Arizona Wildcats have 'viable options' to replace tackle Jordan Morgan

There’s good news and bad news for Arizona’s offense.

The good news: Four of the five starters on the offensive line are returning for the 2024 season.

The bad news: That one vacant spot has been occupied by the same player for the last four seasons.

Arizona brings back an offensive line group that includes star tackle and guard Jonah Savaiinaea, rising left guard Wendell Moe, three-year starter Josh Baker and the promising — and massive — Raymond Pulido, a 6-6, 335-pound sophomore who started as a true freshman in 2023.

The Wildcats are using spring practices to find the right combination of five players to replace All-Pac-12 left tackle Jordan Morgan, who is a projected first-round pick for the NFL Draft — potentially the first Wildcat O-lineman drafted in the first round since John Fina in 1992.

Last season, after recovering from a season-ending knee injury, Morgan started all 12 regular-season games and only allowed two sacks in 477 pass-blocking snaps. Morgan had the eighth-best pass-blocking grade (86.2) in college football for tackles with at least 700 snaps played, according to Pro Football Focus.

Good luck trying to replace that, “but right now, there’s a ton of talent in our room right now that are viable options to replace him,” said first-year offensive line coach Josh Oglesby.

The Wildcats experienced the A.M. (After Morgan) era in their win in the Alamo Bowl win over Oklahoma, which resulted in the offensive line’s worst pass-blocking grade (52.7) of the season by PFF after the left tackle opted out of the bowl game to focus on draft preparation — a common decision among top draft choices.

Arizona shuffled the offensive line and moved Pulido to left tackle, Savaiinaea to right guard, where he played as a true freshman, and 6-8, 325-pounder Joseph Borjon to right tackle. Oklahoma’s pass-rushers leaked through, constantly pressured Fifita and stalled Arizona’s offense after a two-touchdown start for the Wildcats.

In the second half of the Alamo Bowl, Savaiinaea moved back to right tackle and redshirt sophomore Leif Magnuson, who started in place of Pulido while he nursed an ankle injury at the start of conference, was inserted at right guard. Arizona scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to beat the Sooners.

With Magnuson back, it’s easy to assume he’ll start at right guard, and Arizona’s offensive line will be bookended by Pulido and Savaiinaea, who transitioned to right tackle last spring, with Moe at left guard and Baker at center.

“Last year is last year,” said Oglesby. “I need to come in with fresh eyes and know agendas. I want everyone to have a fair shot at competing. Now obviously there’s a few guys in that room that have a ton of playing experience and naturally have a leg up on some of the guys who haven’t. I want there to be open and healthy competition throughout the room, because that’s how you build a healthy room. The more we can develop the young core of guys in the room to push the older guys, the better we’ll be at the end of the day.”

Oglesby added “there is no depth chart” for Arizona’s offensive line in the spring “because I’m coming into this with no pre-conceived notions or anything like that.”

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“I want these guys to compete and put their best foot forward,” he said.

Oglesby, who followed head coach Brent Brennan from San Jose State to Arizona, coached four seasons at SJSU and mentored All-Mountain West left tackle Jack Snyder. Oglesby also excelled at playing tackle when the 6-7 Milwaukee-area native was an All-Big Ten offensive lineman at Wisconsin. Big Ten offensive linemen have a stigma of being hard-nosed, tough, downhill, run-blocking moose.

“There’s a vision in my mind of what offensive line play is,” Oglesby said. “I tend to recruit to that and coach to that.”

At left tackle, “there’s a ton of talent in our room that are viable options to replace (Morgan).”

Through the first week of spring practices, Pulido is the leader in the clubhouse at left tackle and has consistently been with the offensive line group that features Moe, Baker, Northwestern transfer Alexander Doost, Magnuson or JT Hand at right guard and Savaiinaea at right tackle. Other notable players earning reps at various positions include San Jose State transfer Ryan Stewart, Elijha Payne, Tylen Gonzalez and walk-on Zarius Wells, with Grayson Stovall locked in at backup center to Baker.

Rhino Tapa’atoutai, a 6-5, 310-pound redshirt freshman, and Borjon have also played left tackle this spring, but Pulido appears to be on track to start at left tackle.

“Ray is an interesting talent. He’s a large human,” Oglesby said with a chuckle. “He’s a really good bender and has some athletic ability to him. He’s definitely one of those viable options at left tackle. He’s still extremely young, so the development there is still huge, and I’m excited to work with him this spring and moving forward.”

Pulido started five games at right guard and missed half the season due to an ankle injury he suffered against Stanford after missing nonconference play due to injuries from a bicycle accident near Arizona Stadium. When Pulido was healthy and at full strength, it was easy to see why the Apple Valley, California, native was a four-star recruit and former Alabama commit. Savaiinaea said, “Raymond has been improving” at left tackle this spring.

“He dealt with a couple injuries to start his freshman season, but seeing him attack the rehab, attack the work — and when he got the opportunity, he seized it and took advantage of it,” Fifita said of Pulido. “The whole offensive line, they have a great work ethic. ... They’re the guys that really bring the joy into our offense and make it go. ... They’ve done a great job and have really set the standard of what we want this offense to look like.”

Savaiinaea, a 6-5, 330-pound junior, is entering Morgan territory, a draft-eligible lineman who checks all the boxes as an NFL talent. The blend of Savaiinaea’s size and production at both guard and tackle in two seasons at Arizona has positioned him into a potential hot commodity for the NFL Draft next season.

“He’s a great talent, has the ability to play inside and out, has great twitch and is strong, powerful when he plays,” Oglesby said of Savaiinaea, who was recruited by “Coach O” at San Jose State. “He’s got the tools to play for a really, really long time. He and I have spoken about his position flexibility and what he wants to do, but he’s expressed to me that he wants to do whatever it takes to help this team win, which speaks volumes about him as a young man, not just a player.”

Although Arizona won’t have Morgan as a starter for the first time in four years, his legacy continues through his tackle cohort in Savaiinaea.

“I watched NFL guys, but I mostly watched Jordan because he’s in the same group as me,” Savaiinaea said. “I try to mimic his game, and now that he’s not here, I try to carry on his techniques and pass it down to the younger guys.”