Safety Gunner Maldonado is Arizona defense's 'quarterback back there' for upstart Wildcats

The color green is a positive sign for any player’s page on Pro Football Focus, a sports analytics website that grades college and NFL on-field performances each week.

Green is good or above average, while blue is exceptional and better than most. Shades of yellow, orange or, even worse, red is an indication that a player is struggling.

Arizona safety Gunner Maldonado’s PFF player page is littered with yellow, orange and red boxes in the early stages of this season.

Since Arizona’s one-touchdown loss to No. 7 Washington, Maldonado has been GG: Green Gunner.

Maldonado’s averaged a 56.6 tackling grade — an orange-yellowish color — through the first five games of the season and had three missed tackles, although he also had a forced fumble and recovery against UTEP. In Arizona’s season-opening win over Northern Arizona, Maldonado, who was ejected for targeting, sometimes emphasized the “blow-up shots” rather than clean-form tackles.

“If you can just lead with your shoulder, tackle with your shoulder. Keep your head out of it. You’re just going to have to deal with some of those plays that aren’t necessarily the same blow-up shots,” Fisch said then. “If you go back in time and look at all of the blow-up shots of old ... None of these blow-up shots of old (are) allowed any longer. You have to be disciplined and you have to lead with your shoulder.”

Maldonado’s PFF grades were poor, and he was heavily involved in numerous plays that gave up chunks of yards. So, naturally, pundits, fans and others were critical of Arizona’s safety, whether it was on social media or elsewhere.

“I don’t expect everyone to know our game plan. Being at free safety, I can see how that can happen, but it doesn’t really matter what anyone else (thinks),” Maldonado said.

In Arizona’s last three games against USC, Washington State and Oregon State, Maldonado’s average tackling grade is 84.5 and, per PFF, the junior safety from Chandler hasn’t missed any tackles. Maldonado has the best missed-tackle percentage (6.5%) among Wildcats with at least 250 snaps played.

Maldonado’s pass coverage has also boosted from an average 46.1 grade in the first five contests to 71.8 in the last three. While it appears Maldonado has exponentially improved this month, his early PFF grades didn’t reflect his play, Fisch said.

“Gunner sometimes got trapped into people thinking he was supposed to be covering somebody he wasn’t or thinking he was supposed to be in a play he wasn’t supposed to be a part of,” Fisch said. “I don’t think he should’ve been knocked early like he was. I think he keeps getting better and better and better every single week. A lot of times there’s evaluations on guys, whether it’s PFF or others, that they think a play is supposed to be defended by a certain guy and it’s not. It is what it is.”

In Arizona’s upset win over Oregon State, Maldonado led the Wildcats with 10 tackles, which marked a career-high for him. Maldonado was named the “the Wildcat of the Week for us this week, which means he best exudes everything on and off the field as a player,” Fisch said.

“The most important part of that is when you’re the safety, if you don’t tackle him, that means nobody is there,” Fisch said. “He did his job and he does his job each week in practice and in games, and I’m really excited to see Gunner continue to improve.”

Maldonado also stopped a potentially impactful touchdown at the end of the first half against Oregon State when the Beavers faked a 34-yard field goal and attempted to run for a touchdown. Maldonado cut the play off at the 9-yard line.

Arizona defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen said he knew OSU would run the fake field goal “because the play before they kind of gave it away.”

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“During the timeout we told Gunner to hang on the back side and Manu to hang on the back side,” Nansen said. “When he did, he was the safety and made a great play.”

Maldonado said when Arizona practices defending fake field goals, “I’m one of the guys that comes off when the ball snaps for that specifically, and it presented itself, so I just had to execute.”

Maldonado credited his recent ascension to “just trying to prepare my best, trust my coaching, try to practice hard,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s anything I’ve been doing that’s dramatically different; I just trust the game plan and try to execute the best way I can,” Maldonado said. “I think the secondary has put in a lot of time; we watch a lot of film together.

“We work hard at practice and we just trust each other and trust the game plan; that’s what it is.”

When Nansen was asked about Maldonado’s progression as a free safety, he kept it forthright.

“Everything,” Nansen said. “His football IQ is unbelievable, solid tackler, made 10 tackles for a safety (against Oregon State), and he’s our quarterback back there, directing traffic and making sure we’re in the right coverage.

“I’m so happy to have him and he’s been outstanding for us all year.”

Wildcats left out of CFP rankings

Just like the Associated Press Top 25 poll, the Wildcats were left out of the first College Football Playoff rankings that were revealed on ESPN on Monday afternoon.

The Wildcats, after receiving six votes in the most recent AP Top 25, conceivably could’ve cracked the CFP rankings with No. 23 James Madison ineligible to play in a bowl game due to their new FBS status, and the Wildcats’ three losses by a combined 16 points; two of those losses were to teams in the CFP rankings in No. 5 Washington and No. 20 USC. However, no three-loss teams were included in the CFP rankings.

Instead, No. 20 USC (7-2), No. 21 Kansas (6-2), No. 22 Oklahoma State (6-2), No. 23 Kansas State (6-2), No. 24 Tulane (7-1) and No. 25 Air Force (8-0) are the final six teams. UCLA, Arizona’s opponent on Saturday, is No. 19.

Six teams from the Pac-12 are in the CFP rankings: Washington (fifth), Oregon (sixth), Oregon State (16th), Utah (18th), UCLA and USC. Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan and Florida State are the top four teams.