Arizona's biggest offseason blow came Thursday as veteran safety Scottie Young Jr. announced his plans to enter the transfer portal and finish his career with another program. The San Diego native tied linebacker Anthony Pandy for the third-most tackles on the team last season with 66 tackles as a junior and is the most notable UA player to enter the transfer portal this offseason.

"I want to thank the University of Arizona and ever coach tI had here for giving me the opportunity to play college football and also be a part of my career at Arizona," Young wrote in a post made to social media. "I would like to thank all my teammates for the lifelong relationships we built and the lasting memories. Thank you for being there through my hand and low moments.

"I am very thankful for the U of A these past three years have been amazing and I would not trade it for anything, but after talking with my family and all the coaches I have decided to enter my name into the transfer portal and finish my eligibility at another university."

The 2019 season ended up as his most productive year with the Wildcats as he also had an interception plus three passes defensed in addition to his career-high tackles. Some of his best performances of the year came in some of the team's biggest games. He had eight tackles and an interception in the team's loss to Oregon while he finished with a season-high nine tackles in the final game of the regular season when the Wildcats faced in-state rival Arizona State.

However, Young had several ups and downs throughout his career at Arizona including an arrest that led to a suspension that kept him away from the team for an extended period of time.

He had to work his way back and earn the trust of a new coaching staff two seasons ago when Kevin Sumlin came on board as the team's head coach, but by the start of the 2019 season he had done enough to show his coaches and teammates that he had turned things around off the field.

“He’s a much different player, a much different guy than he was when I first got here,” Sumlin said during training camp last summer. “Just how he handles himself, how he talks to the players, how he talks to everybody else. I’ve been really pleased with his progress.”

Young held offers from Colorado, Washington State, San Diego State and UNLV among others coming out of Helix High School in the San Diego area back in 2017. He will finish his career at Arizona with 157 tackles plus seven passes defensed and five interceptions in 29 starts with the Wildcats.

Young is one of a handful of safeties to leave the program this offseason, but he is by far the most significant and the only one of the group who served as a consistent starter for the Wildcats. UA failed to sign any safeties in the 2020 recruiting class and is now left with just four scholarship players at the position.

Only two of those players, Christian Young and Jarrius Wallace, have significant game experience. Arizona is also going through change this offseason with the coaching staff in the secondary as Demetrice Martin left to Colorado just before the start of spring practice prompting Sumlin to hire Greg Burns to coach the defensive back unit under new defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads.

Now that Young has entered the transfer portal programs will be allowed to contact him without restrictions as he pursues a place to finish his career.

STING FACTOR: How much does losing Scottie Young Jr. hurt Arizona?