Jedd Fisch pleased with spring progress but wants UA to be 'a different football team' come fall

Halftime.

At least that’s how Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch viewed the Wildcats’ spring game on Saturday in front of an announced crowd of 23,273 at Arizona Stadium to conclude the five-week spring practice schedule.

Saturday marked 141 days since the UA reclaimed the Territorial Cup and finished the 2022 season 5-7; there are just under 140 days until the season opener on Sept. 2 against Northern Arizona.

“(Saturday) was officially halftime of the offseason training,” Fisch said.

Fisch mandated his players “to take these next 48 to 72 hours to have a lot of celebration, some good times together as a football team ... and then Tuesday we’ll starting lifting.”

“Then we go,” he said. “At that point in time, it’s about getting bigger, stronger, faster.”

Over the last month and change, implementing the newcomers to reinforce the defense was Arizona’s focal point. Said Fisch: “The offense picked up where it left off (from last season), and the defense made one of the bigger jumps that I’ve ever seen, that I sat through.”

Now he’s looking for another jump.

“Football will take a little bit of a backseat, then we’ll see how big and strong we can get,” Fisch said. This is the part of the year when strength and conditioning coach Tyler Owens becomes the head boss.

The Wildcats’ top “halftime adjustment” will be “more food, so we can get them bigger, an extreme focus on details, really see how good the leadership can take this program,” Fisch said.

“These player-run practices this summer are going to be critical to their success,” he added. “We’re going to make sure we stay on top of every aspect of their growth over these next 140 days.”

Entering Year 3 at the helm, Fisch isn’t 50 Cent asking 21 questions, but he’s got plenty of them:

“What we’re going to see is, can we have a better training camp than we’ve had the last two years? Can we focus on the right things? Can we get better run defense? Can we do a better job in pass protection? Can we do a better job of finding the right runs against the right fronts? Can we do a better job in the kicking game — make special teams a priority? How many young guys can help impact our kicking game?”

There’s always room for improvement, but Arizona’s most prominent concern — defense — showed signs of growth this spring. Arizona’s pass defense, which ranked last in the Pac-12 in interceptions (four) in 2022, had Isaiah Taylor emerge as a ballhawk at free safety.

The Wildcats’ rushing defense ranked 10th in the Pac-12 and surrendered 209.1 yards per game. The five front-six transfer-portal additions — linebackers Justin Flowe (Oregon) and Daniel Heimuli (Washington), defensive tackles Tyler Manoa (UCLA) and Bill Norton (Georgia) and edge rusher Orin Patu (Cal) — helped the UA generate stops for loss and fumbles this spring. The UA, which tied for first in the Pac-12 in fumble recoveries last season with 12, had two in the spring game.

The transfer portal has delivered 14 players to the Wildcats in the last two years — and more could be on the way for ‘23.

Fisch said the Wildcats have four scholarship spots open for this upcoming season and will keep their “eyes wide open” in the transfer portal. Recently, the Wildcats have offered former Wyoming guard Emmanuel Pregnon, who has emerged as one of the top transfer portal commodities with offers from LSU, Tennessee, Auburn, Oregon and Penn State, among others. The addition of Pregnon would most likely solidify star sophomore Jonah Savaiinaea, who started all 12 games last season at right guard, at right tackle.

Whether it’s on offense or defense, Arizona is keeping an open mind in the portal while improving its current roster in the summer.

“All of the things are stuff we’re digging deep to try and figure (out), and our goal is to come out of this thing on Sept. 2 a different football team than we were today,” Fisch said.

De Laura’s maturity shines

Arizona quarterback Jayden de Laura is entering next season with one personal goal in mind.

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“I just want to show everybody that I’ve mastered this offense and that I can coach you without Coach Fisch being out here,” de Laura said at the start of spring practice. “That’s my main goal, and that comes with sacrificing time outside of the building and being inside watching film ... instead of playing Call of Duty. It’s football time, so I’ll sacrifice for football.”

De Laura, who has gained nearly 30 pounds of “body armor” since arriving at Arizona in January 2022, picked up first downs with his legs when he needed to and didn’t have a noticeably difficult practice in the 15 times the Wildcats took the field this spring. The offense collectively had rough moments, but de Laura didn’t personally struggle as much as, say, last spring. A year in Arizona’s system has paid dividends.

“I’m not going to boost my own ego, but I feel like I’ve done way better than I did last spring,” de Laura said. “I feel way more comfortable than I did last season and this spring.”

De Laura, who passed for 3,685 yards and 25 touchdowns in his first season at Arizona after transferring from Washington State, added: “This last season was for me to figure it out.”

“Now I just focus on football, school, my time at home,” de Laura said.

Arizona quarterbacks coach Jimmie Dougherty said he’s “been really proud of (de Laura) for just continuing to grow as a leader on the team.”

“He’s doing a nice job on the sideline talking to guys and working on the issues. ... The dialogue we hear now on the sideline and in practice wasn’t happening a year ago, so that’s how you know you’re getting over the hump,” Dougherty said. “We’re close.”

In May, de Laura will trek to Huntington Beach, California, to train with “3DQB,” a popular quarterback training program. Last summer, de Laura worked with Peyton Manning and Eli Manning at the Manning Passing Academy. After 3DQB, de Laura will be 10 toes down in Tucson rather than his hometown of Honolulu.

Said de Laura: “I’m not going home this summer.”

Home sweet home

Flowe has expectations to become one of Arizona’s top playmakers at “Mike” linebacker this season, but after transferring from Oregon, he “didn’t know how the guys would bring me in and how the team was going to act and everything.”

“As soon as I came in, this team, we all just loved each other,” Flowe said. “We all just wanted to be the best we can be, and I feel like that’s when the energy came in and everything started to change. This year, buckle up.”

Being a former transfer himself, de Laura wanted to avoid alienating Flowe and the rest of the newcomers this spring.

“We embraced all the new guys coming in. It wasn’t really something that was really felt when me and Jacob (Cowing) first came in,” de Laura said. “We had it to make it known that we’re going to have this locker room, and we are all we got in this locker room.”

De Laura faced Flowe in practice and felt the presence of the animated and boisterous linebacker.

“You can hear him on every play, whether he’s talking to us or he’s talking to the defense on that side of the ball,” de Laura said.

Flowe, who was instructed to “make sure that his passion doesn’t get in the way of his technique and responsibilities as a player” this spring, settled in as a leader in Arizona’s defense beside fellow linebacker Jacob Manu.

“(Defensive coordinator) Johnny Nansen is a great coach, and I just love all the energy and passion he brings because I love to bring it too, and I just feel like this year is going to get crazy,” Flowe said. “Can’t wait.”

If verve were a statistic, Flowe would be the Wildcats’ clubhouse leader.

“Justin Flowe and company brought a ton of passion and energy to the practice field that is contagious,” Fisch said, “and that will take us to where we want to go.”