LAS VEGAS — The Pac-12’s longstanding reputation as a breeding ground for top-flight quarterbacks and high-scoring offenses gives the league a feeling Arizona signal-caller Jayden de Laura described recently as “the Wild, Wild West.
“It’s going to make every game fun,” de Laura said at the conference’s annual preseason media day last week, adding, “I enjoy it,” before teammate and UA defensive back Treydan Stukes interjected: “I don’t.”
Five of college football’s 11 highest-scoring offenses represented the Pac-12 in 2022: USC (No. 3 at 41.4 points per game); Washington (No. 7 with 39.7); UCLA (No. 8, 39.2); Oregon (tied with national semifinalist TCU for No. 9 at 38.8); and Utah (No. 11, 38.6).
Arizona football coach Jedd Fisch shares at Pac-12 media day in Las Vegas on July 21, 2023, how improvements on defense shore up what the Wildcats are trying to do across the board to improve this season. Video courtesy Pac-12
UA faced all five in consecutive weeks of the 2022 season, from Oct. 8 through Nov. 12.
The 2023 Pac-12 slate offers little reprieve for a defense — especially for a defense coming off allowing more points per game than all but five FBS teams and one Power Five squad (Colorado), as is the case for UA.
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Arizona defensive back Treydan Stukes swallows up USC wide receiver Tahj Washington in the first quarter of what amounted to a modern-day prototypical Pac-12 shootout in Tucson last October. The Trojans won 45-37 on Oct. 29, 2022, in a game that saw USC’s Caleb Williams and the UA’s Jayden de Laura combine for 791 yards and eight touchdowns through the air.
Describing the Wildcats’ defensive struggles a season ago as by design would not be accurate, but the issues were not wholly unexpected given head coach Jedd Fisch’s blueprint for rebuilding the program.
“Offensively, we made a big commitment a year ago,” Fisch said. “We felt if we didn’t get good on offense, were never going to be able to recruit defense. No one was going to want to come to a team that couldn’t score.”
UA rejuvenating its offense after a string of increasingly futile seasons produced a 30.8-point per game output, good for No. 48 nationally. With eight returning starters back in Tucson, including standout wide receivers Jacob Cowing and Tetairoa McMillan and a stout offensive line, the Wildcats are well-positioned for further offensive improvement.
But UA is not alone in that regard.
Of the conference’s five leading scoring offenses of a season ago, four return their starting quarterbacks with Cameron Rising back at Utah, Bo Nix at Oregon, Michael Penix Jr. at Washington and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams at USC.
Blue Team quarterback Jayden de Laura, right, shovels a pass under pressure from Red linebacker Justin Flowe during Arizona’s spring football game at Arizona Stadium on April 15. Flowe is a former five-star recruit and defensive side transfer from Oregon this offseason.
The Wildcats see three of the four in the 2023 campaign, with Washington, USC and Utah all on the docket.
While returners headline the presumed strength of Pac-12 offense in 2023, UA hopes to combine a healthy mix of returning presence with an influx of new faces to withstand the onslaught.
Defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen is chief among UA’s returning figures, inspiring confidence in a turnaround.
“The biggest thing to having stability is that…in your second year, it’s always better than the first year,” Fisch said.
‘Nansen is the first UA defensive coordinator to be around for consecutive seasons since Marcel Yates, whose dismissal midway through the 2019 season began a run of turnover at the position. Paul Rhoads held the post in the ostensible lame-duck campaign of the Kevin Sumlin era in 2020, then Don Brown came over in Fisch’s first season before taking the head-coaching post at Massachusetts.
“It feels really nice to be in the same system again. I feel very comfortable, even having to switch position recently,” said Stukes, who, in the spring, moved from cornerback to nickel. “That continuity can only benefit us as a defensive unit.”
The 2022 season for Arizona football was hardly perfect on defense. But "your second year, it's always better than the first year," UA head coach Jedd Fisch, left, said about the return of defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen, right. Nansen will be the first Wildcat defensive coordinator to be on the job for consecutive seasons since Marcel Yates, who was dismissed early in the 2019 season.
Stukes added the veterans with more than a year of experience in Nansen’s 4-3 scheme — one that operates with more of a six-man front due to the prevalence of multiple-wide receiver formations responsible for the Pac-12’s lofty point production — work to ease the learning curve for the bevy of newcomers joining the defense.
A host of transfers figure to fill key defensive roles for the Wildcats.
Fisch said he’s “very excited (UA has) a guy like Justin Flowe,” the linebacker transfer from Oregon and former five-star recruit. Flowe will play in a corps with Washington import Daniel Heimuli, of whom Stukes said, “I really like the way he’s playing.”
The front may be the most intriguing unit. While there is much that can be said of the value of consistency in scheme, size cannot be coached.
UA aims to address its size with Georgia transfer Bill Norton at 300 pounds and the 310 pounds UCLA transfer Tyler Manoa brings to the equation.
The combination of stability and added talent may not be enough to slow the gun-slinging offenses of the Pac-12’s “Wild, Wild West,” but Arizona hopes to go into its conference shootouts better armed.
USC quarterback Caleb Williams gets crunched by a pair of Arizona defenders while backing his way to a first down — one that would ultimately seal the Trojans’ 45-37 win over the Wildcats Oct. 29, 2022 in Tucson. Williams, college football’s reigning Heisman Trophy winner, isn’t the only elite signal caller the UA defense has to contend with in 2023. With Williams at USC, four of the Pac-12’s top five offenses from a year ago, including Washington (Michael Penix Jr.), Oregon (Bo Nix) and Utah (Cameron Rising), return their starting QBs.
