A lot will be asked of the cornerbacks in Don Brown’s pressure-oriented defensive system.
“It’s a very stressful position,” Arizona cornerbacks coach DeWayne Walker said in spring.
Three areas are of the utmost importance, Walker said: attention to detail, discipline and mindset.
“We play a lot of press coverage, a lot of man,” he said, “so that puts a lot of stress on the guys.”
A lot doesn’t mean all the time. Brown will mix in zone coverages to keep offenses guessing. He’ll back off if the situation calls for it.
But that won’t be the default position in this scheme. For the most part, Arizona’s cornerbacks will be asked to get in receivers’ faces, put their hands on them and run with them down the field.
It requires a specific skill set to play press-man effectively, and the Wildcats appear to have at least two players who fit that bill.
Those cornerbacks — Christian Roland-Wallace and Isaiah Rutherford — are the focal point of our penultimate position preview entering training camp, which starts Friday morning.
Defensive backs
Position rank: fifth (out of eight)
Biggest camp question: Can Roland-Wallace and Rutherford become the shutdown pair that Arizona needs them to be?
They certainly looked the part during spring practice. Roland-Wallace, a rising sophomore, and Rutherford, a transfer from Notre Dame, played a sticky, handsy brand of football throughout spring camp. They made plays on the ball daily. They made life difficult for Arizona’s receivers regularly.
The play Roland-Wallace didn’t make last season — a would-be interception that would have clinched an opening upset of USC — probably stands out most in UA fans’ minds. Roland-Wallace leaped and got his hands on the ball, but it deflected directly it into the arms of Trojans receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown for a first-down completion.
Roland-Wallace didn’t let that play define his sophomore campaign. He ended it as the seventh-ranked cornerback in the Pac-12 per Pro Football Focus’ grading system. Players who had lower grades included Oregon duo Jamal Hill and Mykael Wright; Oregon State’s Nahshon Wright, a third-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys; and Cal’s Camryn Bynum, a fourth-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings.
“He’s an all-around corner,” Walker said of Roland-Wallace. “He can play press, he can play off, he can play off zone. All we’re trying to do now is just detail all those different techniques within the coverages that we play.”
In Walker, Roland-Wallace might have the coach who can take his game to an even higher level. A former Division I head coach and defensive coordinator, Walker coached NFL defensive backs from 2013-19.
“He’s kind of old school,” Roland-Wallace said. “As far as football, he hits every detail, so I’m thankful for him.”
Brown and Walker clearly had a type in mind when they set about enhancing the cornerback corps. Walker’s hiring was announced Jan. 6; the next day, Rutherford announced he was transferring to Arizona.
Built similarly to the 5-11, 202-pound Roland-Wallace, Rutherford (6-0, 192) is a little longer and a little smoother. Both possess the requisite size, athleticism and demeanor to play — and thrive — in Brown’s system.
“He’s a skilled athlete,” Walker said of Rutherford. “He can run, he has length, he has IQ — same thing with ‘C-Ro.’ “
Any projections for Rutherford are based more on pedigree than past production. He spent two seasons at Notre Dame but appeared in only three games.
Coming out of high school, Rutherford was a consensus four-star recruit who held at least 19 known scholarship offers, including ones from Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon and USC. So Rutherford clearly has big-time talent.
Why he didn’t move up the depth chart at Notre Dame is unclear. Maybe he wasn’t ready yet. Maybe the fit wasn’t right. Maybe a team that finished fifth in the country last season just had better players ahead of him.
Whatever the case, Rutherford seems to have found a home with the Wildcats, who needed a replacement for Lorenzo Burns. Arizona also needs the top pairing to stay healthy; the depth behind them has improved, but it’s mostly unproven.
“I like where we are,” Walker said in April, “but we still have a long way to go.”
