Arizona Wildcats football: On Griffey's jump ball, Tate's HS reunion, Barton's expanded role
- Updated
Five storylines to prepare you for Arizona's game against USC on Saturday.
- Michael Lev
- Updated
No Arizona Wildcats receiver is more adept at winning jump balls than redshirt senior Trey Griffey.
We shouldn’t be surprised.
At 6-foot-3, Griffey has a height advantage over most defensive backs he faces. But it’s the lessons he learned from watching his father and playing against his sister that truly give him an edge in those situations.
UA coach Rich Rodriguez said Griffey’s competitive nature enables him to win downfield battles, as he did twice against Utah last week for gains of 42 and 40 yards. Griffey said that side of him comes from dad Ken, who entered the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer.
“If you think about it, when you play baseball, it’s the batter against the pitcher. It’s one on one,” Trey Griffey said. “You’re competing against him. Somebody’s gotta win, and somebody’s gotta lose.”
No one was more adept at leaping over the wall to steal home runs than Ken Griffey Jr. Although he always tried to mimic his father, Trey said there’s little physical similarity between a jump-ball battle in football and an over-the-wall grab in baseball. “It’s two different sports,” he said.
So are football and basketball, but some of the skills Trey acquired playing one-on-one against sister Taryn apply to the gridiron.
Taryn is a third-year sharpshooter for the UA women’s basketball team. She would win most of their backyard games. To have a chance, Trey, who’s eight inches taller, had to maximize his size advantage.
“If you let her sit at the three-point line, you’ll definitely pay for it,” Trey said. “I usually try to back her down, try to big-man her.”
That backstory help explains Trey’s simple explanation for his jump-ball prowess.
“You’re just going up for a rebound,” he said. “It’s basically just battling.”
Griffey, who’s averaging 19.1 yards on 16 receptions, faces his toughest battle to date Saturday. USC’s Adoree’ Jackson is one of the top cornerbacks and athletes in the nation. On the other side, 6-1, 200-pound Iman Marshall is one of college football’s most physical corners.
“He relishes those challenges,” Rodriguez said of Griffey. “And he’s going to get challenged by a couple of the best ones in the country this weekend.”
- Michael Lev
- Updated
It’s Family Weekend at Arizona. It’s homecoming for Khalil Tate. Sort of.
Nine — repeat, nine — of Tate’s former high school teammates are on the USC roster. The Wildcats freshman quarterback rattled off the names of all of his old buddies from Junipero Serra High in Gardena, California, while speaking to reporters this week. They are:
Defensive end Oluwole Betiku Jr., receiver Deontay Burnett, defensive lineman Rasheem Green, receiver Jalen Green, linebacker John Houston Jr., cornerback Adoree’ Jackson, cornerback Jalen Jones, safety C.J. Pollard and linebacker Olajuwon Tucker.
So it’s only natural that this game means a little more to Tate, who might make his first career start, than others.
“My sophomore year, I was doing scout team a lot,” he said. “So I was going against Adoree’, John Houston. I guess that was my steppingstone, my practice. Now I finally get to play against them three years later.”
Jackson, one of the best all-around players and athletes in the nation, paid Tate the highest compliment. Asked by L.A. reporters to assess Tate’s game, Jackson said:
“Pretty much the same as me. Once he gets the ball in his hand, it’s hard to get him down. It’s one of those things where he is electrifying with the ball. He can beat you with his arm, beat you with his feet. Just a special kid.
“I didn’t get to see him much when we were playing because we had Jalen Greene (at QB), but I’ve seen him once I was here in college, and that’s just a different player with the ball in his hand.”
Added Green, who starts at defensive end for the Trojans: “He plays with a lot of confidence, and he is not a scared runner. He will try to run people over. That’s something I do respect about him: He plays with no fear.”
- Michael Lev
- Updated
For the most part, the ever-changing identity of Arizona’s quarterbacks and running backs doesn’t affect the offensive linemen who block for them.
But something is different when tailback Zach Green is in the lineup.
Green’s hard-running style makes a distinct sound. Guard Jacob Alsadek couldn’t describe it verbally. Instead, he pounded his fist into his palm: pop-pop!
The 5-10, 227-pound Green isn’t exactly a breakaway threat. But he’s powerful and hard to bring down. Utah learned as much last week, when Green carried tacklers for extra yardage. He finished with 35 yards on nine carries.
“That’s been my running style since I was playing pee-wee football,” Green said. “You have to punish defenders. When you’re a physical runner, it’s a problem for defenses.”
Green said he models his game after Ka’Deem Carey, Carlos Hyde and Jerome Bettis. Carey isn’t as big as the other two, but Green got to watch him up close when Carey was a junior and Green a freshman at the UA.
“In the film room he knew every coverage, every defensive lineup, was an extremely smart guy,” Green said. “I just kind of envied that about him. Every day in our meetings I try to get that extra edge to learn the playbook.”
Green has gotten a chance to play because of injuries and other issues in the backfield. He’s gotten in better shape through offseason conditioning and dietary changes, including cutting out junk food.
“I’m pretty healthy,” Green said. “Healthy as an ox.”
He runs like one, too.
- Zack Rosenblatt Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Most teams have an emergency quarterback in the stable, usually someone who played quarterback in high school but switched positions upon arriving in college.
It’s called “emergency” for a reason — ideally, this player never has to see the field.
Well, with the luck the Wildcats have had this season, Arizona has come close to reaching that point. Just last week against Utah, with Anu Solomon out with a knee injury, and Brandon Dawkins knocked out with a concussion, Arizona was down to true freshman Khalil Tate and walk-on Zach Werlinger.
Enter Matt Morin, a tight end and place-holder on field goals.
Or, hopefully, not, at least not at quarterback.
For the first time in four years, Morin practiced extensively at quarterback this week for the Wildcats.
He’s their emergency fill-in, should it come to that.
“It was pretty cool, I liked it,” Morin said of practicing at quarterback this week. “I felt comfortable out there, I just gotta get used to a quarterback mindset instead of tight end, so it’s a little different.”
Morin, listed at 6-2 and 235 pounds, was actually recruited by San Diego State out of high school to play quarterback, but the fit wasn’t right — Morin said he’s more of a zone-read, option quarterback whereas the Aztecs ran more of a pro-style system.
So after one season in San Diego, Morin moved on to the junior college level, playing one season at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, and another at Riverside Community College, along the way transitioning from quarterback to tight end, which is the position Arizona recruited him to play when he joined the roster last season.
Morin, a senior, hasn’t played much at tight end, and has yet to record a catch in his 14 career games with the Wildcats, but he’s been an important part of Arizona’s special teams unit this season as its holder, and is prepared in case his role needs to get even larger.
“I’m ready to do whatever they want me to do,” Morin said. “If they want me to go smack someone, I’ll smack someone. If they want me to go jump over a bridge, I’ll jump over a bridge. I’ll do whatever they say. So, it just depends on what they want.”
UA coach Rich Rodriguez, of course, appreciates that mindset, particularly from a player who hasn’t played all too much.
“He loves football,” Rodriguez said. “You can see, he works in the weight room. He’s taking reps at quarterback this week. He’s taken a few, but now he’s taking a lot. He just wants to play.”
- Zack Rosenblatt Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
After practice on Wednesday, Arizona linebacker Michael Barton had a lot on his mind.
Barton is a Bay Area native — from Richmond, California — and a die-hard fan of all the San Francisco teams. On Tuesday night, he watched the San Francisco Giants blow a 3-run lead in the ninth inning of a playoff game, losing 6-5 at home to the Chicago Cubs, ending their season.
Barton was still fuming by Wednesday morning, and wasn’t all too pleased with Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who took pitcher Matt Moore out after eight strong innings.
“That game pissed me me off,” Barton said. “Man, four runs in the ninth? Matt Moore pitched a gem. That was Bochy’s fault. He should’ve kept Moore in the game. I guess you can’t blame him if guys can’t get three outs to win the game, in the most important game of the season.”
“Oh well. Whatever. I’m over it.” he said, starting to smile. “The Warriors start soon. Let’s beat USC.”
That’s nothing more than an off-field distraction. On it, Barton is set to take on a larger role the rest of the season with the loss of senior leader Cody Ippolito, who will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
Barton, a senior graduate transfer from California, was already splitting time with both Ippolito in the middle and Paul Magloire on the weak side. Now, Barton is expected to fill Ippolito’s shoes, with the help of back-up Jake Matthews.
Barton has amassed 38 tackles, 4ƒ for loss and one sack in six games this year.
“Cody was a great leader out there,” Barton said. “He got everybody in position, he made great plays, but now guys including myself just have to step up more and fill the void. It’s next guy up.
“I know Paul (Magloire) is going to step up, Jake is going to step up. John (Kenny) is going to continue to step up. Having DeAndre’ (Miller) back is going to help us a lot. We have a group of guys that can play and I know our guys are going to be ready to go.”
Beyond that, Barton is extra motivated going up against USC. He always is, saying he’s played some of his best games against the Trojans. In two games against them with Cal, Barton had 19 tackles and one sack, but lost both games.
“I’ve grown to hate USC a lot throughout my college career, that doesn’t change,” Barton said. “I have some friends on there, I played high school with Michael Hutchings, but I never had a like for them. Them being L.A. and me being from the Bay Area, we always had a natural rivalry.”
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- Michael Lev
No Arizona Wildcats receiver is more adept at winning jump balls than redshirt senior Trey Griffey.
We shouldn’t be surprised.
At 6-foot-3, Griffey has a height advantage over most defensive backs he faces. But it’s the lessons he learned from watching his father and playing against his sister that truly give him an edge in those situations.
UA coach Rich Rodriguez said Griffey’s competitive nature enables him to win downfield battles, as he did twice against Utah last week for gains of 42 and 40 yards. Griffey said that side of him comes from dad Ken, who entered the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer.
“If you think about it, when you play baseball, it’s the batter against the pitcher. It’s one on one,” Trey Griffey said. “You’re competing against him. Somebody’s gotta win, and somebody’s gotta lose.”
No one was more adept at leaping over the wall to steal home runs than Ken Griffey Jr. Although he always tried to mimic his father, Trey said there’s little physical similarity between a jump-ball battle in football and an over-the-wall grab in baseball. “It’s two different sports,” he said.
So are football and basketball, but some of the skills Trey acquired playing one-on-one against sister Taryn apply to the gridiron.
Taryn is a third-year sharpshooter for the UA women’s basketball team. She would win most of their backyard games. To have a chance, Trey, who’s eight inches taller, had to maximize his size advantage.
“If you let her sit at the three-point line, you’ll definitely pay for it,” Trey said. “I usually try to back her down, try to big-man her.”
That backstory help explains Trey’s simple explanation for his jump-ball prowess.
“You’re just going up for a rebound,” he said. “It’s basically just battling.”
Griffey, who’s averaging 19.1 yards on 16 receptions, faces his toughest battle to date Saturday. USC’s Adoree’ Jackson is one of the top cornerbacks and athletes in the nation. On the other side, 6-1, 200-pound Iman Marshall is one of college football’s most physical corners.
“He relishes those challenges,” Rodriguez said of Griffey. “And he’s going to get challenged by a couple of the best ones in the country this weekend.”
- Michael Lev
It’s Family Weekend at Arizona. It’s homecoming for Khalil Tate. Sort of.
Nine — repeat, nine — of Tate’s former high school teammates are on the USC roster. The Wildcats freshman quarterback rattled off the names of all of his old buddies from Junipero Serra High in Gardena, California, while speaking to reporters this week. They are:
Defensive end Oluwole Betiku Jr., receiver Deontay Burnett, defensive lineman Rasheem Green, receiver Jalen Green, linebacker John Houston Jr., cornerback Adoree’ Jackson, cornerback Jalen Jones, safety C.J. Pollard and linebacker Olajuwon Tucker.
So it’s only natural that this game means a little more to Tate, who might make his first career start, than others.
“My sophomore year, I was doing scout team a lot,” he said. “So I was going against Adoree’, John Houston. I guess that was my steppingstone, my practice. Now I finally get to play against them three years later.”
Jackson, one of the best all-around players and athletes in the nation, paid Tate the highest compliment. Asked by L.A. reporters to assess Tate’s game, Jackson said:
“Pretty much the same as me. Once he gets the ball in his hand, it’s hard to get him down. It’s one of those things where he is electrifying with the ball. He can beat you with his arm, beat you with his feet. Just a special kid.
“I didn’t get to see him much when we were playing because we had Jalen Greene (at QB), but I’ve seen him once I was here in college, and that’s just a different player with the ball in his hand.”
Added Green, who starts at defensive end for the Trojans: “He plays with a lot of confidence, and he is not a scared runner. He will try to run people over. That’s something I do respect about him: He plays with no fear.”
- Michael Lev
For the most part, the ever-changing identity of Arizona’s quarterbacks and running backs doesn’t affect the offensive linemen who block for them.
But something is different when tailback Zach Green is in the lineup.
Green’s hard-running style makes a distinct sound. Guard Jacob Alsadek couldn’t describe it verbally. Instead, he pounded his fist into his palm: pop-pop!
The 5-10, 227-pound Green isn’t exactly a breakaway threat. But he’s powerful and hard to bring down. Utah learned as much last week, when Green carried tacklers for extra yardage. He finished with 35 yards on nine carries.
“That’s been my running style since I was playing pee-wee football,” Green said. “You have to punish defenders. When you’re a physical runner, it’s a problem for defenses.”
Green said he models his game after Ka’Deem Carey, Carlos Hyde and Jerome Bettis. Carey isn’t as big as the other two, but Green got to watch him up close when Carey was a junior and Green a freshman at the UA.
“In the film room he knew every coverage, every defensive lineup, was an extremely smart guy,” Green said. “I just kind of envied that about him. Every day in our meetings I try to get that extra edge to learn the playbook.”
Green has gotten a chance to play because of injuries and other issues in the backfield. He’s gotten in better shape through offseason conditioning and dietary changes, including cutting out junk food.
“I’m pretty healthy,” Green said. “Healthy as an ox.”
He runs like one, too.
- Zack Rosenblatt Arizona Daily Star
Most teams have an emergency quarterback in the stable, usually someone who played quarterback in high school but switched positions upon arriving in college.
It’s called “emergency” for a reason — ideally, this player never has to see the field.
Well, with the luck the Wildcats have had this season, Arizona has come close to reaching that point. Just last week against Utah, with Anu Solomon out with a knee injury, and Brandon Dawkins knocked out with a concussion, Arizona was down to true freshman Khalil Tate and walk-on Zach Werlinger.
Enter Matt Morin, a tight end and place-holder on field goals.
Or, hopefully, not, at least not at quarterback.
For the first time in four years, Morin practiced extensively at quarterback this week for the Wildcats.
He’s their emergency fill-in, should it come to that.
“It was pretty cool, I liked it,” Morin said of practicing at quarterback this week. “I felt comfortable out there, I just gotta get used to a quarterback mindset instead of tight end, so it’s a little different.”
Morin, listed at 6-2 and 235 pounds, was actually recruited by San Diego State out of high school to play quarterback, but the fit wasn’t right — Morin said he’s more of a zone-read, option quarterback whereas the Aztecs ran more of a pro-style system.
So after one season in San Diego, Morin moved on to the junior college level, playing one season at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, and another at Riverside Community College, along the way transitioning from quarterback to tight end, which is the position Arizona recruited him to play when he joined the roster last season.
Morin, a senior, hasn’t played much at tight end, and has yet to record a catch in his 14 career games with the Wildcats, but he’s been an important part of Arizona’s special teams unit this season as its holder, and is prepared in case his role needs to get even larger.
“I’m ready to do whatever they want me to do,” Morin said. “If they want me to go smack someone, I’ll smack someone. If they want me to go jump over a bridge, I’ll jump over a bridge. I’ll do whatever they say. So, it just depends on what they want.”
UA coach Rich Rodriguez, of course, appreciates that mindset, particularly from a player who hasn’t played all too much.
“He loves football,” Rodriguez said. “You can see, he works in the weight room. He’s taking reps at quarterback this week. He’s taken a few, but now he’s taking a lot. He just wants to play.”
- Zack Rosenblatt Arizona Daily Star
After practice on Wednesday, Arizona linebacker Michael Barton had a lot on his mind.
Barton is a Bay Area native — from Richmond, California — and a die-hard fan of all the San Francisco teams. On Tuesday night, he watched the San Francisco Giants blow a 3-run lead in the ninth inning of a playoff game, losing 6-5 at home to the Chicago Cubs, ending their season.
Barton was still fuming by Wednesday morning, and wasn’t all too pleased with Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who took pitcher Matt Moore out after eight strong innings.
“That game pissed me me off,” Barton said. “Man, four runs in the ninth? Matt Moore pitched a gem. That was Bochy’s fault. He should’ve kept Moore in the game. I guess you can’t blame him if guys can’t get three outs to win the game, in the most important game of the season.”
“Oh well. Whatever. I’m over it.” he said, starting to smile. “The Warriors start soon. Let’s beat USC.”
That’s nothing more than an off-field distraction. On it, Barton is set to take on a larger role the rest of the season with the loss of senior leader Cody Ippolito, who will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
Barton, a senior graduate transfer from California, was already splitting time with both Ippolito in the middle and Paul Magloire on the weak side. Now, Barton is expected to fill Ippolito’s shoes, with the help of back-up Jake Matthews.
Barton has amassed 38 tackles, 4ƒ for loss and one sack in six games this year.
“Cody was a great leader out there,” Barton said. “He got everybody in position, he made great plays, but now guys including myself just have to step up more and fill the void. It’s next guy up.
“I know Paul (Magloire) is going to step up, Jake is going to step up. John (Kenny) is going to continue to step up. Having DeAndre’ (Miller) back is going to help us a lot. We have a group of guys that can play and I know our guys are going to be ready to go.”
Beyond that, Barton is extra motivated going up against USC. He always is, saying he’s played some of his best games against the Trojans. In two games against them with Cal, Barton had 19 tackles and one sack, but lost both games.
“I’ve grown to hate USC a lot throughout my college career, that doesn’t change,” Barton said. “I have some friends on there, I played high school with Michael Hutchings, but I never had a like for them. Them being L.A. and me being from the Bay Area, we always had a natural rivalry.”
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