9/28/2020 football Edit

Sumlin: Arizona will lean on young players to make up for defensive losses

Matt Moreno • GOAZCATS

Senior Editor

Matt Moreno is the senior editor at GOAZCATS.com. He joined the staff in August of 2011 and began as senior recruiting editor with the site before becoming senior editor in June of 2014.

Arizona will be suiting up for its first game of the season in early November, but between now and then there is much work to be done.

The Wildcats have a good handle on things offensively with some direction and a number of returning veterans to help the transition to new full-time quarterback Grant Gunnell, who will be taking over after splitting time with Khalil Tate as a freshman.

The talent for the Wildcats is on offense, and that group might have to carry the team once again this year as UA has gone through some wholesale changes on the defensive side of the ball.

In what seems unfair to a coaching staff, new coordinator Paul Rhoads will have to get his group ready to play in six weeks despite having just four practices in the spring and losing several of the team's most important players this offseason.

Gone are top stat producers such as Colin Schooler, Tony Fields II and Scottie Young, and Arizona doesn't have enough depth to quickly have an answer for how to replace them.

Rhoads, who will be guiding an entirely new defensive staff this year after the Wildcats had to replace all their coaches on the side of the ball after the season, has a difficult task in front of him as he looks to make changes to the UA defense.

The plan had been to install a 3-4 scheme featuring players like Schooler and Fields, but there are now just six scholarship linebackers and only two of them have extensive experience.

Head coach Kevin Sumlin understands the challenge his team faces as it prepares for a seven-game, conference-only schedule this fall but he is not as down on the defense as fans and the media are.

"We've had some transfers, but we've got some young guys that have come in here," he said. "Obviously, we have a new defensive staff and some guys to work with. It's been brought up before just about defensively where we're gonna be. We've got some good young players who could come in here and some veteran guys that I think have done some great work.

"Anthony Pandy is doing a great job, and can move inside or outside. We've gotta find the depth and the flexibility with maybe some younger players, particularly up front on defense. We've gotta look where we are defensively up front, get that solidified, with what that two-deep looks like."

Pandy, a senior linebacker, is now going to become a focal point of the Arizona defense. He had already been on the rise last season increasing his role to that of a starter, but he will now be relied on more than ever as one of the most experienced defensive players. He was likely to be used as an outside linebacker this season, but because of the departures at the inside linebacker spot he could very well end up as the team's replacement for Schooler or Fields.

He practiced at each linebacker spot last season, including middle linebacker.

While Pandy is a veteran, it is the young players who will have to step up to improve the UA defense this season. Sophomore Derrion Clark and redshirt freshman Kwabena Watson figure to be a big part of the plan at inside and outside linebacker, respectively, while freshman Derick Mourning should have an opportunity to step on the field right away.

The Wildcats have been fortunate enough to have players on campus and working out in some capacity since early in the summer in addition to having a week of spring practice before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down college sports in March.

Sumlin is banking on that time to work in the spring, the on-field time this summer plus the way his staff has made use of its virtual time with the team during the pandemic adding up to success on the field once the season begins.

"We had four practices in the spring, people forgot about that," Sumlin said. "Some people didn't have any. We've been on the field the last three, four weeks with our players. Yeah, there's challenges, but there's challenges for other programs in this league who did not have spring football at all. So, we're not alone. I'll just put it that way.

"I think the key is how we've handled the last couple months. ... How we've handled Zoom meetings, schematically. How we've been on the field with our guys to teach technique. So, you can look and say, 'well, that's our situation,' but guess what? There's a lot of other programs in this league that have new head coaches, have new staffs and have not even been on the field with their players. It's all on how you look at it, and you guys know I'm a glass half full guy."

Arizona begins its preparations for the upcoming season Monday and will have six weeks to prepare for its first game. That time will be vital for the Wildcats to bring all the pieces together and be ready for what remains a nameless opponent at this stage with the Pac-12 schedule not yet set.

"It's not traditional," Sumlin said. "The thing that I keep talking about with our players and our coaches is 'whatever you've done in the past, how we've put together books, how we've done things from a practice standpoint we've gotta be flexible.'

"The team that handles that the best and is aggressive in their attitude towards their health and safety standards – with masks, with social distancing – how we're gonna do that with meetings and everything else that becomes important."

Sumlin certainly admits that his team will have challenges defensively, but he's not sold that the Wildcats will be alone in that.

The Pac-12 season is set to begin the weekend of Nov. 6 after the conference's CEO group decided to revise its original decision to postpone football competition until 2021. The league is expected to release its updated conference-only schedule this week.

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