Arizona football 'finding creative ways' to work on tackling in the spring

No, not Miami. But the field next to Dick Tomey Practice Fields, which is also south of Arizona's beach volleyball court — hence the nickname South Beach. 

The Wildcats spend multiple periods tackling stand-up pads or moving donut-shaped pads at full speed. Sometimes the pursuit drills require players running across the field and tackling at an angle.  

"We're tackling bags and the pop-ups the same way we tackle people," said Arizona senior linebacker Taye Brown, who called it "launching through the bag."

"You definitely want to get it in your mind that it's a player, not just a pop-up," Brown added. 

Live tackling in a high-pressure game isn't the same as tackling pads in a practice environment, but "all those drills translate," said Arizona senior linebacker Chase Kennedy. 

"The launching drill, the redirect screen drills, all of those translate," Kennedy added. "Even though it's not an actual body, going through the movements every day, training your body to learn that way and do it every single day at high intensity, it translates. When we do see a real body, like you saw last year, we're redlining to the ball, swarming." 

Last season, the Wildcats tackled bags during pregame warmups, which "definitely helps us to start the game, get the pads popping a little bit."

Arizona assistant coach and UA great Chuck Cecil, who's known for being a tenacious hitter and tackler, participated in each bag-tackling portion of the warmup, "showing us that he's still got it," said Arizona linebackers coach Josh Bringuel. 

"Doing that pregame gets the body going, the pads popping a little bit," Kennedy said. "We see Coach Cecil starting it off. To see him lead with his energy, we've got no choice but to match that." 

In the era of revenue-sharing, with players getting paid by athletic departments, teams are seeking ways to work on the physicality of the game — simulate live-action tackling, while protecting the assets (players) of Arizona football. Translation: simulate tackling, but keep the players healthy.  

Bringuel said the variety of bag-tackling drills "starts with the creativity of ways you can simulate violence and train violence."

"Football is a violent game, so how can we train it in creative ways, so we're not crashing into one another a thousand times a day, because we get plenty of good-on-good with physical contact," he said. "Using bags and other things to go full speed and accelerate through contact, it's finding creative ways to do that." 

Red rover! Red rover!

In Arizona's win over Baylor in Tucson last season, UA linebacker Jabari Mann had a 34-yard pick-six that was set up by one of the most unorthodox defensive designs in UA history.

Mann, Brown, Kennedy and former UA linebacker Riley Wilson stood shoulder-to-shoulder and held hands prior to the snap, simultaneously walked up to the line of scrimmage and just before the ball was snapped, Mann and Brown dropped back in coverage while Wilson and Kennedy blitzed Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson.

The play call, later identified as "Red rover! Red rover!," was first used in a midseason practice. 

"It was fun and it confused a lot of offenses, including ours," Brown said.  

Kennedy said the Wildcats "started doing it as a joke, the holding hands thing. (Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales) liked it and we took it to the games." 

Bringuel "was getting clowned on in the staff meeting" for approving the defensive strategy, Brown said. 

"It was funny watching on film," he added. 

Bringuel was constantly looking for unique ways to blitz, so "Red rover! Red rover!" "was a nudge at me about how we want to blitz and our blitz timing and spacing between one another, so it was an inside joke with the backers," said Arizona's linebackers coach.

When the Wildcats were serious about using their experimental blitz in the game, Bringuel told the players, "'If you do this stuff, one of two things is going to happen, you're going to end up on (SportsCenter) Top 10 or (SportsCenter) Not Top 10.'"

"If you see how hard Chase Kennedy rushed on that play, it was like he got shot out of a cannon," Bringuel said. "Jabari, great job and undercuts the route, pick-six. If it takes them nudging me and poking me to have them play that dang fast, we can do that every play. That's part of the fun of football, finding creative ways to do creative things to attack offenses, but still have fun yourself.

"Football is a passionate game and when you can get the young man playing with great passion and energy — playing the game they love, you can do some cool things." 

Practice 12 notes and observations

Four weeks down, one more to go. 

The Wildcats concluded their fourth week of their spring football schedule Saturday afternoon at Davis Sports Center and Dick Tomey Practice Fields. 

Here are notes and observations from Arizona's dozenth practice of the spring, as the Wildcats turn their attention to two more practices and the spring showcase on Saturday at Casino Del Sol Stadium. 

– It was a productive day for Arizona's linebackers. In one of the mid-practice team periods, freshman linebacker Dash Fifita and Memphis transfer linebacker Everett Roussaw each had a tackle for loss. Kennedy had a sack in the same period. 

– Arizona freshman receiver RJ Mosley, who's been limited in the spring, participated in drills. The 6-3, 199-pound receiver from Pittsburg, California, is one of few four-star prospects in Arizona's 2026 recruiting class. 

– UA running back Kedrick Reescano, who's been limited in the spring, participated in individual drills. 

– Arizona redshirt junior wide receiver Tre Spivey caught a touchdown pass on a corner route. The pass was thrown by Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita. 

– Redshirt freshman quarterback Luke Haugo threw a 55-yard touchdown to USC transfer wide receiver DJ Jordan. West Virginia transfer Rodney Gallagher scored a touchdown on a jet sweep. Gallagher also had a highlight catch falling out of bounds. 

– The Wildcats ended their 18-period practice with an "overtime" segment. With the ball placed around the red-zone line, Spivey high-pointed a pass from Fifita with four defenders around. Redshirt sophomore Nela Taliauli intercepted reserve quarterback Sawyer Anderson to end practice.

– The Wildcats hosted 10 recruits for unofficial visits on Saturday, including four-star Dallas-area defensive lineman Khing Thibodeaux, three-star Houston linebacker Davon Smith, Las Vegas running back Braylon Rayford, Los Angeles-area cornerback Jordan Slye, Dallas-area cornerback Bryant Robinson. 

– Arizona hosted more than 50 UA professors and academic advisors at practice on Saturday — each one connected to players on the team. 

– Former Arizona quarterback Ortege Jenkins, running back Lamont Lovett and center Kyle Quinn were among the several ex-Wildcats at practice.