Arizona football burning questions: How is the depth at offensive tackle?

Whether it's at the team facility or off the field, watching UFC fights and having video game tournaments at Arizona offensive line coach Josh Oglesby's house, the Wildcats' offensive line is often spending time together. 

"The offensive line is a really fun group," said Arizona head coach Brent Brennan. "Coach Oglesby is not a small man and it's common to walk past his office and see 10-12 O-Linemen crammed in there. It's literally a mass of humanity and they're in there talking football, talking life. It's a really close group." 

It's also a group that returns multiple players from last season's unit that helped Arizona reach a nine-win season and play in the Holiday Bowl, despite losing left tackle Ty Buchanan, left guard Chubba Maae and center Ka'ena Decambra, who signed with the Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted free agent. 

The Wildcats return right tackle Tristan Bounds, who was limited this spring due to recovery from a broken ankle he suffered against Cincinnati, along with right guard Alexander Doost, who's entering his third season as a starter.

Arizona moved tackle Rhino Tapa'atoutai from tackle to left guard, "allowing him to use his violence and physicality a little bit more on the inside with the amount of counter that we run — getting him on the pulls and different things like that," said Oglesby. 

"The inside suits him a little bit better, especially with the development we've had at the tackle position," added Oglesby. "Prototypical guard is awesome for him, because of the way he plays, the mauler mentality."

Arizona picked up Washington center Zachary Henning, who has two years of eligibility, in the transfer portal. 

At tackle, with Bounds recovering from injury, Arizona's tandem was redshirt sophomore Matthew Lado at left tackle and redshirt freshman Louis Akpa at right tackle. 

"It's fun to see Lado and Louis get those reps, because they're both young players, especially in the lens of being an offensive lineman," Brennan said. "That's one of those positions that takes a lot of time and reps to master. It's great to see them get their reps." 

Lado, a 6-6, 318-pound Phoenix-area native, spent the last two seasons as a backup, but was thrust into playing time in the second half of last season. Lado stepped in for injured left tackle Ty Buchanan in the final three quarters of the Wildcats' bowl-clinching win over Kansas, then played the final three-plus games at right tackle for the injured Bounds.

Including the Holiday Bowl loss to SMU, Lado didn't allow a sack in 183 pass-blocking snaps, though he surrendered nine quarterback pressures and two quarterback hits, according to Pro Football Focus.

"For him, having the opportunity to be in those games and be in the mix and be a part of meaningful games and meaningful wins has caused his confidence to explode," Oglesby said. "The offseason he's had in the weight room, now the strength is matching the confidence. He's super exciting to watch. I won't call it a surprise, because it was something everyone knew was there, and now we're excited to see it come to fruition."

Akpa "is really coming along," Brennan said. The San Francisco product signed with the Wildcats at 6-6, 260 pounds. Akpa is now at 299 pounds. 

"He's a player that, since he's been here, has put on a lot of good weight," Brennan said of Akpa. "You start to see him grow into a man, because he's long and thin. Similar to Lado. When I first got here with Lado, Lado was long and thin. That's how those tackles are." 

Akpa followed the training plan put in place by strength and conditioning Cullen Carroll, and nutritionist Tara Tralewski, "gets a hold of them and we start eating 10 steaks a day and going crazy on food and calories and put on good weight," Brennan said.

Akpa is a developmental project for Arizona's offensive line, but "he surpassed what I thought he was going to do this spring," said Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege. 

"He's made some good calls in the run game and pass game and is throwing people across his face and doing it at a violent rate and he really looks like he belongs out there," Doege said. "He's playing with a lot of confidence and playing a lot stronger than he is. The more confidence he can get, the stronger he can get, he's got a chance to help us this fall." 

Bounds said his understudy in Akpa "is playing extremely confident right now and playing really well."

"I'm super happy for him," Bounds added. "It's great to watch him get to do that. The best thing about Louis is how excited he is to play football. Those are the guys you want in your room, on your team, in your building. Super proud of Louis and all the progress he's making. He's playing really well." 

While "it's a bummer we didn't have Tristan during the spring, it's also been great for the development of those young tackles," Brennan said of Lado and Akpa.

"There's a side benefit to that," Brennan said. 

Other tackles who garnered reps at tackle this spring include Jaxon Griffin, a 6-6, 282-pound redshirt freshman from Mesa, and San Jose State transfer Nathan Hale, a 6-4, 307-pound redshirt junior from Orange, California. Tapa'atoutai's experience at both tackle spots over the last two seasons provides another option at tackle. 

Arizona signed three tackles in its 2026 recruiting class, including early enrollee Khalil Sanogo, a 6-4, 328-pound freshman from Dallas. The other tackles, who are finishing their final semester of high school, are Phoenix-area product Malachi Joyner and El Paso, Texas native Justin Morales — both four-star prospects. 

"Excited about Malachi and Morales," Brennan said. "We think both of those guys can get into the mix. They're both super tough, they're really physical, strong and mature players. We're excited to get them here. They're working through track season and all of that, doing normal high school stuff — and I love that.

"I love that. ... I think there's a benefit to being a kid, man. There's a benefit to going to the prom, playing basketball or baseball or track. That's high school, too, and you don't get to do that the rest of your life. We're excited to get those guys here and I think those guys are going to fit into that room great, because they're both really tough and both love football. The O-Line room is going to welcome them with open arms."

Arizona's two-deep depth chart at offensive tackle — and the offensive line as a whole — remains a mystery for quarterback Noah Fifita's final season, but "there's more depth than we've had in the past," Brennan said.

"I know those kids are benefitting from their process with Josh," Brennan said. "Provided we keep that group that healthy, we're going to love that group. It's going to be a lot of fun."