The Arizona Wildcats’ football offices are closed for the holidays. Rich Rodriguez and his staff will return to work Monday, Jan. 4. There isn’t a whole lot going on. But that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss some recent events related to the program.
We’ll do that through what I plan to make a semi-regular feature here: News and Views. It’s pretty self-explanatory.
As we get closer to the start of “spring” practice – five weeks from Friday! – and I get more familiar with Arizona’s players and coaches, we’ll ramp up the content in this space. In the meantime, enjoy the debut of News and Views:
News: Star linebacker Scooby Wright declares for the NFL draft.
Views: This was not the least bit surprising considering Wright’s accomplishments and the fact that he missed most of his junior year because of injuries. Long football careers aren’t promised; you never know when your time will come. It made sense for Wright to leave after the New Mexico Bowl, in which he performed magnificently. (It’s our understanding that he would have declared for the draft regardless, but that’s a moot point now.) Because NFL talent assessment is weird and remains an extremely inexact science despite countless advances in technology and information-gathering, Wright is projected to be a mid-round pick. He’s something of a tweener in the NFL. At 6-foot-1, 246 pounds, can he be a pass rusher? If not, can he play well enough in coverage to be a three-down inside linebacker? As far as Wright’s potential successors, veteran Cody Ippolito is considered the favorite. Another returnee, Jake Matthews, is also a possibility. Incoming freshman Jacob Colacion is a long shot (although as Wright proved in 2013, you never know). Here’s the thing about all three, though: They all suffered major knee or foot injuries in 2015. Their respective recoveries will be among the prominent storylines we’ll be following in 2016.
News: Redshirt-junior receiver Cayleb Jones also enters the 2016 draft.
Views: Again, not a surprise. Jones had a somewhat disappointing season – he caught 56 passes for 907 yards and five touchdowns, down from 73-1,109-9 in 2014 – but he has prototypical size at 6-3, 215, and great genes. (Robert Jones, Cayleb’s dad, was a first-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys in 1992 and had a 10-year NFL career.) Jones also has been a college football player for four seasons, including a redshirt year in 2013 after transferring from Texas. For a lot of prospects, that’s enough. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if Jones got picked ahead of Wright despite the latter being the more productive player; as mentioned, NFL scouting is a strange thing (and often wrong, but that’s another topic for another time). Arizona also loses Johnny Jackson (50-612-5) and David Richards (42-547-6) from its receiving corps. But there’s plenty of talent returning, led by Trey Griffey, who has the dimensions (6-3, 195) to play that big-receiver role. The son of Ken Griffey Jr. missed about half the season because of a foot injury and caught only 11 passes, down from 31 in 2014. But six of those came in the final three games against Utah, Arizona State and New Mexico. He averaged 37 yards on those six receptions. The upside is there. Additionally, returning slot receivers Nate Phillips and Samajie Grant combined for 73 catches and eight touchdowns this season.
News: Rodriguez promotes Jahmile Addae to cornerbacks coach, releasing David Lockwood.
Views: Rodriguez has been criticized for being too loyal to his assistants. But something had to happen on the defensive side of the ball after a disastrous 2015 season. Addae played cornerback for Rodriguez at West Virginia and has worked his way up the coaching ladder, most recently serving as “football analyst” for the UA. (That’s another way of saying he helped the coaching staff break down film). Addae brings much-needed youth (he’s 33) and recruiting chops to Rodriguez’s staff. (Rivals named Addae one of the top 10 recruiters in the Big East while he was at Cincinnati in 2010 and ’11, according to his bio.) Whether the play at cornerback improves markedly in 2016 – and how much Addae has to do with it – remains to be seen. But the bigger question is whether this is the only staff change. Defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich, who’s in his upper 60s, apparently is considering retirement. We should know within the next week which way he’s leaning. If he were to retire, half of Arizona’s defensive staff would change heading into 2016. That’d be significant – and, one could argue, necessary given recent results.
News: Arizona spring practice is slated to start Feb. 5.
Views: That's a lot earlier than I’m used to. It’s a lot earlier than the Wildcats started in 2015. Arizona began spring practice on March 4 – which happens to be the date the Wildcats will end spring ball in ’16. The primary advantage of starting so early – which most schools can’t do because they have real winter – is that it gives anyone who gets hurt during spring ball more time to heal in advance of the ’16 season. The disadvantage is that anyone who has lingering injuries is less likely to participate. Ippolito, for example, told us that he just recently started running after suffering a torn ACL about a week before the start of the ’15 season. It therefore doesn’t seem likely that Ippolito will be able to participate in spring practice. But spring ball generally is more about the young players than the vets. For Ippoito, Matthews and others on the mend (it’s a long list, as you know), the goal is to be ready by training camp, which is still eight months away. A lot can happen between now and then, and if my experience covering USC has taught me anything, a lot will.
