It’s been over seven years since Joe Gilbert coached at the college level. He’s going to need more than a month’s worth of spring drills to get used to the speed.
“I will tell ya that’s been a little different, because the pace here — we go fast,” he said. “In the NFL, you think that you go fast. That ain’t fast. This is fast.”
Gilbert spent the last six years as the offensive line coach and assistant offensive line coach with the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.
UA coach Kevin Sumlin hired Gilbert to coach the Wildcats’ offensive linemen shortly after he was brought aboard in January.
Gilbert and Sumlin first worked together in 2008 at Houston, but had known each other for years . Gilbert grew up in Horseheads, New York, and coached at Penn, Northeastern, Maine, Central Florida and Toledo before working his way west. He coached at Houston for one season before he was named the offensive line coach at Illinois. He spent three years with the Fighting Illini before heading to the pros.
The college game is different, Gilbert said, than the NFL. But the fundamentals are basically the same.
“College athletics, much like the NFL, we’re expected to win. So in order to do that, we have to push these guys to a limit that they don’t think they could get to,” he said. “That’s how you get better. You coach them hard, and then at the same time, you put your arm around them and try to love them up, and then they buy into it.”
The Wildcats lost starters Jacob Alsadek, Gerhard de Beer and Christian Boettcher, but return fifth-year senior Layth Friekh at left tackle, Nathan Eldridge at center and junior tackle Cody Creason. Friekh protects quarterback Khalil Tate’s blindside, while Eldridge plays one of the most crucial positions on the line, which makes Gilbert’s job simpler in the spring period.
Michael Eletise could start somewhere on the line this fall. The onetime superprospect from Hawaii is listed as a tackle, but could move inside while Friekh, Bryson Cain, Edgar Burrola and newly added Michigan State transfer Thiyo Lukusa battle for two starting jobs.
Lukusa quit Michigan State’s team, declaring he had lost his passion for football. He showed up at Arizona last summer, his energy renewed, and sat out due to the NCAA’s transfer rules.
Gilbert said he’s been “pleasantly surprised” with Lukusa.
“As far as a great kid working his tail off and a guy that really loves football and it’s important to him, he’s done a really great job,” the coach said.
Gilbert is adjusting back to the college level, but he’s also going to figure out how to be successful with a young group.
“They’re young men, but at the same time, there is a level that we expect,” he said. “And we’re not going to come off that just because they can or can’t do it. The expectations are going to be high.”
Extra points
- Lukusa is wearing a walking boot on his right leg, the result of what Gilbert called a minor ankle injury. Lukusa should be fine in a few weeks, Gilbert said.
- Sumlin hosted several local high school coaching staffs for an informal coaching clinic to take a tour of Arizona’s football facilities. Coaches from Amphitheater, Cienega, Sabino, Pueblo, Flowing Wells, Salpointe Catholic and Walden Grove, among others, took part.
