Arizona football training camp preview: linebackers

Leading up to training camp, the Star is providing a position-by-position preview. Up next: linebackers.

Position coach: Josh Bringuel

Returners: Taye Brown (Jr.), Chase Kennedy (R-Jr.), Leviticus Su’a (R-So.), Jabari Mann (R-Fr.), Stacy Bey (R-Fr.), Dominic Hanger (R-So.), Brandon Craddock (R-Jr.)

Departures: Jacob Manu, Justin Flowe, Kamuela Ka’aihue, Jared Small

Newcomers: Max Harris (Sr.), Riley Wilson (R-Sr.), Myron Robinson (Fr.), Carter Jones (Fr.), Blake Gotcher (R-Sr.)

The rundown: Manu, Arizona’s multi-year starter and captain, transferred to Washington to reunite with former UA head coach Jedd Fisch after three seasons with the Wildcats.

When Arizona endured several injuries last season — three season-ending setbacks with defensive captains, including Manu — the Wildcats were led by Brown and safety Dalton Johnson, who led the UA in tackles (94).

Besides Brown, Arizona’s linebacker corps, between personnel and coaches, will look much different than it did in 2024.

First-year Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales replaced former defensive play-caller and defensive backs coach Duane Akina, who’s now at Texas. Gonzales was Arizona’s linebackers coach and special teams coordinator last season, and helped coach an injury-plagued defensive unit that ranked 13th in the Big 12 in total defense — 109th nationally — allowing 414.3 yards per game.

Gonzales has a positive track record as a defensive play-caller. Before the Albuquerque native became the head coach of the hometown New Mexico Lobos in 2020, Gonzales had defensive coordinator stints at Arizona State and San Diego State.

Gonzales joined Rocky Long’s staff at San Diego State as the Aztecs’ safeties coach from 2011-16, before becoming SDSU’s defensive coordinator in 2017. Under Gonzales, the Aztecs’ 3-3-5 defense ranked 11th nationally in total defense — tops in the Mountain West — and 21st in scoring defense, which ranked third in the conference in 2017.

For two seasons in 2018 and ‘19, Gonzales was ASU’s defensive coordinator and associate head coach under Herm Edwards. ASU linebacker Merlin Robertson was named the Pac-12 Freshman Defensive Player of the Year in 2018 and became the first Sun Devil freshman to lead the team in tackles since Jason Shivers in 2001.

In 2019, ASU ranked 22nd nationally in rushing defense and 19th in yards per carry (3.4). The Sun Devils were also 18th in college football in takeaways (22) that season.

Back as a defensive coordinator for the first time since 2019, “we’re excited about the opportunity to play good defense,” Gonzales said.

“I can tell you this: they’re going to play hard, be violent and we’re going to get after people,” Gonzales said last month. “With (offensive coordinator Seth Doege) on the other side, it’s a very similar mentality. We’re going to have a really physical football team. This season is going to be a lot of fun.”

Gonzales will still have a role in coaching Arizona’s linebackers this season, but the Wildcats’ newest linebackers coach is Bringuel (pronounced bring-GALE), a Gonzales-era linebacker at San Diego State.

Prior to Arizona, Bringuel was an assistant linebackers coach at Nebraska in 2024, after a season as the Cornhuskers’ defensive quality control coach. Bringuel was also a graduate assistant at Syracuse under former Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White, who’s now at Florida State.

In the spring, Bringuel called Gonzales “an elite football mind” and said, “one of his elite traits is being able to relate to his players and relate to his coaches.”

“He’s a great person first and foremost, a great father, a great husband and you see that when you first come to him as a player,” said Bringuel. “Getting the opportunity to get back with him was a really special thing for me.”

Bringuel said “the ethos” of Arizona’s defense is similar to the system at San Diego State, which is “free, fast and aggressive” and multidimensional.

“That’s what’s cool about this defense, is that it was different year-to-year when I played in it,” said Bringuel.

Arizona’s mantra at linebacker is “playing with effort and dominant contact,” Brown said. Translation for “dominant contact”: be the hammer, not the nail.

“He wants us going through guys and not catching guys or bracing for guys,” Brown said. “He wants us to go through guys and that’s something I can improve on. I feel like I see the game pretty well, I just need to be more aggressive and more downhill and things like that.”

Added Bringuel: “You’ve gotta have that mentality of, ‘I’m running over there to the ball and not because coach is yelling at me to run to the ball. We’re running to the ball and we’re going to stripe people. We’re playing with violence.’ That’s the mentality aspect of it. The technique aspect of it is how do you generate the most force on contact? That’s body position.”

Brown was among Arizona’s top performers at linebacker in the spring and became “a phenomenal example of putting time in the classroom and that allows you to play fast on the field,” Bringuel said.

“You’ll see him breaking on passes before the ball is even thrown,” said Bringuel. “He has an elite sense because he puts the work in.”

The 6-2, 231-pound Brown — one of five Chandler Hamilton products on Arizona’s roster, along with safety Genesis Smith, defensive back Dajon Hinton, wide receiver Tre Spivey III and center Grayson Stovall — who signed in 2023 as the leader of Arizona’s defense is “a big, strong and physical guy,” Bringuel said.

“Now it’s just letting him come out of himself and play with dominant contact and be that dude out on the grass, because he’s a great leader and everyone respects him for how hard he works and the work he puts in day in and day out,” said Arizona’s linebackers coach.

In addition to Brown, other standouts at linebacker from the spring were transfers Wilson (Montana) and Harris (Texas State), along with Kennedy, a 6-3, 228-pound defensive end-converted-linebacker, who played in 10 games last season after transferring from Utah and had 23 tackles and five stops for loss.

As the season progressed and Arizona accrued injuries on defense, Kennedy evolved into a blitzing linebacker and standup defensive end. Now a full-time linebacker, Kennedy has “to work on pass-rush and dropping back in coverage, reading runs, things of that nature. I’m evolving and just adding tools to the toolbox,” he said.

Bringuel said Kennedy “has an elite skillset and we should encourage those and lean into those as coaches.”

Kennedy isn’t the only Arizona linebacker with edge-rushing experience. Wilson, a Prosper, Texas, native, started his career at Hawaii and became a productive player at Montana, where he was a two-time All-Big Sky Conference second-team choice. Wilson had the second-most tackles for loss (15) in the Big Sky in 2023. Wilson had 136 tackles and 26.5 stops for loss in two seasons at Montana.

Since the 6-2, 233-pound Wilson joined Arizona in the spring, “he’s always had a lot of juice and you can tell he really loves the game,” Brown said.

Wilson and Kennedy’s skill sets could conceivably provide Arizona’s defense a 3-3-5 scheme along with its 4-2-5 base defense that it has used in recent years.

“I love the fact that we’re really dynamic and we all bring something different,” said Harris, who’s now at his fourth school in as many years after starting his college career at Incarnate Word, followed by Louisiana Monroe and Texas State. “My style of play might be different than Riley and Taye. Now we’re all on the field? It just causes havoc.”

Arizona’s underclassmen at linebacker are Bey, Mann and Su’a, a former highly-touted recruit and Trinity League Defensive MVP at Mater Dei High School (California). Su’a hasn’t logged a snap at the UA after dealing with injuries in his first two seasons.

The Wildcats added two freshmen linebackers in 2025: Jones, an early enrollee in the spring, and Robinson, who played in the Navy All-American Bowl in San Antonio in January.