Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Departure of starters Fields, Schooler virtually unprecedented in UA history

The Star columnist dives into the holes on Arizona's defense following an offseason of transfers, the Wildcats' 2020 football schedule and the latest in Southern Arizona sports.

When first-year Arizona defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads begins training camp procedures in a few days, the reality of losing the club’s two most productive and reliable defensive players, linebackers Tony Fields II and Colin Schooler, will be felt like a punch in the nose.

Fields, a grad transfer who is one of West Virginia’s top defenders — he had a team-high 10 tackles in a victory over Baylor on Saturday — leads the Mountaineers with 29 tackles. Schooler, also a grad transfer, had seven tackles in his first game for Texas Tech last week.

Not only that, safety Scottie Young Jr., who is redshirting at West Virginia this season, leaves a sizable gap after starting 27 games for the Wildcats.

The problem with college football in the ever-fluid “transfer portal” and “grad transfer” era isn’t so much losing players like Fields, Schooler and Young. It’s failing to replace them in-kind with transfers from, say, Kansas State or Baylor. If it doesn’t work both ways, you are in trouble.

As it now stands, the Arizona football program is not viewed as a destination for transfers with credentials similar to Fields and Schooler.

Until Schooler, Fields and Young took leave of Arizona, the Wildcats had not lost a football transfer of such value since joining the conference in 1978. Quarterbacks Richard Kovalcheck (to Vanderbilt), Anu Solomon (to Baylor) and Brandon Dawkins (to Indiana) were essentially the only starting UA football players ever to transfer to Power 5 conference schools over 42 years.

Kovalcheck, Solomon and Dawkins left because their careers were in decline and playing time had diminished. In total, those three passed for just 773 yards after leaving Arizona.

Over four decades, only a handful of healthy, valuable players left the UA program with eligibility remaining. Starting guard Daniel Borg, the Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year from Ironwood Ridge High School, quit football in 2008 to concentrate on academics; he is now a senior software engineer for Amazon. Starting tailback Brian Holland, whose 94-yard touchdown reception helped knock Arizona State out of the 1982 Rose Bowl, left school with a year of eligibility remaining. Holland, who was married with children, moved to his hometown in Pennsylvania to get a job and support his family. That’s basically it.

Football had not been a “transfer sport” until the NCAA created the transfer portal and eased restrictions on moving from school to school. Basketball is the traditional transfer sport. Arizona had more than 30 players transfer in attempt to get more playing time over the last 30 years. The most successful of those — Ruben Douglas to New Mexico and Will Bynum to Georgia Tech — both prospered.

The others? Not so much.

While Fields and Schooler are valued college football players, they are not NFL prospects nor franchise-type players.

In my opinion, the three most coveted UA athletes who transferred are as follows:

• Erin Aldrich, volleyball/track. After a year at Arizona, Aldrich transferred to Texas in 1998. There, she became an Olympic high-jumper and a first-team All-American in volleyball.
• Shelby Pendley, softball. A first-team All-Pac-12 shortstop in 2012, Pendley left for Oklahoma as a sophomore and became a first-team All-American and the Big 12 Player of the Year in 2015.
• Will Bynum, basketball. After losing minutes to shooting guard Salim Stoudamire, Bynum went to Georgia Tech, started in the 2004 Final Four and played eight seasons in the NBA.

In basketball, Arizona benefited more from incoming transfers than by losing a Bynum and a Douglas and a MoMo Jones. Those incoming transfers such as future NBA players Chris Mills, Bison Dele, Loren Woods and T.J. McConnell were program-changers.

Fields and Schooler are fortunate to be playing college football at the beginning of a period in which punitive restrictions for transfers has diminished.

Pac-12 schedule not kind to Arizona

Arizona finished the 2019 football season on an 0-7 decline, and it doesn’t take much imagination to see the Wildcats matching that, 0-7, in the upcoming 2020 season.

When the Pac-12 and its media partners, ESPN and Fox, released the schedule on Saturday, it predictably dealt the Wildcats a road-of-no-return series of games that starts at Utah (gulp) on Nov. 7 and continues with consecutive games against USC and Washington. Gulp, gulp.

The only game that looks winnable is a Dec. 5 match against Colorado at Arizona Stadium.

The Pac-12 predictably moved to improve the résumé of its potential Top 25 teams by putting them in divisional cross-over games against expected bottom-feeders Arizona, Colorado, Oregon State and Washington State.

Colorado will play at Stanford in its crossover game. Oregon State must play Utah. WSU drew USC.

When it revealed the 2020 schedule Saturday morning, the Pac-12 and its TV partners chose to feature Oregon coach Mario Cristobal on Fox’s weekly college football showcase. That the league and Fox wanted the Ducks and their brand instead of, say, Stanford’s more accomplished David Shaw or Utah’s highly respected Kyle Whittingham, was a glimpse into what those in charge of media rights money think best sells the conference. Sizzle, in any form.

It further shows that Arizona State is believed to be a rising name in Pac-12 football. Fox will feature the Sun Devils and USC in the season opener at 9 a.m., on Nov. 7.

Either way, Arizona is apt to conclude its season on Dec. 14. That would be the latest regular season game not played in Hawaii in school history. The previous latest: Dec. 9, 1939 against Loyola Marymount.

Every athletic department in the Pac-12 is now on the clock; scheduling airlines and hotels for at least three road trips is usually completed months in advance. But on the positive side, the hotel and airline industries are operating at historically low capacities, which should make getting 75 hotel rooms on short notice in Salt Lake City a comparative breeze.

McDermott leaving Tucson Conquistadores

About 30 years after former UCLA golfer Judy McDermott arrived in Tucson to assist in managing the PGA Tour’s Tucson Open — she stayed on to become executive director of both the Tucson Conquistadores and 28 PGA Tour and Champions Tour events here — she will now officially leave that post.

The Conquistadores last week hired Katy Pradella to succeed McDermott, who has spent the last year doing two jobs: running the Cologuard Classic and The First Tee of Tucson, which she helped to found in 2003.

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Pradella began working for the PGA Tour in 2003 and ultimately became tournament manager for the high-brow Los Angeles Open — the Northern Trust Open — at Riviera Country Club. Pradella moved to Tucson last year to work with McDermott and serve in an advisory capacity at the Cologuard Classic. This isn’t new turf for her; she earlier worked for the PGA Tour as part of the Champion Tour’s leading event, the Charles Schwab Cup, then in Sonoma, California.

McDermott’s distinguished work in sports administration in Tucson puts her in an exclusive Hall of Fame-type class, with former UA senior women’s athletic administrators Mary Roby and Rocky LaRose, and iconic high school athletic administrators Peggy Baker, Mary Hines and Sheila Baize as the leading female sports executives in Tucson history.

UA junior Werbylo takes home Tucker Invitational title

UA junior golfer Trevor Werbylo, who finished second at the Tucker Invitational in Albuquerque last year, won the 2020 version of the Tucker Invitational — moved to the Phoenix suburb of Maricopa at Southern Dunes Golf Club — by shooting 66-68-67, or 15-under par last week. The Tucker Invitational had been hosted by the New Mexico Lobos since the 1970s but local restrictions didn’t allow tournament-type golf in Albuquerque. It was moved to Arizona and relabeled the Tucker Amateur. Werbylo birdied the last three holes to win by a stroke. It was the first college victory for the Salpointe Catholic High School grad, who will get to repeat his junior year of eligibility at Arizona, He had finished second in five tournaments as a Wildcat.

Bobby Dalbec puts bow on historic rookie season with Red Sox

Former Arizona All-Pac-12 slugger Bobby Dalbec completed his rookie year with the Boston Red Sox with eight home runs in 80 at-bats. It mirrors the 2007 rookie season by Arizona career home run leader Shelley Duncan, who hit seven home runs with the Yankees in 74 at-bats. The difference is that Dalbec struck out 39 times in his 80 at-bats for Boston, or almost one strikeout every other at-bat. That could be a problem down the road In the minor leagues, Dalbec struck out 35% of the time (480 Ks in 1,370 at-bats). This year’s MLB leader in strikeouts, Milwaukee’s Keston Hiura, struck out 39% of the time (85 times in 217 at-bats). 

Former Tucson High star set to begin fourth season overseas

Tucson High grad Shakir Smith, who led the NJCAA in scoring in 2014, averaging 29.3 points for Pima College — including a school-record 54 points in a game — is in Portugal, opening his fourth year in the EuroLeague. Smith, who averaged 15.5 points for Bulgaria’s Academic Bultex last season, signed with Sporting LP of Portugal and opens the season Saturday. Smith has also played in Sweden and Macedonia in his pro career. Also returning to the vast EuroLeague is Amphitheater High grad Tim Derksen, who left his 2020 team, Fribourg of Switzerland, and has signed with league rival Geneva in the Swiss Pro League.

UA national championship member hopes to find spark in the land down under

After playing in 83 MLB games, outfielder Johnny Field, a key part of Arizona’s 2012 College World Series championship team, has moved to Australia in hopes of reviving his pro career. Field signed with the Brisbane Bandits last week, a team he played for in the 2014-15 offseason. Field, 28, did not make the Chicago Cubs roster this season after hitting .234 with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate in 2019. Five players from Arizona’s 2012 title team — Field, Seth Mejias-Brean, Alex Mejia, Robert Refsnyder and Joey Rickard — reached the majors. Only Refsnyder, who hit .200 for Texas in 15 games, and Rickard, who did not get a hit in five at-bats for San Francisco, played in the bigs this year. 

Star Tucson golfer returns to links

In her third year on the LGPA Symetra Tour, two-time Salpointe Catholic High School state champion Krystal Quihuis is making a comeback. She made the cut at the ongoing Symetra Classic in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Friday, the third time in seven events this season to earn a paycheck. Quihuis has earned $1,412 this year and has three remaining tournaments, in Florida and North Carolina, to keep her playing privileges for 2021. The Symetra Tour season was paused from March until late July. Quihuis was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2015.

My two cents: Pusch Ridge Christian fortunate to have creative coach, AD amid pandemic

Pusch Ridge Christian, which won the 2015 Class state football championship, was originally scheduled to open the high school season Aug. 21 against Casa Grande Vista Grande High School. Games against Benson, San Tan Foothills, Douglas, Sabino and Palo Verde have since been canceled.

While the Lions routed Mesa Eastmark High School 41-6 Friday night on the Pusch Ridge campus, TUSD schools have yet to create schedules for the 2020 football season. That process is expected to play out Tuesday, but it might not be a lock.

Palo Verde, a TUSD school that was scheduled to play Pusch Ridge on Sept. 18, has thus far held limited drills with a small roster of about 25 players, with all players distanced six feet apart after having their temperatures checked in the school gymnasium.

That’s quite a gap between Pusch Ridge, a private Christian academy, and the TUSD schools. Give credit to Lions athletic director Lonnie Tvrdy and first-year head coach Kent Middleton, who have been resourceful, creating a schedule that includes new opponents Yuma Christian, American Leadership Academy and Florence.

Middleton is a story of perseverance, which is valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic. A former captain and Arizona Icecats hockey standout, Middleton spent more than three decades as an assistant coach at Ironwood Ridge, CDO and Mountain View, among other places, as well as working as a counselor.

The CDO grad was part of the staff of Mountain View’s 14-0 state title season in 1993.

In whatever free time he had, Middleton spent time as a caddy at the then-new Ritz-Carlton Golf — now Dove Mountain Golf Club — when it was home to the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Ever a hustler, Middleton served as caddy for Jack Nicklaus, designer of the Dove Mountain facility, when the famous golf pro came to Tucson to dedicate his new course.

That type of get-involved-and-get-it-going background helped Pusch Ridge safely and successfully inaugurate the high school football season in Tucson.