Arizona Wildcats finding 'major piece' of offense at center position

For the last three seasons, one of Arizona’s most consistent positions was center.

Josh Baker started at center for the Wildcats from 2022-24 and logged 2,526 snaps at the position, according to Pro Football Focus. Baker also played 649 snaps at both guard positions, but was primarily Arizona’s anchor in the middle at center.

Before Baker, Arizona’s starting center from 2018-21 was Josh McCauley, who played 2,754 snaps at center during his UA career. From 2018-24, Baker and McCauley started 75 of the 78 games (96%) Arizona played. The Wildcats have used nine different starting quarterbacks during that stretch.

With Baker graduated, the Wildcats have a few names contending for the starting center spot, including redshirt junior Grayson Stovall, Hawaii transfer Ka’ena Decambra, Portland State transfer Isaac Perez and redshirt senior Shancco Matautia, a former New Mexico transfer who was teammates with quarterback Noah Fifita at Servite High School in Anaheim, California. Stovall, a 6-3, 309-pounder from Chandler, signed with Arizona’s program-changing 2022 recruiting class out of Hamilton High School and was Baker’s backup for three years.

Stovall made his first-career start in place of the injured Baker in Arizona’s win over NAU last season. Stovall has consistently taken reps with Arizona’s projected starters this spring, with the aforementioned centers behind him.

“The cool thing is those guys starting to take command of the groups they’re in with,” said Arizona offensive line coach Josh Oglesby. “That’s a position that’s a lot more mental than people think. Getting those other four (offensive linemen) all targeted and heading in the right direction is a pretty hard deal, especially against (defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales’) defense, when there’s a lot of stuff going on. It makes us conscious of where our eyes are.”

Added Oglesby: “We were fortunate in the past to have Bake as the mainstay there. But adding depth is great, especially when it comes to snapping the football.”

In Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege’s system, “the center is just an extension of the quarterback,” he said.

“We ask a lot of that guy and I try to take some of it off the quarterback and put it on the center from an (identification) standpoint, so he’s gotta be very intelligent and process different types of (defensive) fronts and different types of alignments,” Doege said.

When Arizona’s offensive coaches evaluate their ideal center, “he’s gotta have a ton of communication skills, because he’s making that whole thing go,” said Doege.

“Take it for what it’s worth, but he’s also gotta have a little dog in him,” Arizona’s offensive coordinator said. “I feel like the best centers I’ve been around had a little edge to them. Whether they were short, big, fast, strong, explosive, it didn’t matter.

“At the end of the day, they had a ton of heart. ... I put a lot of stock into the center because that guy does a lot for us. He’s the first one to touch the ball and chases the ball every play. He’s the first one to get lined up and get us going. It’s a major piece for what we do.”

Stovall and Perez are the only ones of the group who have collegiate experience playing center. Perez played 583 snaps at center at Portland State, while Matautia and Decambra played guard.

Another name who could surface at center is nose tackle Chubba Ma’ae, who has been sidelined with an injury this spring. In a limited role, the 6-2, 350-pound Ma’ae was spotted working with Arizona’s offensive line on Saturday. Ma’ae also changed his jersey number from 92 to 55. When Ma’ae was a recruit out of Long Beach Polytechnic High School (California), his recruiting profile listed him as a center, but he played defensive tackle at UC Davis. After practice on Saturday, Oglesby didn’t disclose Ma’ae’s position change or if he would be auditioning for the center role.

Whoever it is, keeping Arizona’s up-tempo and no-huddle offense on schedule will be one of the most essential traits for the starter. Arizona head coach Brent Brennan “says all the time that you can only go as fast as our slowest offensive lineman, which sometimes digs me a little bit because we’re not the fastest people,” Oglesby said with a smile.

Said Oglesby: "Our ability to get lined up as quick as we can is paramount to our to our offense.”

Learning how to turn pressures into sacks

Arizona senior defensive end Tre Smith led the Wildcats in sacks (4.5) last year, but there were plenty of opportunities for more.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

After transferring from San Jose State and becoming a starter at Arizona last season, Smith had 28 quarterback hurries in addition to the nearly five sacks — 18% of Smith’s quarterback hurries turned into sacks.

Under former defensive line coach Joe Seumalo, Smith was assigned “to bull-rush and be a bull in the china cabinet and just destroy everything in his path,” said Gonzales, who added new defensive line coach Joe Salave’a is “giving (Smith) some tools and some counter moves to do those things.”

The key to turning pressures into sacks? Handwork and using arm length to create separation.

“Most of the time he’s in there, he’s working in overdrive because he’s not using his hands,” Salave’a said. “That’s an (offensive lineman’s) dream, to have a guy of his caliber bring himself into him. It’s great to see him now starting to use his length and using his hands to accompany the motor and the tempo he goes with.”

Coaches clinic creates long-lasting connection

Arizona wrapped up its two-day coaches clinic at Lowell-Stevens Football Facility on Saturday.

With featured guest speakers in former UA linebacker Antonio Pierce and longtime NFL head coach Marvin Lewis, Arizona had 225 high school and youth football coaches from the states of Arizona, California and Las Vegas in attendance. The Wildcats had roughly 70 coaches at their coaches clinic last year.

Former UA defensive back Tra’Mayne Bondurant, who was a part of the Wildcats’ Pac-12 South championship team in 2014, is leading the Tucson Soldiers youth football organization and attended the clinic this year. Defending Class 4A state champions Mica Mountain had a large contingent of coaches at the UA coaches clinic.

Oglesby said, “It’s cool for us to meet a lot of the local high school coaches and we want to extend invitations to those local high school coaches and let them know this is an open-door program.”

“We’d love to get the opportunity to meet all of them and give them access to us and give them anything to help their programs as well as things to help our program,” Oglesby said. “There’s a lot of great minds at all levels of football. ... It was really cool to be around them and get to know them and for them to get to know us.”

After Pierce’s keynote presentation on Friday, Brennan invited every coach to watch Arizona’s practice up close from the sidelines on Saturday.

“This thing is open, man,” Brennan told the coaches. “I know people say that, but they don’t live up to it. Any of the high school coaches that have been here to spend time with us or even know us back from our time at San Jose (State), that thing was always open. We want you guys to know that you guys are always welcome.”

Extra points

— Arizona held its second open practice of the spring on Saturday at Arizona Stadium, which had several notable visitors on the sidelines: Pierce, NFL-bound offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea, Cincinnati Bengals tight end Tanner McLachlan and “Leap by the Lake” quarterback Ortege Jenkins, among others.

— Redshirt freshman Brandon Phelps has been a rising prospect at receiver this spring. The 6-3, 198-pound Phelps is a crisp route-runner and a deep ball threat. Phelps concluded his high school career at American Leadership Academy — Gilbert as a state record-holder for career receiving yards (4,475), touchdowns (60) and receptions (271). He redshirted last season.

— In Arizona’s first field goal period, sophomore kicker Michael Salgado-Medina and redshirt senior Cash Peterman swapped reps. Salgado-Medina missed both of his 33-yard and 41-yard attempts. Peterman made a 36-yarder and a 45-yarder.

— Edge rusher-converted-linebacker Chase Kennedy had a chase-down sack on quarterback Fifita. Defensive ends Dominic Lolesio and Smith also recorded sacks in a team period.

— Portland State running back transfer Quincy Craig had a 75-yard touchdown run in the final team period on Saturday.

— Arizona hosted 57 prospects from the 2026-28 recruiting classes over the weekend. The recruits are from Arizona, California, Nevada, Washington and Utah. Over 40 of the recruits are from Nevada.