you make if you’re resigned to rebuilding and playing for the future.
“As I evaluate where we are, our players have not quit,” Sumlin said earlier this week in the wake of the coaching shakeup. “Our players are playing hard. I owe it to them to try to get the best situation that I can give our players this week.
“We want to win every game. So those are tough decisions. But you know what? That’s why I’m here. I think that’s what our players expect.”
Sumlin spoke without ambiguity regarding the coaching changes: They were all about winning right now, starting with Saturday’s homecoming game against Oregon State.
A win, which is far from guaranteed, would improve Arizona’s record to 5-4. The Wildcats then would need one more to lock up a postseason spot — probably the best-case scenario given the remaining schedule: at No. 7 Oregon, vs. No. 9 Utah, at ASU.
Is 6-6 good enough? No. Should the bar be set higher? Of course. But that’s the predicament Arizona finds itself in after losing three straight games. And 6-6, with the accompanying bowl berth, at least would represent a step in the right direction, albeit a small one.
Risk/reward
In discussing the status of new defensive coordinator Chuck Cecil, Sumlin mentioned that every coach is “interim.” It’s the nature of the profession.
That includes Sumlin, who was fired at Texas A&M and went 5-7 in his first season at Arizona. A repeat of that record wouldn’t put him on the proverbial hot seat, but it at least would warm it up a tad.
Sumlin’s recent decisions aren’t about self-preservation as much as sending his seniors out on a positive note. If the Wildcats end up below .500, it would mark their third such finish in the past four seasons.
Sumlin could have stuck with Tate through his recent struggles but views Gunnell as a viable alternative who could provide a “spark” — the same effect Sumlin is hoping to get on defense with the promotion of Cecil to DC and Hank Hobson to linebackers coach.
While rotating quarterbacks is unconventional and relatively uncommon, Sumlin doesn’t see it as that risky a move. Gunnell enrolled in January. His appearance at Stanford last week was his fifth of the season.
“We’re eight games in,” Sumlin said. “We’ve had two bye weeks. We had a month of practice before. Grant’s a different player Week 13 than he was Week 1.”
Similarly, Sumlin and the players have a comfort level with Cecil. He has been an off-field analyst for his alma mater since 2017. As Sumlin noted, Cecil has been part of many a defensive staff meeting. He also has experience as a defensive coordinator in the NFL.
Sumlin never had orchestrated an in-season coaching change, but he was part of one as an assistant at Texas A&M. Three games into the 2002 season, R.C. Slocum promoted Sumlin from receivers coach to offensive coordinator, displacing Dino Babers, a former UA assistant who’s now the head coach at Syracuse.
Arizona Wildcats head coach Kevin Sumlin leads his team to the stadium during the Wildcat Walk before a game at Arizona Stadium Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019.
“Coach Slocum called me and said, ‘Be ready to run the offense tomorrow,’ ” Sumlin recalled.
He described his new role as “different.” That’s what Sumlin is looking for from the Arizona defense — a different result after yielding 41-plus points in three straight games.
“I talked to the players after the (Stanford) game,” junior safety Scottie Young Jr. said. “Giving up 41 points, that ain’t gonna win us nothing.
“It’s not always just on the coaches. Sometimes you have to take responsibility as a player too.”
Accountability, urgency
That’s one of the hoped-for side effects of the coaching changes — a heightened sense of personal accountability.
Defensive back Jace Whittaker — one of four seniors who play significant snaps on defense — is viewing the final stretch of his UA career through that lens. Whittaker started the season spectacularly, intercepting three passes in the first two games and breaking up four in the first four. He has slumped since, recording just one PBU over the past four games.
“The season isn’t going as I hoped it would,” Whittaker said. “But that’s on me to make the adjustment.”
Every Wildcat should bring the same sense of urgency to Arizona Stadium on Saturday afternoon. It’s Arizona’s penultimate home game of 2019. “It’s a must-win,” as safety Jarrius Wallace correctly stated. And Oregon State is no longer the patsy you schedule on homecoming to procure an easy victory.
The Beavers have won three games, matching their output from the previous two seasons. Two of those victories have come on the road, against UCLA and Cal.
“You get used to saying certain things about different programs,” Sumlin said. “Guess what? They’ve been in a lot of games, and they’ve beaten some people where everybody turned around like, ‘Whoa.’ ”
Sumlin sees his own team in realistic terms.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” he said. “We’ve gotta play our best football on Saturday to have a chance to win.”
Arizona remains in pursuit of that elusive complete game. The Wildcats played well in wins over NAU, Texas Tech, UCLA and Colorado. But they had shaky moments in each game, too. The only time they truly put it all together under Sumlin might have been last year’s homecoming game, a 44-15 win over No. 19 Oregon.
“I would like to see us go out there and dominate for four quarters — as simple as that,” Whittaker said. “We’ve put that on display a couple times. It wasn’t the best we could do, but I still think we can show how good we can really be.”
