Week 3 of the Arizona Wildcats’ spring football schedule officially wrapped up on Saturday with the team’s scrimmage at Arizona Stadium.
With the two-week spring transfer portal period about to begin on Monday, we monitored potential players missing practice on Saturday after UA head coach Brent Brennan said earlier this week that players entering the portal would not be present at practice, but said “it would be more specific to each kid.”
Arizona defensive tackle Bill Norton and offensive tackle Joseph Borjon said Friday that they are planning on entering the portal on Monday; neither of them were at Arizona Stadium on Saturday.
“It’s interesting and those things can be complicated because sometimes the team is unhappy when that happens, right? Everyone in this game of football, they’re so connected and everyone counts on each other so much,” Brennan said. “That’ll be something we figure out as we win. It’s hard to rep a guy if he’s not going to be here. That doesn’t make a ton of sense. You’d rather give the rep to somebody else and let them develop and get better.”
The rest of Arizona’s roster was present for the scrimmage and practice on Saturday. Here are notes and takeaways from a sunny day at Arizona Stadium:
With Norton, who played in 13 games for the Wildcats last year and was the only starting defensive lineman to return this spring, about to enter the transfer portal, the Wildcats had four new starters on the defensive line on Saturday: San Jose State transfer and former All-Mountain West defensive end Tre Smith, ascending redshirt sophomore Isaiah Johnson, UC Davis transfer defensive tackle Chubba Ma’ae and junior Ta’ita’i Uiagalelei. The second defensive line group had edge rushers Sterling Lane II and Dominic Lolesio and defensive tackles Keanu Mailoto and Julian Savaiinaea. Lane sacked backup quarterback Brayden Dorman on Saturday. Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Tristan Davis tackled running back Anthony Wilhite for a loss of 5 yards. With Norton and Borjon leaving, the Wildcats have 16 scholarship spots open for the 2024 season. Depth for the defensive line will most likely become a priority for the UA.
Linebacker Jacob Manu was out for the second straight practice with a hand or wrist injury, and stood on the sidelines throughout practice. Second-year linebackers Kamuela Ka’aihue and Taye Brown started at linebacker on Saturday. The starting defensive secondary had Tacario Davis and Jai-Ayviauynn Celestine at cornerback, Dalton Johnson and Gunner Maldonado at safety, and Treydan Stukes at nickel back.
Arizona’s Jacob Manu, seen here on April 2, sat out Saturday’s scrimmage with a wrist or hand injury.
Left tackle Raymond Pulido returned from his brief absence and started alongside left guard Wendell Moe, center Josh Baker, right guard Leif Magnuson and right tackle Jonah Savaiinaea. The second offensive line group had left tackle Rhino Tapa’atoutai, walk-on and Chandler native Zarius Wells at left guard, center Grayson Stovall, Northwestern transfer Alexander Doost and early enrollee Matthew Lado, a 6-6, 280-pound freshman and former Glendale Apollo star. Lado was the only member of the Apollo trio that signed with Arizona in December and stayed with the program. Running back Adam Mohammed and guard Michael Watkins followed the former Arizona staff to Washington. JT Hand, who plays both guard and center, limped off the field with a leg injury on Saturday.
A large portion of Arizona’s offense lately has been 12 personnel, which two tight end sets. The extra tight end in the lineup removed slot receiver Kevin Green Jr., while Tetairoa McMillan and Montana Lemonious-Craig remain at receiver. With redshirt junior tight end Roberto Miranda limited with a leg injury, Arizona started Keyan Burnett and redshirt sophomore Tyler Powell in its first two-tight end package. Second-year tight end Dorian Thomas and walk-on John Hart are also receiving reps at tight end. The Wildcats signed receiver-converted-tight end Dylan Tapley, a 6-4, 205-pound Scottsdale native.
Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita and McMillan connected on a 25-yard touchdown over the middle. In the same period, Stukes intercepted Fifita’s attempt to Green running a corner route in the end zone. Fifita also had a 20-yard run in the segment and looks faster.
The offense worked on coach-to-player communication through the quarterbacks’ helmets. Dorman was spotted placing his hands over his helmet to block out the music blaring at Arizona Stadium and listen to the call before relaying the play in the huddle.
Arizona continued to work on its “dollar” package defense that has seven defensive backs. The defensive backs were Davis, Celestine, Maldonado, Johnson, Stukes, sophomore Genesis Smith and DJ Warnell, who was also working at “gunner” on punt coverage. The defensive line in the dollar package included Lolesio, Smith and Uiagalelei in the middle.
Lolesio and linebacker Justin Flowe had a productive sequence during one series, with Lolesio had two tackles for loss after Flowe had back-to-back sacks. Flowe has been effective as a blitzing linebacker and edge rusher.
Arizona ramped up its special teams drills and worked on punting and field goals. Arizona starting kicker Tyler Loop and Jordan Forbes exchanged reps at punting. Several players took reps at returning punts: Green, McMillan, Stukes, Celestine and receiver Malachi Riley. Loop made a 54-yard field goal attempt for his first kick, but later missed back-to-back 43-yard field goals. Backup kicker Cash Peterman made both of his 43-yard attempts.
San Jose State transfer running back Quali Conley was out Saturday morning after suffering a leg injury near the end of practice on Thursday. Redshirt freshman Brandon Johnson was also sidelined on Saturday. With freshman running back Jordan Washington donning a red jersey, which means limited due to injury, Arizona's only two fully healthy running backs were Rayshon "Speedy" Luke and Wilhite.
Multiple recruits were at the scrimmage on Saturday. One of the players was former New Mexico linebacker Alec Marenco, a 6-3, 230-pound El Paso native, who entered the transfer portal in January. In three seasons at UNM, Marenco had 96 tackles and 3.5 stops for loss.
Multiple ex-Wildcats were in attendance, including defensive back and linebacker Martell Irby, punter Kyle Ostendorp and wide receiver Jacob Cowing, who could become the first UA receiver since Juron Criner in 2012 to be selected in the NFL Draft, which runs from April 25-27.
