Brandon Dawkins, Arizona Wildcats doing 'a lot of team stuff' on their own

For much of the summer, Arizona’s football players are on their own.

The players are allowed to practice with each other, but NCAA rules prohibit coaches from watching. So for the Wildcats spend much of the summer together, studying plays and trying to build chemistry in player-run practices.

With record-setting heat in Tucson this summer, the players have been waking up early to get in workouts before it hits triple digits. The Wildcats have been practicing four days a week, typically Monday through Thursday, with hopes of improving on a 3-9 season.

“It’s more or less like a normal practice,” quarterback Brandon Dawkins said. “As a team, we’ll get together, run some plays full team, pretty much full speed. I’ll get with the receivers afterwards and all the skill positions will go through some of the passes. It’s a lot of team stuff, and then individual, timing stuff.”

Dawkins will battle for the starting job for the second time in as many seasons, this time against sophomore Khalil Tate after Anu Solomon transferred to Baylor. Incoming freshmen Donovan Tate, Rhett Rodriguez and K’Hari Lane are also competing for playing time.

The Wildcats lost senior receivers in Samajie Grant, Trey Griffey and Nate Phillips to graduation; take away Shun Brown, Arizona’s leading receiver last year, and the UA’s returning receivers have 32 combined catches and two touchdowns.

Dawkins says its important to build a rapport with such an inexperienced group.

“There’s a lot of new faces out there. They haven’t seen or heard anything about anything,” said Dawkins, a redshirt junior. “They’re in college now so it’s just getting used to the speed of everything, it’s a lot faster, the ball comes a little bit harder, a little bit earlier, a couple are learning the hard way, taking the ball in the head, in the face.”

Getting bigger

Arizona’s offensive line returns a collective 89 career starts. Nobody has more than fifth-year senior Jacob Alsadek, who heads into his fourth year as a starter with 33 career starts.

Alsadek said he’s bulked up to the 320-pound range — up from 315 last year — but feels like he’s moving as well as he did when he only weighed 287 pounds as a freshman. Alsadek has been spending four to five days a week working out with Glenn Parker, a former Arizona and NFL offensive lineman who now works as an analyst for Pac-12 Networks.

Alsadek said it’s “frustrating” not to be able to work with offensive line coach Jim Michalczik more, but said the practice with Parker has done wonders for his pass blocking.

“I started working out with Glenn and doing the same stuff I do with Coach M but just slowing it down and getting more technical with it and it helped me a lot,” Alsadek said. “I love it. It’s changed the way I pass block.”

2018 recruiting class drops to five

This time last year, Arizona’s 2017 recruiting class had already reached 18 commitments.

Now Arizona’s 2018 class has dropped from six commitments to five.

Defensive end Adam Plant is reopening his recruitment. The standout lineman from powerhouse Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High School had been receiving high-level interest, including from Alabama, and also holds offers to USC and Penn State. He originally committed to the UA in April.

Plant’s father — also named Adam — wrote on Instagram that Alabama had “expressed great interest in my son” and that “when my son makes his final college football decision it will be his to make.”

Plant is rated a three-star recruit by Scout.com, the No. 8 defensive end in the West and No. 2 in Nevada. Plant’s loss leaves the Wildcats with recently committed safety Armani Adams, linebacker Issaiah Johnson, receiver Jaden Mitchell and two Tucson products — Cienega quarterback Jamarye Joiner and Amphi offensive lineman David Watson.

Joiner recently received an offer from Arizona State and in the past expressed interest in taking visits to colleges other than Arizona.

Extra points

UA safety Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, a Tucson product, has bulked up this offseason. The junior now weighs 205 pounds, 45 more than he weighed upon his arrival at the UA.
Offensive tackle Gerhard de Beer said he’s aiming to be fully healthy by the start of training camp after missing the final three games of last season and all of spring practice because of leg injuries. The senior suffered injuries to his left quadriceps and knee in the Nov. 5 game at Washington State. He had started eight of Arizona’s first nine games at right tackle before getting hurt.