Arizona's offensive line, rushing attack 'definitely needs to improve'

Arizona’s rushing attack this season, which ranks 13th in the 16-team Big 12, is a reflection of what head coach Brent Brennan called “musical chairs” with the UA offensive line.

The Wildcats have deployed five different starting offensive line combinations this season, with key starters switching sides to balance the experience with rawer players who have been summoned to pick up the slack.

Last season, the only inconsistent component on Arizona’s offensive line was right guard, albeit the position was manned by reliable veteran Leif Magnuson, who is likely out for the season with a concussion, and former four-star recruit Raymond Pulido, who stepped away from the program prior to this season for personal reasons. First-round draft pick and left tackle Jordan Morgan opted out of Arizona’s win over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl, which shuffled the offensive line.

Pulido and Magnuson were likely starters alongside three other returning starters, but their absence, coupled with starting left tackle Rhino Tapa’atoutai’s season-ending leg injury last month, has dented Arizona’s depth on the offensive and has made game-planning “interesting,” said UA offensive line coach and running game coordinator Josh Oglesby.

Three-year starter Jonah Savaiinaea, who spent the first two-plus seasons of his Arizona career at right guard and right tackle, is now at left tackle, with left guard Alexander Doost (who started the season at right guard) and right guard Wendell Moe Jr. (who started the last two-plus seasons at left guard) and redshirt sophomore Michael Wooten, a first-time starter, who was previously a left tackle. The only starter on Arizona’s offensive line to not move is senior center Josh Baker.

But “through that, there have been some positives as far as younger guys being able to get reps,” Oglesby said.

“While it has been interesting with the shuffling and whatnot that’s going on, there have been some positives in that regard,” he added.

Baker said, “I think it’s good for all of these guys to get reps in certain situations, and I think building that trust and communication with all of these new guys in different spots is a really good and important thing for the future, as well.”

However, Oglesby’s patience and optimism for the newer faces has an expiration date.

“There is a point where you have to perform, because of the responsibility to the team,” Oglesby said. “There is a sense of patience, but there’s also a sense of urgency at the same time.”

Some of Arizona’s recent flub-ups on the offensive line occur on run plays, when guards are pulling at the line of scrimmage, a blocking technique that is “a key component to our offense” for “movement of gaps, creating new gaps in different places,” Oglesby said.

“To make the defense have to work on different run fits,” he said.

In the previous two games, Arizona combined for 83 net rushing yards, including 5 against UCF before the bye week, the lowest in a game since 2006. UCF had 16 run-stopping plays against Arizona, according to Pro Football Focus. Baker said UCF’s defensive line was “good and big and strong, and we didn’t do a good job executing that day.”

Arizona’s rushing attack ranks in the bottom-third of college football at 110th nationally, with senior running back Quali Conley leading the running backs with 570 yards and seven touchdowns. With highly-touted transfer Jacory Croskey-Merritt out for eligibility concerns raised by the NCAA, along with junior Rayshon Luke redshirting, Conley and redshirt freshman Kedrick Reescano have shouldered the workload in the run game, which “definitely needs to improve,” Oglesby said. But Oglesby places the responsibility of Arizona’s effectiveness running the football on his offensive line, as the Wildcats prepare to face a Houston defense that ranks sixth in the Big 12.

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“There has been some major shuffling that’s been going on. My responsibility is to find the best opportunities for us to move the chains,” he said. “Through this process, there has been a sense of finding ourselves. These last two weeks, with the bye and where we are now, I think we found something that can help that situation.”

UA-Houston: ‘fascinating mashup of teams’

FS1 broadcaster Trent Rush, who will be the play-by-play announcer for Friday’s game alongside analyst Petros Papadakis, previewed the Arizona-Houston game, which he called a “fascinating mashup of teams going in different directions,” on ESPN Tucson’s “Spears and Ali.”

Here are three questions Rush answered:

How do you evaluate the five-game losing skid Arizona is on and how the embittered UA fanbase has — for the most part — turned against Brennan?

“I can understand why there would be frustration after the showing against UCF. I mean, UCF is a better team than maybe some folks in the Big 12 give them credit for. That being said, they shouldn’t have won in a lopsided way that they did. ... When you have a loss like that, as lopsided as it was, then you have the bye week on top of that, all of that festers for another week, and that’s all everyone talks about is how poor Arizona looked against UCF. ... Brennan did amazing things at San Jose State and built up that program to what it is. You gotta give the guy a little bit of time, especially with the unbelievable amount of injuries in the defense. A five-game losing streak is never great. I’ll be curious to see how they come out of the bye week. Is Arizona packing it in and done? Or are they going to battle and get into a bowl game?”

What’s your scouting report on Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan?

“He’s the best receiver in college football; he was last year. He is as good as it gets. One of the concerns I had early on was everyone knew what Tet McMillan was going to bring to the Arizona offense coming into the season, and it felt like it was tough for Fifita to get him the ball earlier in the year because if teams know that he’s your one guy, you can stop that one guy and make everyone else beat you, and I feel like there was a little bit of that going on earlier in the season for Arizona. ... I look at a player like McMillan and he’s a special talent. I know Tucson values how great he is. I’m happy we get a few more weeks to see him play as a Wildcat before he does what he’s going to do in the NFL.”

What should we look out for from Houston’s side?

“You gotta look at their quarterback (Zeon Chriss), who is coming off an 11 of 11 performance in his last game; he didn’t throw a single incompletion. What they do, they run the ball a ton and they’re going to pound it and let him run. ... Their defense is pretty tough, too. There’s a number of players I like on that defense. Houston is a good team. ... They believe. They won three out of the last four games and have outscored their opponents 24-0 in the fourth quarter the last couple of games. Even if you’ve got the lead, you gotta worry about Houston late. They’ve shown some closing power.”

Extra points:

• NFL.com draft analyst Chad Reuter revealed his Top 400 players for the 2025 draft, which included three Wildcats in the Top 100: McMillan, Savaiinaea and cornerback Tacario Davis.