Up next
- What:
- Cactus Kickoff: Arizona vs. BYU
- When:
- Saturday, Sept. 3, 7:30 p.m.
- Where:
- University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale
- TV:
- Fox Sports 1
- Radio:
- 1290-AM
There’s an alternate universe where Dylan Cozens and Kahlil McKenzie line up next to each other in Arizona uniforms.
McKenzie plays the middle, 300-plus pounds of power and brute strength. Cozens comes off the edge, the prototypical defensive end and pass rusher, a 6-foot-5-inch athletic freak with the speed of a linebacker.
In reality, Cozens is a power-hitting prospect for the Philadelphia Phillies organization. McKenzie is across the country in Knoxville, Tennessee, heading into his sophomore season with the Tennessee Volunteers.
Both were nearly Wildcats. Cozens was part of Arizona’s 2012 recruiting class before choosing baseball instead. McKenzie, a five-star recruit and the top-rated defensive lineman in 2015, chose Tennessee over the UA.
Rich Rodriguez’s overhaul of his defensive coaching staff — and his implementation of a new scheme — has put an even bigger premium on defensive linemen. The UA has lost its fair share in recruiting, and has gotten mixed reviews from the few big-name players to commit here.
Arizona’s coaches know exactly what kind of players they want, but getting them is easier said than done.
“Everybody wants a 6-6, long, athletic, 300-pounder,” said defensive line coach Vince Amey. “But there’s only so many of those.”
The Underdogs
Everybody wants the 6-6, 300-pound prototype.
Nobody wanted Parker Zellers.
Or Justin Belknap.
Or Jack Banda.
All three of them are listed at 247 pounds, with Zellers — a nose tackle — at 6-foot-1.
Zellers was a former walk-on from Notre Dame Prep in Scottsdale who earned a scholarship just last year; Belknap is still a walk-on, coming from Henderson, Nevada. The only offer for Banda, from Grayson, Georgia, came from the Wildcats. Despite that, Banda was nearly cut from the 105-man roster before his freshman season.
The trio make up the bulk of Arizona’s defensive line depth. Zellers, a redshirt junior, is a safe bet to start in the Wildcats’ Sept. 3 opener against BYU in Glendale. Belknap has spent time running with the first-team defense since spring. Banda, who broke out last season, figures to be a rotation piece — and maybe more.
All three overlooked, all three undersized. That’s part of what informs the personality of the entire defensive line.
“They’ve got a chip on their shoulder,” Amey said. “They’re walk-ons, nobody wanted them. I’ll take them all day because they’ll be working they butts off all summer long.”
Added Belknap: “We love the doubters. It adds fuel to the fire. We love that because it just makes us go harder and harder.”
Amey knows the feeling. He was overlooked coming out of high school for his size before signing with Arizona State. Amey played as a true freshman, was drafted into the NFL by the Oakland Raiders and played a decade of professional football across the NFL, NFL Europe and in the Arena Football League.
“I was considered undersized, this and that, wasn’t considered a ‘muscle guy’,” Amey said.
“But you know what? I played 11 years professionally because I had a chip on my shoulder, I was always an underdog. I just kept coming. So that’s what I instill in my guys.”
The hyped
Arizona struck out with McKenzie and was unlucky with Cozens. But it hasn’t been all bad.
Just before signing day in 2014, the Wildcats reeled in a four-star defensive lineman from Bellevue, Washington, a 6-foot-3, 300-pounder with offers from SEC and Pac-12 schools, rated the fourth best defensive tackle in the West by Scout.com.
Marcus Griffin learned pretty quickly how unimportant stars and ratings were the first day he arrived in Tucson.
“You see guys like (former Wildcats) Reggie Gilbert, Dan Pettinato and you’re just like, ‘Shoot, I gotta earn my stripes with these guys who have been here for years,’” Griffin said. “They’re grown men. You come in as a baby, and it’s all about earning your stripes.”
Griffin redshirted as a freshman in 2014 and barely sniffed the field last year. He’s not the only hyped recruit to fizzle early.
Calvin Allen is 6-6 and 281 pounds and fits the mold Arizona — and everybody else, really — is looking for. In parts of two seasons, he has registered exactly 10 tackles.
The goners
Arizona has 11 defensive linemen listed on its roster, and to an outside observer, it might look like a who’s who of … who?
There’s Banda, Zellers and Belknap, the overlooked walk-ons.
Darrell Cloy is a converted tight end; Aiulua Fanene is a remnant of the Mike Stoops era who’s bounced between the offensive and defensive lines. Finton Connolly has yet to play a snap, Griffin has barely been on the field and true freshman Justin Holt is a likely redshirt candidate.
Sani Fuimaono and Luca Bruno are returning starters, bringing some stability to a position that certainly needs it.
Since 2012, the Wildcats have lost five defensive line recruits at various stages.
Kyle Kelley was a notable addition in Rich Rodriguez’s first class, but only lasted a season before transferring to San Diego State. Jerod Cody signed in 2014, but never played a game before his career ended due to concussions.
In 2015, the Wildcats added two prominent junior college defensive linemen. One, Timmy Hamilton, never reported to fall camp and is now at Friends University, an NAIA school in Kansas. The other, Anthony Fotu, played four games last season before a suspension. Now, he’s off the team.
Junior college star Josh Allen verbally committed to the UA a year ago and planned to enroll in January and contribute immediately. Allen decommitted, recommitted again in February, enrolled over the summer — and has been ruled academically ineligible. Now, Allen is at Eastern Arizona College.
In theory, all five of those players could still be here. But they’re not.
“I tell my boys in the room,” Amey said, “it’s the next man up.”
Getting creative
Rodriguez overhauled the Wildcats’ defense over the summer, hiring coordinator Marcel Yates and cornerbacks coach Donte Williams and promoting Amey and Jahmile Addae to position coach jobs.
Yates’ system is different than the Cats’ former scheme, and that’s no more evident than on the defensive line.
“Last year we were kind of waiting, that was the thing,” Bruno said. “Now we’re more of an ‘attack’ defense. … ‘Attack’ defense is pretty much just breaking through the lines, not waiting to get blocked so we play our blocks and trying to get off as fast as we can. We move around a lot more to try and confuse the offense as much as we can.”
The pre-snap movement, in particular, has thrown off Arizona’s offensive linemen a bit during fall camp, and that’s the point — to confuse the opposing offense whenever possible.
Creativity will be key for this unit in 2016.
That new defense has led to some position changes — Griffin has moved from nose tackle to defensive tackle, for one — and weight loss. Fuimaono has lost 50 pounds since last year’s New Mexico Bowl.
Bruno is learning every defensive line position, and he’s not the only one — Amey wants all his defensive linemen to learn multiple spots.
“We have enough to get it done,” Rodriguez said. “But I don’t know if we’re big enough or deep enough yet. We’ll address that in recruiting. We’ve got good enough guys to win, we just have to play really hard.”
The Wildcats have already received verbal commitments from four defensive linemen for 2017. One of them, Arizona Western College’s Matthew Leo, made his decision known late Thursday night.
In the meantime, Amey knows he has to get creative.
“Parker Zellers can’t go toe-to-toe for three quarters with a 6-6, 300-pound guy, so you have to move him around, stem him a little bit,” he said.
“That’s why guys love these packages we’re doing, because we’re coming. We’re coming.”
