Arizona spring practice: DC Don Brown pleased with UA defense's progress

Heading into his career at Arizona's defensive coordinator Don Brown arguably has the most difficult job of any of the new staff members in Tucson this year. He has been tasked with turning around what has been, statistically, one of the worst defenses in college football over the last few seasons.

His attacking style of play has been a refreshing change for the defensive players at Arizona, and with one week of spring ball left the group has started to show plenty of signs of progress. Saturday's scrimmage featured several impressive plays on the defensive side of the ball including an early interception by safety Jaydin Young and a fumble that was recovered for a touchdown by redshirt freshman Eddie Siaumau-Sanitoa.

The usual names you expect to see making plays have done so as well with Arizona's defensive line looking as strong as it has in quite some time led by veterans such as Trevon Mason, JB Brown, Jalen Harris and sophomore Kyon Barrs.

Brown said earlier in the spring that there would be no time to waste over the course of five weeks since no opponents are waiting for UA to catch up to the rest of the group just because they have new coaches.

Over the last four weeks heading into Saturday's spring game Brown has been moving at a rapid pace with senior linebacker Anthony Pandy saying last week that UA already has over 50 defense calls in place.

There is a lot on Brown's plate right now, but he isn't complaining and is pleased with most of what he has seen this spring.

"Feel like it's going in the right direction," Brown said of his defense after Saturday's scrimmage. "Obviously, we'll get an influx here in the first week of June and not just with high school players that are coming in, but a transfer group as well. I think that will fortify us both up front and at the linebacker corps."

Brown named freshman walk-on defensive lineman Ugochukwu Nosike, defensive lineman Paris Shand, viper linebacker Christian Young, safety Jaydin Young, safety Jaxen Turner, cornerbacks Christian Roland-Wallace, Isaiah Rutherford and Malik Hausman as some of the standouts of the spring so far on defense.

He added that UA's staff still is hoping to build some more depth at all spots across the board though that need is most pressing in the secondary.

The linebacker position will go through some more changes and gain more depth this summer when Western Michigan transfer Treshaun Hayward and Bowling Green transfer Jerry Roberts arrive on campus. For now Pandy and DJ Mourning have handled most of the duties with that unit.

"He's a talented guy, and he can play either one of the inside positions," Brown said of Hayward, who was named the MAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2019. "Jerry Roberts is 237 pounds, so he can play Sam. I'm not sure he can't play Mike and Will too. He's a really athletic guy, and we're still working up front to get ourselves one more guy up front. I can't really talk about it yet."

Harris has moved around to different spots on the field throughout his career but has settled in as a key piece to Brown's defense as an edge rusher. His job this season will be simple.

"There's a guy I tease him all the time because I go, "How many sacks you have last year?'" Brown said of Harris on Saturday. "And he hates it when I do it because it's zero. So, tonight you saw him he was running pretty good in the backfield and had some very good rushes."

Brown said his ideal number of players who will be ready to take the field in a consistent role once the season begins is around 25 to 26 though he wants to have around 17 or 18 "first-teamers" who will play a big part in the game plan each week.

UA has three practices left in spring ball, and it will come to a close Saturday afternoon with the team's spring game inside Arizona Stadium.

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