Ian Wagner's roles at Arizona are a thankless job.
He's not setting Arizona's passing touchdowns record like Noah Fifita, and he's not booming 51-yard field goals in crunch time of a momentous road win like place kicker Michael Salgado-Medina.
Wagner has two roles with the Wildcats this season: He's a kickoff specialist and holder for Arizona's field-goal unit.
If you haven't noticed him this season, well, he's doing his job correctly. More often than not, a field-goal holder is only noticed if they botch a snap or misplace a hold, affecting the kicker's follow-through. If anything, Wagner is a key cog to Salgado-Medina making 16 of his 24 field-goal attempts this season, saving multiple field goals after catching a high — or wide — snap.
Before Wagner, a redshirt senior, made the move to Arizona for his final year of college football, the Illinois State transfer had never been a holder; he was the one kicking the field goals at his previous stops.
With Salgado-Medina, who was the holder for longtime starter Tyler Loop, and freshman Tyler Prasuhn battling for the starting kicker role in training camp, Wagner "figured (holding) was another way to get on the field."
Redshirt senior Ian Wagner has become an unsung hero for the Arizona Wildcats football program this season.
Wagner logged hours on the "Jugs Machine" and worked on his catching ability in the offseason.
"Obviously the team needed it and it was a void there," Wagner said. "I knew I was athletic and good at catching, so I worked all summer on it."
Wagner is set for his final hurrah at Arizona Stadium — err, Casino Del Sol Stadium, when the Wildcats host the Baylor Bears on Saturday morning for Senior Day.
Wagner's path to becoming an underrated contributor to Arizona's success this season is the road less traveled. Wagner was adopted by Ken and Sheila Wagner when he was an infant and grew up in Central Illinois — closer to St. Louis than Chicago.
Ken Wagner was a member of the United States Air Force and was stationed multiple times at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, and the younger Wagner visited his father over the years and spent a summer in Sierra Vista leading up to his senior year of high school in 2020-21. The older Wagner was also stationed at Scott Air Force Base in St. Clair County, Illinois.
Redshirt senior Ian Wagner has two roles with the Wildcats this season: he's a kickoff specialist and holder for Arizona's field-goal unit.
Even though Wagner spent the majority of his life in Illinois, he claims Sierra Vista as his hometown.
"Arizona is in my roots, but I'm not technically from here," he said. "It was always somewhere I wanted to come back to."
After Wagner's parents moved to Sierra Vista, where they live now, Wagner finished his high school football career at O'Fallon High School in Illinois during a pandemic-influenced season. Wagner lived in a hotel by himself as a senior, before he started his kicking career at Illinois State.
The 6-foot, 220-pound Wagner signed with Illinois State in 2021 and became a three-year starter for the Redbirds. In 32 games at ISU, Wagner made 25 of 36 field goals (69.4%), including a career-long 47-yarder last season. In 157 kickoff attempts, Wagner tallied 91 touchbacks.
The latter became his specialty.
Wagner has 59 touchbacks on 62 kickoff attempts this season — a 95% touchback rate. Arizona special teams coordinator Craig Naivar said in August that Wagner “has an extremely big leg, so he brings us some assets to use.”
Redshirt senior Ian Wagner has 59 touchbacks on 62 kickoff attempts this season — a 95% touchback rate.
"I've always been great at kickoffs," Wagner said. "It's what I pride myself on. Coach Naivar and (head) Coach (Brent) Brennan gave me an opportunity to play around a great group of guys. I couldn't have asked to play around a better group of guys. ... What I do doesn't compare to what these guys do on the field."
Still, Wagner's undervalued role has had a profound impact on the Wildcats' special teams units this season.
"This team loves Ian, and I think he has been such a great player," Brennan said. "That gets lost in the shuffle of whoever it is, Noah, Dalton (Johnson), whoever is playing great. But his impact on the game is tremendous because of the success he has kicking the ball off and hopefully eliminating the potential of a return from our opponent. Also, how great he's been as a holder. He's absolutely one of those unsung heroes, but that is not lost on our football team.
"Everybody knows how important Ian Wagner is, and we love him."
