Arizona-Oregon storylines: Kevin Cummings talks UA receivers, Marcel Yates returns, recruiting rankings

Arizona WR coach Kevin Cummings, a former Beaver, on facing Oregon and how his group has grown

Arizona receivers coach Kevin Cummings is an Oregon State alum, so he knows exactly what the Wildcats are about to face.

Cummings scored his first career touchdown against Oregon in 2011. His best memory of the rivalry was the 2013 game in which the Beavers nearly pulled off a massive upset. They took a 35-30 lead over the 12th-ranked Ducks with 1:38 remaining. But that was too much time for Marcus Mariota, who threw the winning TD pass with 29 seconds to play to secure a 36-35 victory at Autzen Stadium.

“Autzen is a great place to play,” Cummings said. “That atmosphere is something that you want to play in. You want to play in big games where the crowd is crazy and you know everybody in that stadium is rooting against you. And if you can quiet them, it feels great.”

That will be Arizona’s goal Saturday night against the third-ranked team in the country. If the Wildcats are to stand any chance, Cummings’ group will have to play a significant role. He broke down some of its members in an interview with the Star:

Stanley Berryhill III was the MVP of the offseason. He’s been the offensive MVP through three games. What’s behind that?

A: “Stanley is the definition of, you get what you put in. When we were trying to talk Stanley into coming back (from the NCAA transfer portal), we were like, ‘Just here us out. We're gonna tell you to work hard. We're gonna show you how to do it. And it's up to you to do it.’ And he was like, ‘OK, I’m in.’ Since that day, he's done everything that we’ve asked.”

Tayvian Cunningham made a huge leap in training camp, and it has carried over into the season. Where has he grown the most?

A: “The big thing was making sure he was comfortable with the playbook. His best asset is his speed. You can't play fast if you don't know what to do. In the spring he was figuring it out, he was learning, it was all new to him, so that's why he didn't shine as much. But he spent all summer studying. That's why he went into fall camp and showed up the way he did.”

You’ve talked about Boobie Curry needing to learn to trust his speed. Was his 49-yard TD vs. NAU an example of that?

A: “You saw the second gear when he was like, ‘Oh shoot, the ball’s coming.’ I messed with him the next day: ‘You didn't expect that ball to come to you against that off coverage.’ But he was able to find that second gear and go. He can really run. He caught a hitch route in the spring that he housed for about 60 yards. And then the thing I like about him is, he didn't play much in the first two games — but he stayed ready.”

We thought Jamarye Joiner might make his 2021 debut against San Diego State. Then it was NAU. Neither happened. What needs to happen for him to get out there?

A: “With a foot injury, it's not like an upper-body injury where you can still run some routes. You can't do anything. I know Jamarye expected to come back from that and just get right on the field and go. But for him it was just getting the route technique down again, feeling himself running around, knowing what to do, knowing how to play when we go to our fast-paced offense. It's just been getting acclimated back to what he needs to do on the field. He’s had a great practice so far this week, so I'm excited to see where he can go.”

How do Wildcats process a loss like the shocker vs. NAU? Here’s a snapshot

Everyone knows what #pac12afterdark is all about.

Less is known about what happens after #pac12afterdark – especially if you’re on the losing end.

The short answer: It depends on who you are and where you’re from.

Arizona coach Jedd Fisch typically watches the game “at least one time through” before going home and going to bed. “Then Sunday morning,” he said, “come in and get to work.”

Linebacker Anthony Pandy, who’s from the Los Angeles area, went to his Tucson home after last week’s loss to NAU and began thinking about Oregon, the Wildcats’ next opponent. Did he have any trouble sleeping?

“I was a little frustrated, I'm not gonna lie,” Pandy said. “But it's in the past now.”

Receiver Stanley Berryhill, who’s from Tucson, spends time with his family. It’s hard to find those windows during the week leading up to the game.

“I have little siblings that look up to me,” Berryhill said. “I’ve got to show them that even when you're going through adversity, you can't let it affect you too much. So yeah, it bothers me. But I'm not going to go home alone and sulk. I'm going to be around the people I love and the people who love me unconditionally, not just when I'm making plays on the field or we’re winning games.”

Former Arizona DC Marcel Yates, now at Oregon, on his time in Tucson and a recruit who got away

Oregon’s secondary coach should be familiar to Arizona fans.

Marcel Yates served as the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator from 2016-19. He was fired late in the ’19 season.

Yates spent the 2020 campaign at Cal before joining the Oregon staff in February. He’s also the Ducks’ defensive pass-game coordinator.

Yates was a guest on the Oregon football “Coaches Show” this week. He talked about his career and the matchup with his former employer. Here are some of the highlights of Yates’ appearance:

On his experience at Arizona: “I went to Arizona, and we struggled. My first year, I think we were 3-9. That was the first time I'd ever had a losing season in my career. I called my mom, and I was being a baby, as she would call it. My mom and my dad, they love me, but they can also give me tough love sometimes. She told me, ‘You know what? Suck it up. You’ve had 16 years of success. You need to be humble.’

“Those years at Arizona were great for me, because for two of those years I coached linebackers. I (always) had been a DB coach. That changed my whole outlook on football because I learned about the O-line, the D-line, the front. So that helped me grow as a coach – learn the game from inside out.”

On Oregon safety Verone McKinley III, who has eight interceptions over the past three seasons: “I recruited him when I was at Arizona. So I know (him) and his family. I know his dad well. When I first got hired here, he was the first one that came in. He's a coach on the field; he's a coach in the meeting room. He knows the game.

“Here's a great example of Verone. This says it all right here. So we go to Ohio State. We come back Saturday night. We get back (at) 8:30. I come in the office early Sunday morning. At 7:30 a.m., Verone McKinley is in my office. He wants to watch film of the Ohio State game, and then he wants to start getting ready for Stony Brook.

“When he did that, I felt like my room was just different. And not only my room – the team was different, because a lot of people after that victory would come and be like, ‘OK, we just beat Ohio State. We made it.’ ”

On Arizona’s offense, which ranks 11th in the Pac-12 in yards and points: “They run a great scheme. They play hard. Their receivers are very good. I know a lot of those guys. The running backs run hard. They're doing a lot of things out of different groups. They run 11 personnel, 12 personnel, 10 personnel.

“They have some speed. They run vertical. They get behind people. So you’ve gotta make sure you don't let them get behind you.

“They’re an offense that at any moment could just click and take off. They’ve had spurts where you’ve kind of seen that.”

Point, counterpoint: Unlike Ducks, Wildcats haven’t capitalized on turnovers

It’s a stat that’s usually associated with basketball, but it’s one that helps define the difference between the Arizona and Oregon football programs in 2021.

The Wildcats have three points off turnovers. Their opponents have 17.

The Ducks — who pace the Pac-12 with a plus-7 turnover margin — have 34 points off turnovers. Their opponents have three.

UA coach Jedd Fisch lamented Arizona’s inability to capitalize on turnovers in last week’s game vs. NAU. The Wildcats forced three — their first takeaways of the season — yet came away with only one field goal. They lost 21-19.

“We didn’t nearly make enough points from those takeaways,” Fisch said.

What happened on those drives? A quick look:

TAKEAWAY NO. 1: INTERCEPTION

Starting field position: NAU's 24-yard line

Ending field position: NAU's 6

Result: Field goal

TAKEAWAY NO. 2: FUMBLE

Starting field position: UA's 30-yard line

Ending field position: NAU's 49

Result: Punt

TAKEAWAY NO. 3: INTERCEPTION

Starting field position: UA's 37-yard line

Ending field position: NAU 43

Result: Punt

Recruiting rankings illustrate disparity between Oregon, Arizona

You don’t have pull in top-25 recruiting classes to rank in the Top 25.

No. 15 BYU — which is 3-0, all against Pac-12 schools — hasn’t had a class ranked better than 66th in the past five cycles, per 247Sports.com. No. 22 Fresno State, which threatened Oregon and defeated UCLA, hasn’t had one higher than 72nd over that span.

But it’s nice to have that kind of talent.

Arizona coach Jedd Fisch could tell how well No. 3 Oregon has recruited after studying the Ducks.

“Their size and speed is certainly very obvious on film,” he said. “You can see that they've got a ton of talent at all position groups. They're a force to reckon with.”

Mario Cristobal, who went from interim to full-time coach after the 2017 season, has helped turn Oregon into the most attractive destination in the Pac-12. Fisch is off to a promising start as a recruiter but has a ways to go to even get in that conversation.

Here’s how Arizona and Oregon’s recruiting classes stack up over the past five years, per 247Sports.com:

ARIZONA

Year/National ranking/Pac-12 ranking

2017/45th/10th

2018/61st/11th

2019/56th/11th

2020/59th/11th

2021/77th/11th

OREGON

Year/National ranking/Pac-12 ranking

2017/19th/3rd

2018/13th/2nd

2019/7th/1st

2020/11th/1st

2021/6th/1st