Editor’s note: Until Arizona resumes football activities later this fall, the Star will interview the participants in some of the Wildcats’ most memorable games.
Jacob Alsadek’s father, Louay, is a highly successful real-estate investor in Southern California. When his playing career came to an end, Jacob briefly worked for his dad. The real estate business wasn’t for him.
“I was like, dude, this is so boring,” Jacob Alsadek said. “Which is probably terrible to say.”
His family understood. Alsadek, a four-year starting offensive lineman at Arizona, loved football. He missed football. After his professional career failed to materialize, he desperately wanted to get back in the game.
Alsadek scoured FootballScoop.com for coaching jobs. He submitted applications. He reached out to coaches.
Alsadek received a call from Matt Barber, a former assistant strength coach at Arizona who had become the head strength coach at the University of Albany. The Great Danes were looking for an offensive assistant. It was an entry-level position paying $20,000 a year. Alsadek took it.
After helping Albany, an FCS program, win a playoff game for the first time in program history last season, Alsadek inched up the coaching ladder. He became a graduate assistant at Toledo. The Mid-American Conference is slated to open its season Nov. 4.
“I don’t consider this a job,” Alsadek said. “This is fun.”
Alsadek enjoyed plenty of good times as a Wildcat. Arizona had four winning seasons during Alsadek’s five years on the team (2013-17), including the program’s lone Pac-12 South Division title in 2014. Alsadek was a fixture at right guard for UA squads that regularly posted prolific offensive numbers under Rich Rodriguez.
Arizona’s upset of No. 2 Oregon on Oct. 2, 2014, is among the games Alsadek never will forget. He discussed that contest — our latest foray into the program’s past while waiting for training camp to begin — Rodriguez’s motivational tactics, former roommate Scooby Wright, transitioning from playing to coaching and other topics in an interview with the Star. The conversation has been lightly edited for context and clarity.
What are your memories of the 2014 upset at Oregon?
A: “Shock. Whenever we played the big-name schools, we were just kind of a band of misfits. I remember right before the game he (Rodriguez) gave us these misfit shirts. He just told us, ‘None of YOU guys were probably offered by THESE guys.’ We just had a bunch of misfits coming together, playing football. We were all confident going into that game that we could be anybody.
“I remember watching them on tape and just seeing Arik Armstead and whoever 44 was (DeForrest Buckner). I remember watching them, and I knew I was going to have my hands full.
“It was crazy. That’s the one game I always tell everybody (about) now. ‘What was the biggest game you ever played in?’ We beat Marcus Mariota’s Oregon team.”
Scooby Wright basically ended the game with a strip-sack of Mariota. What was your view of the play?
A: “We’d always sit on the very edge of the bench, so we always had a really good viewpoint of the jumbotron. We see Scooby get a sack. We stand up. I’ll never forget this. He’s holding the ball in the air and running to the sideline, whatever he was doing; he was running somewhere. And I was like, ‘No way. We just won this game.’ It was a great experience.”
You had to block Scooby in practice. What made him such an effective pass rusher?
A: “He just went so hard. Anytime we were in a walkthrough, it wasn’t a walkthrough to Scooby. If you blocked Scooby and you defeated three pass-rush moves of his, he was always coming with a fourth one harder than the third one and the one before that. He had a really good motor. He never stopped.”
Terris Jones-Grigsby and Nick Wilson combined for 207 rushing yards in that game. Was the ground attack something you could always lean on under RichRod?
A: “He always ran the ball. If he had any doubts, he would run the ball. We were an older offensive line. (Alsadek, a redshirt freshman, was the lone underclassman among the starting five in 2014.) I felt like he had a lot of trust in us, and Coach M (offensive line coach Jim Michalczik) did a really good job of getting us ready for that game. He did a really good job all the time.”
People have mixed feelings about RichRod’s time here. How do you assess his tenure?
A: “Amazing. I think he was perfect for that job.”
In what way?
A: “A bunch of different ways. But one of the ways is, Arizona is a hard place to coach at and a hard place to win at. It’s known as a party school. It’s hard to stay focused. But he kept us focused. He always expected so much of us and thought very highly of us and really kept us on track and on course. And if we weren’t working, he let us know.
“He always held us accountable — extremely accountable. And he showed it. You saw him on the sidelines. You saw him at Ole Miss. That’s the thing that makes you want to play for somebody — somebody that’s so passionate about football.
“Me and (defensive tackle) Parker Zellers would always roll up at like 4:50 in the morning. We would always get there early — stretch and warm up. And that guy (Rodriguez) was in there on the friggin’ Stairmaster at 4:50 in the morning, and then he probably wouldn’t leave until 8, 9, 10 o’clock every night. That man loved football, and he was so passionate on the field. That made us so fired up.”
You didn’t get drafted. You signed with the Packers and later spent time with the Cowboys. What did you learn from your brief stint as an NFL player?
A: “Not to take anything for granted. Those experiences are so short. To be able say to say you’ve done something like that will be with you for the rest of your life. I didn’t really enjoy it … because I was so focused. Which is fine. Sometimes you gotta do that.
“I was so focused on making the team, doing this, doing that, and then when I got released, I was so mad at myself. ‘What could I have done? What did I need to do? How could I have done better?’ Instead of being like, ‘You know what, Jacob? You did an amazing thing, you should be proud of it.’ I wasn’t proud of it.
“It’s hard. That’s like your one chance. If you don’t make it through the preseason then all right, well, let’s wait till next year. That’s six months. Then the AAF starts up, and the whole AAF thing goes down. (Alsadek was a member of the Arizona Hotshots of the Alliance of American Football. The league folded after eight weeks in the spring of 2019.)
“It’s like, well now where am I going? It’s a roller coaster of emotions, and I don’t think I took advantage of where I was. And I kind of wish I did. I wish I was a little bit more appreciative.”
When did you know it was over?
A: “After the whole AAF went down. That was kind of like, ‘I think I’m done now.’ I felt like I didn’t make it far enough to keep trying. At that point I was like, let’s maybe try and get a job.
“You don’t have a job when you’re training. That’s your job. That was the way I took it, because that was the way Coach Rod taught me – football is your job, right? So I was working out, on and off, six hours a day, lifting, field work, film study. I’d thank my parents every single day for helping me out during that time, because I didn’t have any money.
“I was living at home (in San Diego). I was working for my dad when I could, but I was only working like three hours a day. Whatever minimum wage is times three, and then taxes – which, I’m finding out, are not cool.”
Welcome to the real world.
A: “Oh my gosh. When you’re in college football you think, ‘My life is so hard.’ And then you get to the real world and you’re like, ‘That was so easy.’
“It is hard to be done. It’s so hard. I still talk to a lot of my friends that are done. They go through hard times. I was in a dark place. You don’t have answers. It’s not like college. If you’re messing up, they just cut you.”
Was coaching something that you envisioned doing at any point?
A: “No, not at all. I had no inclination to coach.
“This is kind of a way to still be still be in the same realm, be able to stay involved with it. It’s so much different than just watching on TV or being at a game.
“I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like the most amazing thing in the entire world, playing a football game or coaching in a football game.”
Did you know the MAC is now affiliated with the Arizona Bowl?
A: “I just found that out yesterday. I want to win the MAC, but I might make an exception to go there.”
