The long but important offseason has begun for the Arizona Wildcats, who concluded spring practice last week.
(To put Arizona’s schedule in perspective, UCLA started spring practice Tuesday.)
In lieu of regular media availability, we’ll do our best in this space to provide you with Arizona-football-related updates over the next several months. They will include Q&As, recruiting commitments, schedule news and whatever else we can think of.
I have plenty of leftover material from spring interviews to sift through, and I will post all relevant information.
To start with, here are first-year linebackers coach Scott Boone’s takes on the four players he spent the bulk of his time working with this spring: Jacob Colacion, Tony Fields II, Gavin Robertson and Brandon Rutt.
On Fields: “Tony’s going to be a good player. Tony doesn’t know what he doesn’t know right now, and that’s good. He just goes and plays. He’s not always right exactly scheme-wise, but he’s going to be playing a hundred miles an hour. You can make up for a mistake if you play with great effort.”
On Colacion: “Jake’s been a pleasant surprise. I recruited Jake out of high school. (Boone was the defensive coordinator at Nevada; Colacion attended La Habra [Calif.] High.) He’s a really good player. He had a knee injury in high school that kind of slowed him down last year. I know he played the whole fall with a big knee brace on. So there wasn’t much evaluation done on him. Now he’s moving full speed. I think he’s showed that he belongs in the Pac-12.”
On Robertson: “He’s showing more every day. It’s just letting his ability start to take hold. He’s gifted athletically. He’s tough and physical. But sometimes he’s paralysis by analysis. He’s overthinking things. So he’s not just turning it loose, because it’s all new to him. (Robertson moved from safety to linebacker in the spring.) We’re trying to move him along in film study and individual time so that when he gets on the field he can just play.”
On Rutt: “He is the old man. He knows the defense. He’s been in it. This is his second year. He does a good job of getting guys lined up. He just brings a leadership in terms of communication. Situational awareness is real important, and he’s got to make sure he keeps the young guys around him tuned in. If they’re not exactly right, he’s got to get them right.”
