Arizona Wildcats see breakout potential as defensive tackle depth takes shape

Texas transfer Tiaoalii Savea, who played two seasons for the Wildcats prior to transferring to UT last year, and UT Martin transfer Deshawn McKnight are trending toward starting against Hawaii on Aug. 30 after a productive spring and offseason.

As far as the second unit? As Run DMC once said, it’s tricky.

The Wildcats signed three junior college transfer defensive tackles in Leroy Palu, Zac Siulepa and Ezra Funa in 2025, however, Siulepa and Funa are “working through their academic process” and aren’t academically cleared to participate with the team during training camp, said Arizona head coach Brent Brennan.

“We’re optimistic that they’ll be here,” Brennan said.

The 6-3, 300-pound Funa starred at Mater Dei, but took the junior college route at College of San Mateo. Last season at College of San Mateo, Funa had 84 tackles, 20.5 stops for loss, 6.5 sacks and two fumble recoveries. Siulepa, a 6-7, 365-pound New Zealand native, played at Garden City Community College.

Until Funa and Siulepa are cleared, Arizona’s key contributors at interior defensive tackle — in addition to Palu, a Cerritos College transfer, who was the first defensive line commit after the hiring of defensive line coach Joe Salave’a — are under-the-radar returners: Jarra “Bear” Anderson and Julian Savaiinaea.

Including McKnight and Savea, “we’ve got those five inside, for sure,” said defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales. Salave’a said freshman Mays Pese, a 6-3, 271-pounder from Santa Barbara, California, “has elite quickness and he’s going to start getting some looks.”

“As a group overall, we just have a lot of guys who don’t have a lot of game experience overall,” Salave’a said. “But I think the way we’re training and what we’re pushing, setting the tone up front is critical. ... We’re working. We’re a work in progress.”

In an ideal world for Salave’a, Arizona is “three deep at every spot” on the defensive line.

“The way the game is played now, you truly need two deep, but for me, it’s three,” Salave’a said. “We have to have a third guy in each of those positions. Now, the goal is to rep every guy and cross-train those guys in the process. We don’t have time to wait and see who’s going to be filling for the next man up, so we use every practice session that we have from now until the end of fall camp to mix and match the guys up front. ... You can never have enough.”

A dark horse in Arizona’s interior defensive linemen is Savaiinaea, Gonzales said.

“He’s done a phenomenal job with the transformation of his body,” Gonzales said. “His twitch and quickness are going to create problems for people.”

Savaiinaea is “very instinctive (and) has good awareness,” Salave’a said.

“He’s starting to push for more reps,” added Salave’a.

Savaiinaea, a Tafuna, American Samoa native, is the younger brother of former Arizona star offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea, who is entering his rookie season with the Miami Dolphins as a second-round draft pick. Like his older brother, Julian Savaiinaea signed with the Wildcats out of Saint Louis High School in Honolulu.

Savaiinaea was a part of Arizona’s 2023 recruiting class, a group that mostly splintered following the departure of the Jedd Fisch regime. Arizona has eight players from that ‘23 class: Savaiinaea, safety Genesis Smith, offensive tackle Rhino Tapa’atoutai, linebacker Taye Brown, defensive end Dominic Lolesio, linebacker Leviticus Su’a, wide receiver Devin Hyatt and safety Gavin Hunter.

Savaiinaea redshirted his freshman season, the same year Arizona won 10 games and won the Alamo Bowl. He played in six games as a redshirt freshman and had four tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. Over two years, Savaiinaea elevated his body weight from 245 pounds to 280.

After Savea transferred back to Arizona following a season at Texas, he “was shocked” to see Savaiinaea’s body transformation.

“I was like, ‘Dang, my boy got big,’” Savea said. “He went from scrawny and now he looks like a bodybuilder. He has improved a lot and that’s what I like to see.”

Arizona defensive end Dominic Lolesio said Savaiinaea “got a lot more explosive, too.”

“I’m excited to see what he can do, as well as the rest of the unit,” Lolesio said.

Anderson, a 6-2, 271-pound Katy, Texas native, transferred to Arizona last season following a season at Memphis. Anderson had 10 tackles, two stops for loss and 1.5 sacks in 11 games at Memphis and was named to Pro Football Focus’ All-Freshman Team in 2023.

Anderson missed last season with a season-ending leg injury. Anderson suffered a stress fracture in his shin during training camp and underwent surgery.

In training camp, Anderson “is doing some good things” and “flashing,” Salave’a said.

“He’s finally healthy and doing some things and showing good twitch and vertical movement, so I’m excited for him,” Salave’a said.

Anderson and Savaiinaea “play a little different than one another, as pretty much all of us do,” said Arizona defensive end Tre Smith.

“They’re both getting stronger and Coach Joe has been helping us with technique and continuing to develop (us), and I really see a lot out of them,” Smith said. “It’s been great to see, honestly.”

While Savaiinaea and Anderson don’t have the 300-pound body types of Savea, McKnight and Palu, their athleticism and strength provide a different skill set on the interior line — same with Alcorn State transfer Malachi Bailey, a 6-2, 278-pound senior from Atlanta, and Northwestern State transfer Chancellor Owens, who can squat over 600 pounds, Gonzales said.

“He’s got some unbelievable power, but he’s just like a baby deer,” Gonzales said of Owens. “We have to teach him how to use that power and how to be comfortable with it.”

When Arizona enters a three-man front in Gonzales’ 3-3-5 scheme, the tackle-edge rusher hybrids of Savaiinaea, Anderson, Owens and Bailey are more likely to play a three-, four- or five-technique over guards and tackles, with Savea as a nose tackle, “because Tia can dominate a center,” Gonzales said.

“If you have someone who can be right over the football, it makes it really hard for offenses to run the ball — and we will not let people run the ball,” he said.

Gonzales said “it’s a terrible idea to compare people to great players, but their skillsets are similar” to former Washington State star and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Hercules Mata’afa, who thrived under Salave’a.

“I hope people are talking about Bear like they did about Hercules,” Gonzales said. “And guess who’s coaching him? It’s the same guy.”

Salave’a said “it’s not fair to Bear and Julian to draw that (comparison to) Hercules, because I think these guys have tremendous potential as well.”

“But it’s exciting, because if they pulled up Hercules’ film, it won’t take them long to know who Hercules is,” Salave’a said. “We’re building the same type of approach with these guys.”

If Siulepa and Funa are cleared in time for training camp and the start of the season, Gonzales said “they’re added benefits.”

“They’re working hard to get here,” Salave’a said of Funa and Siulepa. “When they get here, we’ll assess and give them a plan. The plan will be a simple one, then we’ll build it from there. They’ve also been instructed to train and stay active while they’re still working to get here and they’ve done that. We’ll see and assess it when they get here.”

Extra points

— Salave’a, on Gonzales’ defensive system: “If I’m a player and I want to be aggressive, this is the system that allows you to do that. The biggest thing we’re trying to get done in the room up front is we gotta be sound fundamentally. ... I’m not about running around people. The goal has already been set, the expectations have been set and we’re going after people head up. We’re not going around or trip people. It’s fascinating to have a system that allows our guys to play free and aggressive. It’s organized chaos. It’s chaotic to others, but for us, it’s pretty neat and organized.”

— Salave’a, on 6-2, 243-pound redshirt freshman edge rusher Eduwa Okundaye, who’s been mostly playing with Arizona’s second unit: “If Eduwa continues to put on muscle tissue and mass on his frame, he’s a young man who has quick twitch and speed. He’s also shown that the added muscle on his frame, he’s able to take on the blocks. It’s good to see him before.”

— Lolesio, on how the defensive line bonds off the field: “Jam. We play music on the guitar, we all sing songs and just have a good time with each other and build that camaraderie off the field.”

— Arizona continued to work on its 3-3-5 defense on Monday and featured a defensive line group that had Smith, Savea and Lolesio, with a linebacker trio of Chase Kennedy, Max Harris and Taye Brown. In the final team period, Palu replaced Lolesio in the three-man front, with the same trio at linebacker.

— In Arizona’s four-man front on Monday, it used Smith, Savea, Palu and Lolesio. The second unit had redshirt freshman Okundaye, Savaiinaea, Anderson and Alcorn State transfer Malachi Bailey.

— Arizona’s defense had multiple sacks and quarterback pressures on Monday. Some of Arizona’s splash plays on offense would’ve resulted in sacks for Kennedy and Smith. Arizona’s defense consistently applied pressure with linebacker and defensive back blitzes.

— In one-on-one drills on Monday, cornerbacks wore boxing gloves while defending wide receivers to prevent excessive hand-grabbing in coverage. Returning starter Marquis Groves-Killebrew was flagged three times for passing interference on Sunday.