Arizona football's Treydan Stukes leads 'Stars' in 'more aggressive' UA defense

Multiple Arizona Wildcats will hear their names called during the NFL Draft in Detroit this week. The UA could conceivably send out four draft picks this year, which would be the most since 2008.

Arizona could have even more next year — and potentially multiple first-round picks if wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan and offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea go that high.

Among the current Wildcats looking to go through the draft process next year is senior Treydan Stukes, a three-year starter in Arizona’s secondary as a cornerback, nickel back and is now “Star.”

Wait, what’s a Star?

“I always like to joke because people always ask me, ‘What’s a Star?’ I tell people that I just coach the best players on the team, the stars of the team. Everybody else is a different position,” joked Star coach Brett Arce, who was promoted to an on-field role after spending the last three seasons as a defensive analyst under former head coach Jedd Fisch. “It’s a nickel-safety hybrid, so the safeties and nickels are all kind of hybrids and interchangeable. We use the term, ‘Star,’ but a lot of people just say nickel.”

Stukes made the transition from cornerback to nickel back under former defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen last season. Arizona’s team captain thrived, totaling 55 tackles — 31 of them solo — and four stops for loss, nine pass breakups and an interception.

“It was fun getting to learn a new position. I’ve been playing corner for a long time, so being able to get involved in different parts of the run game,” Stukes said. “Continuing this spring, I’m getting more comfortable with the techniques and things like that.”

Stukes also didn’t surrender a passing touchdown in coverage in 2023, and excelled as an open-field tackler and had a 14.5% missed tackle rate, according to Pro Football Focus. In general, Arizona’s defensive secondary didn’t have noticeable missed tackles, which has been a consistent issue going back to the Rich Rodriguez regime.

“I thought we were a good tackling team, and I thought (safety) Gunner Maldonado was a big part of that in the middle of the field, when plays did break through the line. He was able to clean up a lot of things for us. Having a security blanket like that back there is huge for us,” Arce said. “Not only him, but (safety) Dalton (Johnson) was a man on a mission when it came to the box and he was always around the ball forcing fumbles, stuff like that.

“It’s something we preach every day: running to the ball, chasing after it so big plays don’t happen. The more people you have around the ball, that’s how you eliminate it, even if you miss a tackle, there’s more people there to show up.”

Stukes’ versatility as a run-stopper and ballhawk makes him the prototypical Star in Arizona’s defense — and a player whose NFL Draft stock will increase because of it.

“Knowing all five positions, he’s going to have a lot of versatility for a team,” said Arce, who helped coach NFL defensive backs at USC, including Adoree Jackson and Talanoa Hufunga. “NFL is different. We have a lot of guys. Their rosters are so much smaller, so the position flexibility he will bring to play safety, nickel, to be able to play corner, it’s going to be huge. A team is going to get lucky with him, for sure.”

Arce added Stukes’ “mental side of the game” is advanced.

“The guy can pick up anything,” Arce said of Stukes. “He can play anywhere on our defense to be honest with you. He knows all of the positions, plays fast, has good eye control and he’s fast when he comes to track times. When someone can run that fast and also get their eyes in the right spots, that’s when you got someone really special. He works his tail off and has those attributes that helps.”

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If Stukes, a one-time walk-on from Litchfield Park outside Phoenix who first earned playing time in the secondary during Arizona’s infamous 70-7 loss to Arizona State in the pandemic-influenced 2020 season, stays on course as a productive and do-everything defensive back, he could hear his name called a year from now in Green Bay, Wisconsin; that’s the site of the 2025 NFL Draft.

“I try not to look too far ahead, but it’s cool to hear about their stories and see what it was like,” Stukes said of his former teammates going through the draft process. “I was hoping that’s where I would be heading. Sitting here now, it does feel crazy that I’ve been here for four years.”

Stukes is the leader of the Star clubhouse, but he’s also earned reps at his spot, cornerback, as the Wildcats look to replace standout cornerback Ephesians Prysock. Arizona has utilized a starting secondary of Tacario Davis and Stukes at cornerback, Maldonado and Johnson at safety and second-year defensive back Genesis Smith, a 6-2, 200-pound Chandler native, who played backup safety for the Wildcats last season. Smith’s first interception as a Wildcat was in Arizona’s win over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl.

Since Arizona’s safeties, nickel backs and cornerbacks watch film and train together, “we can move people into different places, because we’re speaking the same language,” Arce said.

“Those guys are doing it every day, communicating in the meeting room and it translates to the field, and you guys see that,” he added.

Arce said Smith is “another guy who is versatile, long, can really run, not afraid of contact.”

“A guy at that Star position really needs to be able to fit the run, play in the box, not be scared to go up and take on 300-pound pullers,” Arce said. “Genesis has really matured and grown his game in that aspect.”

Smith and fellow second-year defensive back Gavin Hunter, an Ewa Beach, Hawaii native, are the Wildcats’ two safety-converted-nickel backs playing behind Stukes at the moment. “Feel for the run game is the biggest difference” between safety and nickel back, Arce said.

“At safety, you get to see everything develop; things happen a lot quicker for the Star in the box,” Arce said. “You’re almost a linebacker at times, but then you have to cover slot receivers, so to have both of those skills is very challenging.”

Since enrolling early as a freshman last spring, the former Chandler Hamilton High School star has “developed on the mental side of the game, just coming in with the coaches and getting extra film in and trying to develop that part of my game.”

“(Defensive coordinator Duane Akina) has always emphasized the mental side of football, so I feel like that’s where I developed,” said Smith.

If there’s anything noticeably different about the Star’s role this season, it’s more blitzing, which is fitting with Akina, one of the coaching figures during Arizona’s “Desert Swarm” era in the 1990s, as the defensive coordinator. Arizona’s defensive backs and linebackers are blitzing more this spring than under Nansen.

“Coach Akina has said we’re going to be an aggressive defense. We want to keep the offense on their heels, and we want to play forward,” Stukes said. “The benefits of that is the offense has to prepare for different looks and we can come from any part of the field, any position, so we keep them guessing.”

Added Arce: “We’re going to be aggressive this year. We’ve been bringing some heat and giving the offense some different looks. We want to bring the game to the offense, too, and not always dictate what we do.

“It’s going to be more aggressive.”