Arizona star, 'first-round pick' Jonah Savaiinaea displaying versatility at both tackle spots

Arizona can’t afford too many injuries this season, especially on the offensive line, and particularly at left tackle.

In the first game of the post-Jordan Morgan era at Arizona, redshirt freshman left tackle Rhino Tapa’atoutai, in his first start as a Wildcat, suffered a leg injury in the second half of No. 21 Arizona’s 61-39 win over New Mexico, which sidelined him for the rest of the contest. Tapa’toutai’s status for Saturday is questionable.

With Tapa’toutai leaving Saturday and Oregon transfer Michael Wooten out with an injury he suffered in training camp, the Wildcats relied on true freshman Matthew Lado, a 6-6, 292-pound Phoenix-area native, who was one of three players from Glendale Apollo High School to sign with the Wildcats in December, along with running back Adam Mohammed and offensive lineman Michael Watkins. After Jedd Fisch left for Washington, Mohammed and Watkins followed the former Arizona head coach to Seattle; Lado stayed.

The developing Lado initially appeared to be a potential redshirt candidate, which he still can if he played in three more regular-season games and the postseason, but the opportunity for playing time arose with injuries in the early stages of the season.

With Lado at tackle, “I thought we still moved the ball when he was in there and that’s pretty cool,” said Arizona head coach Brent Brennan.

“When I first got here, he was one of the young men that arrived five days earlier,” Brennan said. “It’s awesome to see his development and process, and I think (offensive line coach Josh Oglesby) is doing a great job coaching him.”

Lado played five snaps at left tackle and 12 at right tackle, while preseason All-Big 12 selection Jonah Savaiinaea played those dozen snaps at left tackle after playing 39 snaps at right tackle. In his nearly 1,800 offensive snaps at Arizona, Savaiinaea 985 snaps at right guard, 732 at right tackle and now 12 at left tackle, the position he played at St. Louis High School in Honolulu.

“The flexibility that he has is going to help our football team tremendously this year and it’s also going to help him when he moves on to the next level,” Brennan said on Saturday.

The 6-5, 336-pound Savaiinaea, one of six team captains this season at Arizona, “is an extremely talented young man, but he also has a high care factor,” Brennan said. Savaiinaea and fifth-year center Josh Baker, another captain, “are the real leaders of that offensive front, and I think his demeanor and how hard he plays, I think that rubs off on everybody, and the fact that he’s mature.”

“You can move him around and he can play with confidence and know what to do,” Brennan said.

The versatility of Savaiinaea, who is projected by ESPN’s Field Yates as the No. 21 overall pick in the NFL Draft, could be on display at left tackle on Saturday, when No. 20 Arizona faces Northern Arizona for the second nonconference game of the season.

“He’s so special,” Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita said of Savaiinaea. “That’s been the case since he got on campus. He started as a true freshman at guard, moved to right tackle last year and then obviously moved to left tackle when Rhino went down. His versatility, his swagger, his confidence — he’s never afraid to do what he needs to do for the team.

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“Him being an offensive lineman, he doesn’t get as much attention as he should, but at the end of the day, he’s a first-round draft pick. That’s been that way since he arrived campus. It’s a blessing having him protect us.”

Two-minute timeout ‘adds a new element’

Arizona experienced the new in-game elements in college football on Saturday. Among the newly added items this season is the two-minute warning at the end of the second and fourth quarters. The two-minute warning is “a huge impact, because it’s an extra timeout,” Brennan said. “You’re coming into that part of the game, and you have four timeouts.

“It could impact the way you try to finish a game, if you’re down, and it could impact the way you close a game, if you’re up. We’ve spent a lot of time this offseason talking through those situations and those scenarios, because it absolutely adds a new element.”

The Wildcats also used the coach-to-player communication in helmets and Microsoft Windows tablets on the sidelines. The tablets were “interesting, because you have that video on the sideline, you have a chunk of the side of the ball where you’d normally be on the bench, cheering on the team.”

Added Brennan: “They’re now watching all of the plays from the last series, so they’re getting coached all the way up until the next snap they have to play, which I think is valuable.”

Wildcats move up a spot in AP Top 25

The Arizona Wildcats moved up one spot to No. 20 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll on Tuesday, after their season-opening win over the New Mexico Lobos.

Arizona received its eighth straight AP ranking dating back to last season, which is the longest stretch since 2014.

Kansas, Arizona’s Big 12 opponent, leap-frogged the Wildcats and rose from No. 22 to No. 19 in the AP poll. Five teams from the Big 12 are ranked entering Week 2: Utah (11), Oklahoma State (16), Kansas State (17), Kansas (19) and Arizona (20).

No. 20 Arizona continues its nonconference schedule on Saturday against in-state rival Northern Arizona at Arizona Stadium at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

Photos: Arizona Wildcats defeat New Mexico 61-39 in '24 college football opener