Freshman safety Scottie Young Jr., right, could return for the Oregon game after sitting out vs. Oregon State.
With several freshmen playing prominent roles, Arizona Wildcats coach Rich Rodriguez figured his defense would encounter some potholes on the road to improvement. He was just hoping they wouldn’t be sinkholes that could swallow cars whole.
Arizona’s defensive performance at Colorado last week was more like the latter. After three consecutive outings in which they surrendered fewer than 400 yards, the Wildcats fell into some old, bad habits.
The Buffaloes rolled up 300 rushing yards on the Cats and 551 overall. Each of Colorado’s final four possessions covered 75 yards and ended in a touchdown.
“I thought there would be some moments like this game,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t want it to be this bad where we couldn’t get off the field and let them control the game.
“We’ve got to look at what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, who we’re doing it with and make sure we’re not overloading the freshmen mentally and they’re not forgetting about their fundamentals.”
As often happens when a unit struggles, fundamentals become a focal point. So it goes for Arizona’s defensive front entering Saturday’s game against UCLA.
Defensive line coach Vince Amey did not think his charges played with the proper pad level against Colorado. That enabled the Buffs to get a push and open lanes for tough tailback Phillip Lindsay, who rush for 281 yards and three touchdowns. That was 6 yards fewer than Arizona’s previous three opponents had combined.
“We’ve gotta get back to being stout,” Amey said. “We do a lot of movement and stuff. I have to make sure that when we have to hold the point of attack, we get back to that and do a good job at it.”
Amey doesn’t have as much youth in his group as some of his colleagues. Kurtis Brown, who rotates in off the bench, is the only true freshman who plays defensive tackle.
Three freshmen have started every game: “Stud” Kylan Wilborn, “Will” linebacker Tony Fields II and free safety Scottie Young Jr. A fourth, “Mike” linebacker Colin Schooler, joined them in the lineup last week.
“You’ve gotta make a point as a coach to not let them get comfortable (or) complacent,” Amey said. “It’s not going to just happen. You have to go out there and continue to perform, continue to play hard, well, fast, wrap up, tackle. As coaches, that’s our job – to hone in on that and make sure they’re doing those things.”
Although they anticipated growing pains, Rodriguez and his staff won’t use youth as a crutch. Defensive coordinator Marcel Yates flat-out said during training camp that he doesn’t care how old guys are as long as they can play.
“Obviously, it’s not going to go as smooth as (it would) having a bunch of veterans out there,” senior defensive tackle Parker Zellers said. “But at the same time, if (the coaches are) putting you in there and expecting you to perform and execute, you have to live up to their standards.
“Being young is a reason there could be bumps. But you can’t let that be an OK thing. We’ve got to improve.”
