The Star columnist shares how Jedd Fisch and the Arizona Wildcats football program is in the "little by little" stage. Plus, a perspective of Adia Barnes' new contract, James Akinjo's role at Baylor, Aari McDonald's pro career and a historic season for the UA tennis team.
To showcase Rob Gronkowski’s attempt to gain entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, UA football coach Jedd Fisch hired Liquid Light, a Hollywood production firm whose advertising tenet is “We Sell The Stuff.’’
The SoCal group, which represents actor Kevin Hart and NFL all-pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins, among others, created a scenario in which Gronk would catch a football dropped at 620 feet from a helicopter.
And so Gronk did, standing near the 50-yard line at Arizona Stadium, which unfortunately may be the best play made by an Arizona football man for, what, five years?
For four months Fisch has “sold the stuff’’ from his office at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility. But sometime this weekend, Gronk will return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and fellow Spring Game coach Tedy Bruschi will fly to the East Coast to help with ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft.
When the Wildcats open the 2021 season Sept. 4 against BYU, Gronk and Bruschi won’t be walking through the locker room door.
“Some of the experience I have and some of the things I can see, can help (the UA football program),’’ Bruschi said after the Spring Game. “You can have the plans; you can have the excitement, but there comes a point. …’’
His voice trailed off.
After Fisch’s impressive work rebuilding the foundation of Arizona’s football program, Bruschi aptly triggered Stage 2 of Fisch’s project — “There Comes a Point.”
By this time next April, it will be imperative that Fisch concludes his summation of spring drills by talking about a break-out pass rusher or a game-changing quarterback or a seek-and-disrupt linebacker.
Bruschi, Gronk and Fisch all have lineage to the mighty New England Patriots, but Bruschi added the proper context by saying it’s not about “the Patriot Way here; I want the Wildcat Way.’’
The Wildcat Way is under construction. Hard hats required.
UA receiver Stanley Berryhill, who caught a 43-yard pass to highlight Saturday’s scrimmage, said that “there’s going to be 57,000 fans here’’ when the Wildcats open the ‘21 season. But, c’mon, that’s not going to happen that quickly. Not yet.
The roster Fisch inherited doesn’t have many, if any, “next level” guys and few, if any, all-conference players. Climbing out of last place will require far more than Fisch’s unprecedented blast of energy and enthusiasm.
The loudest ovation from Saturday’s crowd of 5,000 at Arizona Stadium wasn’t for a quarterback or for a touchdown run, but for UA women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes.
Bruschi arrived in Tucson in the fall of 1991, a season in which the Wildcats went 4-7 and lost back-to-back games 54-0 and 54-14. Gronk moved to Tucson the fall of 2007; Arizona went 5-7 to extend its string of non-winning seasons to nine years.
Little by little, it all changed. That’s where Arizona football is again: The Little By Little stage.
Even with new contract, Barnes may not be paid enough
Adia Barnes’ success and popularity is the feel-good story of the year — the last three years — in UA sports.
The school paid Sean Miller $1.4 million to go away and close to $7 million to part ways with Kevin Sumlin. With that much money floating around, it might be time to pay Barnes a bonus for generating one positive story upon another.
What do you think? Maybe $1 million?
The extras in Barnes’ contract extension are not close to the bonus clauses in the new contracts of UA coaches Tommy Lloyd and Jedd Fisch.
For example, Barnes would be paid $40,000 for reaching the Final Four again. Lloyd would get $175,000.
If Barnes wins the Pac-12 regular-season championship, she will be paid $20,000. Lloyd would receive $50,000. Fisch would get $200,000. Yet given Stanford’s excellence, it’s probably more difficult to win a Pac-12 women’s basketball championship.
And if Barnes’ team finishes in the top 10 of the final AP poll, she will be paid $10,000 compared to $30,000 for Lloyd and $50,000 for Fisch.
Adia Barnes coached against Geno Auriemma and Tara VanDerveer in the Final Four, and will line up against Hall of Famer C. Vivian Stringer in this year’s Paradise Jam.
It’s true that women’s basketball is not a revenue-producing sport and that football and men’s basketball float the UA’s athletic department budget. But the ever-changing 2020s, inequities in compensation are sure to create sensitive feelings in the Arizona athletic department and in the community. The challenges of being an athletic director will become even more complex.
The salary structure of women’s basketball, especially in the Pac-12, has evolved significantly the last few years. Oregon’s Kelly Graves signed a contract through 2029, one that will ultimately pay him $1.3 million per year in base salary.
Although Stanford, a private institution, does not make coaching contracts public, it is believed women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer reached $1 million in compensation a few years ago.
Barnes signed at Arizona in 2016 for $240,000 per season. She is to be paid $580,000 in base compensation next season, the first season of a contract extension that will be capped at $770,000 in 2023.
Underpaid? You decide. Lloyd is to earn $700,000 in “additional duties,” such as appearing at fundraising events and speaking engagements. Fisch is to be paid $400,000 in retention bonuses if he remains at Arizona through 2024. Barnes? None.
Barnes would’ve been a leading choice to replace Sherri Coale at Oklahoma, who recently retired with a salary of $1.33 million. The school expressed interest in Barnes. But the timing wasn’t right.
Moreover, had the timing not been so close to Barnes’ contract extension and the UA’s berth in the NCAA championship game, she surely would’ve been the No. 1 target for LSU’s women’s basketball coaching vacancy.
Stephanie Rempe, LSU’s COO and executive deputy athletic director, is a UA grad and former volleyball player who worked in Arizona’s athletic department when Barnes became Arizona’s career scoring leader in the late 1990s.
What’s the value of three years of positivity as UA women’s basketball climbed from 6-25 to the national championship game while the school’s two power sports were embroiled in controversy?
It’s a sensitive topic that may become more dicey as time goes on.
Tate still pursuing chance to play in NFL
Khalil Tate would have a lot to learn about playing wide receiver, but he has the athleticism to play in the NFL.
In October 2017, Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate was the best player in college football, any level, no contest. The Wildcats swept Colorado, UCLA, Washington State and Oregon State and Tate became the only man in Pac-12 history to be named the league’s offensive player of the week four consecutive weeks.
After that, the 2017 Wildcats went 1-4 and Arizona went 9-19 in Tate’s final 28 games as the school’s quarterback of record.
Last week, Tate joined Yogi Roth of Pac-12 Networks for a 68-minute podcast in which Roth referred to Tate as “Mr. October,’’ “Mr. Everything’’ and “Rockstar.’’
Tate, now a free agent trying to make the Philadelphia Eagles roster as a wide receiver, wore a T-shirt that said “Mr. October.’’
To his credit, Tate remains a UA loyalist. “I’m super excited how Jedd Fisch has excited the fan base,’’ he said. Tate did not say a negative thing about his two seasons under Kevin Sumlin, nor the way offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone tried unsuccessfully to turn Tate into a pocket quarterback.
It all goes back to October 2017. “Those four weeks, while I was in it, I will say it was like a movie,’’ said Tate. “I don’t know anybody who had done what I was doing at the time.
“Looking back now, it just kind of amazes me more because it was rare. I didn’t realize how rare it was. I was the face of the school; I felt like I had the whole Pac-12 behind me.’’
Ultimately, Tate was not drafted last April, but he believes the onset of COVID-19 restrictions cost him a chance to be fully evaluated as a quarterback.
“We didn’t have a pro day at Arizona,’’ he said. “I believe one of those 32 NFL teams would’ve seen me as a quarterback if I had a pro day. I never got to showcase my quarterback talents. I treat this opportunity at Philadelphia as a walk-on experience.
“I’m being humble about it, grinding, trying to get a spot.”I never blamed anybody for what I went through.’’
Akinjo may find better fit at Baylor
Arizona guard James Akinjo (13) gets manhandled splitting the lane between Washington guard Marcus Tsohonis (0), left, and guard Quade Green (55) in the second half of their game at McKale Center, Tucson, Ariz., February 27, 2021.
Former Arizona point guard James Akinjo became just the second first-team All-Pac-12 player to transfer to another school. Stanford’s Reid Travis transferred to Kentucky for the 2018-19 season; his scoring average dropped from 19 points per game to 11. He was not drafted and now plays for the Susanoo Magic of the Japanese professional league.
Akinjo probably made the right decision by leaving Arizona. He’s a shooter and dribbler, a point guard who eats up the shot clock looking for a shot or a pass. In Tommy Lloyd‘s first workout with UA players last week, he stressed “if we make quick, simple decisions, we will get great shots.’’ That isn’t Akinjo. Only two previous Arizona athletes transferred after becoming first-team all-conference athletes: Volleyball’s Erin Aldrich left Tucson in 1997 to play at Texas, and softball’s Shelby Pendley left the UA in 2012 to play at Oklahoma. Both became All-Americans.
Scurran takes his talents overseas again
Former Salpointe High School head coach Dennis Bene, left, and former head coach at various schools in the area, Jeff Scurran, chat on the sidelines in as Wyoming takes on Georgia State during the third quarter of the Arizona Bowl, Arizona Stadium, December 31, 2019.
Three-time state championship football coach Jeff Scurran resigned his position as director of the June 4 Southern Arizona All-Star Showcase, to be played at Tucson High School. He will be replaced by Del Arvayo, COO of the Arizona Bowl. Scurran is returning to Germany to coach the Stuttgart Scorpions in the European League of Football.
It will be Scurran’s second term coaching in Germany. He previously coached in the Italian pro football league. The man who coached Sabino, Santa Rita and Catalina Foothills to state championship games made inquiries about becoming the head coach at Tucson High School but said he withdrew before THS targeted two-time Sunnyside High state championship coach Richard Sanchez.
Aari McDonald gears up for pro career
Guard Aari McDonald holds up the wildcat sign while posing for a photo with the trophy following Arizona's arrival ceremony at Arizona Stadium, 545 N. Championship Dr., in Tucson, Ariz. on April 5, 2021. Roughly 1,200 fans cheer for the Arizona Women's Basketball team as they arrived home after their run in the 2021 NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four and Championship game.
UA All-American point guard Aari McDonald had little time to rest from the UA’s burst to the Final Four. The WNBA’s Atlanta Dream begins play May 14 and opens training camp this week. McDonald will have to yield her familiar No. 2 jersey to wear No. 4 in the WNBA; Atlanta’s Shatori Walker-Kimbrough is a returner who wore No. 2 last season. McDonald’s club will play 32 regular-season games through mid-September. Her only appearance in Arizona will be an Aug. 15 game against the Phoenix Mercury. Competition for playing time will be intense; Atlanta returns four guards from 2019-20 and referred to McDonald as a “security blanket’’ in a news release.
UA softball holds on to historical record
Head coach Mike Candrea watches his players batting during a practice at Hillenbrand Stadium on January 23, 2020.
UA softball coach Mike Candrea‘s treasured 47-game winning streak of 1996-97 — an NCAA record — was seriously threatened until Oklahoma’s 40-game winning streak was snapped Tuesday in an extra-inning loss to Georgia. The Sooners also had a 41-game winning streak two years ago. No other school has reached 40 consecutive wins in college softball. Oregon won 35 straight in 2017 and UCLA also won 35 in succession, in 1999.
My two cents: Cats can make history with Pac-12 title
“We really just built our culture around trying to excel in the areas we can be better than other teams,” says UA men’s tennis coach Clancy Shields, right.
Arizona’s men’s tennis team entered the Pac-12 championships this weekend in San Diego with possibly its best team since joining the league 43 years ago.
The 20th-ranked Wildcats, coached by Clancy Shields, are 18-6 and beat ASU last week for the first time since 2006. Shields tweeted: “The boys were motivated especially after seeing a particular billboard on the drive up on I-10.’’
That, of course, is the billboard funded by Sun Devil fans touting the 70-7 Territorial Cup football victory over Arizona last week. Touche’, right?
Arizona was the No. 2 seed entering the conference championships, its highest seed ever. Shields was the 2019 Pac-12 coach of the year and should be a no-brainer to repeat this season. Gustaf Strom, a freshman from Sweden, entered the tournament 16-1 singles and could become the UA’s first-ever conference newcomer of the year.
Overcoming perennial national tennis powers Stanford and USC to win the Pac-12 championship would require something equal to Arizona’s victory over UConn in the women’s basketball Final Four. But, never say never.
