Spring 'starting to feel a little bit like football' for Brent Brennan, Arizona Wildcats

While Arizona’s ninth practice of its spring football schedule Saturday morning at Arizona Stadium is dubbed a scrimmage, “it’s not going to be a day where we just go out there and scrimmage and that’s it,” said Wildcats head coach Brent Brennan.

Brennan said “it’ll be a practice with a scrimmage element.” The Wildcats don’t have a desired number of plays they want to run. The main focus is ending Week 3 of spring practices on a positive note. Through nearly three weeks of practices, including two weeks of fully-padded practices with live tackling, Brennan is content with what the team he inherited as shown.

“I think we’re getting there,” Brennan said. “The competition has been really good, guys are competing. There’s always room for improvement, especially this time of year. I’m excited. Guys are playing hard, guys are working hard at it. Some new schemes, some old schemes, so guys are settling in. We’re halfway through now, so it’s starting to feel a little bit like football.”

Leading up to Saturday’s scrimmage, Brennan spoke with reporters about Arizona’s personnel, the transfer portal opening on Tuesday, the impact of NIL, coach-to-player communication in helmets, and surprises this spring. Here are some of the questions Brennan answered:

How have the Wildcats looked in a scrimmage setting?

A: “It’s been good. Our defense is a little bit ahead of the offense right now. That’s kind of how it’s always been at spring practice, at least in my experience. But the offense (had a nice practice Thursday). Little bit productive late in practice, little bit of live stuff, little bit of uptempo stuff. I thought there was some execution, some nice plays being made by the offense. Like any good football team, you never want it to be one-sided. If it’s one-sided, then you probably have a problem. It should have some version of trade in bunches.”

With the spring transfer portal period opening up on Monday as you navigate through spring ball, do you double-check on your players to prevent them from potentially leaving?

A: “I’ve mostly been talking to players one-on-one and just kind of checking in with guys. The situation we’re in — and everyone in college football is in — is so interesting and so rare. We’re all kind of going through it for the first time. I hope everyone stays. I really do. But I think we have a great group of young people here that really care about each other. It really matters to them. People are going to make their own decisions. Those decisions are ones we’re going to have to respect.”

Even if a player entered the transfer portal, would they miss practice even though there’s a possibility of a return?

A: “Yeah, I think they would. That would be more specific to each kid. 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. 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.”

You said last week that you have 14 scholarship spots open and have the ability to add players, so what’s Arizona’s approach with the transfer portal?

A: “We’re not doing anything right now, because no one is in it. Our emphasis is going to be when that hits and when that becomes available, starting Monday. Those things, to me, the important thing is that we thoroughly vet all of those people we’re talking about bringing in to this family. I think sometimes you can rush to judgement based on film and not knowing the person well enough. You can potentially add a piece to your team that’s not a great fit. We’re going to do our due diligence with that and take our time to make the best decision with who we add over the next few months.”

How much different is handling NIL at Arizona than San Jose State?

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A: “It’s drastically different. I think for everybody it’s new. We’re all just learning as we go. ... I do think we’re ramping up. Starting Monday, I think there could be some really interesting movement in college football. Because what happens is you go through spring practice and realize what you don’t have. Then you’re like, ‘OK, where do we find that?’ That’s what everyone is going to do.”

You said at the start of camp that you would eventually introduce coach-to-player communication through helmets, a new element added to college football that is inspired from the NFL; how far along are you in that process?

A: “We’re working on that with the quarterback right now. But it’s in the early, early, early stages of that.”

Are you in favor of coach-to-player communication through helmets?

A: “I don’t think it matters if I am or not. It’s coming, so we have to adapt to it. There’s some infrastructure stuff you have to do to the stadium in order to do it. There’s always a start-up to that and it just takes time. I’m not freaking out that we’re not firing on all cylinders in that space yet. ... We’ve got all of fall camp, 25 practices. I’m not feeling any sense of urgency in that one piece.”

Have you been surprised by anything this spring?

A: “I don’t think anything has surprised me after watching the tape from last season. Like I’ve said countless times, I think Coach (Jedd) Fisch and that staff recruited a really great group of players and young men, and they did a great job of getting them connected. That’s been awesome. Normally when you come into one of these jobs, it’s not like that. Normally it’s because the team was unsuccessful, but that’s not what I came into. I consider myself and our coaching staff incredibly fortunate to be working with this team.”

Extra points

Brennan said among the 14 scholarship spots open, promoting a walk-on is “always a possibility.” Added Brennan: “I really hope there are some guys that we can, as a staff, get together and determine who that is, but they have to earn it. I have ultimate respect for players like that, because I went that route and I know hard it is. We’re constantly evaluating that.”

The Wildcats continued more special teams work on Thursday and, once again, focused on punting. Redshirt sophomore and Phoenix-area native Jordan Forbes took reps at punter once again, along with starting kicker Tyler Loop, who had great hang time and power on kicks. Loop had multiple punts that went longer than 50 yards and forced returners to backpedal to track the ball. Loop punted as a freshman in 2020 and averaged 43 yards per punt.

Arizona starting linebacker Jacob Manu was sidelined with a hand injury on Thursday. Manu, who was also out on Tuesday, had a soft cast over his hand and did training drills off to the side. Junior linebacker Justin Flowe, along with Kamuela Ka’aihue, mostly played alongside sophomore Taye Brown.

Arizona’s defense had another impressive practice during team periods. Brown and cornerback Tacario Davis each had interceptions on Thursday; Davis’ interception was tipped by defensive back Treydan Stukes.

At the end of practice, second-year linebacker Leviticus Su’a crushed running back Brandon Johnson, causing a fumble that was recovered by Tennessee transfer safety Jack Luttrell.