Arizona’s Cooper Blomstrom showing versatility in move to linebacker

The Dover, New Hampshire, native is a senior linebacker for the Wildcats this season.

“Every time I meet somebody around here, they tell me I’m one of the only people they met from New Hampshire,” Blomstrom said.

Growing up in New Hampshire, Blomstrom’s hobbies were skiing and hiking.

“It’s a really cool place to be from,” he said. “Now that I’m here, everybody in my neighborhood and everybody in my town is pulling for me.”

He has hiked roughly a dozen 4,000-foot mountains in the New England area. Blomstrom has yet to go hiking in Tucson.

“I have no energy for that,” he joked.

Blomstrom was a standout at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, where he recorded 323 tackles, 24 sacks and 56 tackles for loss. Blomstrom was a four-year starter and team captain, then signed with the FCS Georgetown Hoyas in Washington, D.C.

“It was amazing,” Blomstrom said while reflecting on his Georgetown career. “It was a great opportunity. I had some of the best coaches I’ve ever had and they developed me well. Going to an elite school like that, too, was a great opportunity to balance education and athletics.”

As an edge rusher, Blomstrom played in 31 games over three seasons for the Hoyas and recorded 117 tackles, 27 tackles for loss, 16 sacks, five forced fumbles and an interception. Blomstrom combined for 15 sacks his last two seasons at Georgetown and transferred to Arizona earlier this year.

“He had so much success at his level and all he did was rush off the edge,” said Arizona linebackers coach Josh Bringuel.

Memphis transfer linebacker Everett Roussaw said Blomstrom is “a dominant edge rusher” and is “so unselfish (and) he plays the game the right way and does his job.” Bringuel noted Blomstrom as the most improved Arizona linebacker since the spring.

“In the spring he was thinking too much, so to see him elevate his game and play free because he knows the playbook, it allows him to play fast and we’re able to see a lot of things from him,” Roussaw said.

Learning Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales’ scheme and disguised blitzes, “in the beginning, it’s definitely a lot,” Blomstrom said.

“It’s super dynamic and you can never get a tell,” he added. “Talking to the offensive line, they always say that it’s a pain in the butt to pick up. It’s like any new thing; it takes a while to go through and learn the process. Being here and learning, it’s been great. Through this camp, I feel like I’ve gotten way more comfortable with the playbook and I can be faster because now I know how to do it.”

Since Gonzales took over as Arizona’s defensive coordinator last year, there’s been a trend of former defensive ends converting to off-the-ball linebacker roles in a defense that often uses a 3-3-5 scheme or a four-linebacker scheme.

It happened last season with Chase Kennedy moving from edge rusher to linebacker. Former Montana edge rusher Riley Wilson became a key cog in Arizona’s linebacker rotation last season. This year, Blomstrom and Roussaw came to the UA with the edge rusher, on-the-ball label due to their past experiences.

The 6-2, 243-pound Blomstrom “is more technically advanced than Riley Wilson last year,” Gonzales said.

Prior to Arizona, Blomstrom and Roussaw were considered one-trick ponies. Even though they’re playing off the ball more than their previous stops, that won’t prevent Arizona’s coaches from showcasing exactly why they were initially attracted to them in the portal, especially Blomstrom, who could conceivably start alongside Kennedy and Taye Brown in the season opener against Northern Arizona next Saturday.

“For us, we want to enhance those skills, so we want to highlight them,” Bringuel said. “The defense, it gives us the flexibility to use him in that manner. He has a great skill set off the edge, so, heck yeah, we’re going to utilize that. He’s strong, he’s physical, he’s got pass-rush ability — we’re going to utilize that. But it’s my job as a coach to enhance the other assets of his game, so playing off the ball and doing stuff like that. He’s done a great job of being open to those different dynamics.”

To make the transition successful, from defensive end to linebacker, “you have to be a natural football player and understand how plays are going to hit,” Gonzales said.

“Really good football players … they naturally see where the ball is going to hit and they know how to make people miss,” Gonzales said. “If you take on an offensive lineman every single time, the law of nature is they’re going to beat your tail, because they’re 330 pounds and we’re 230.

“But if you get the right tools and you’re powerful enough to play with leverage, you’re striking and becoming the hammer. Now you can dip-and-rip, now you can stack them. … If he don’t make the right choice, we don’t teach them, we bench them.”

Learning linebacker “has been really fun, honestly,” Blomstrom said.

“I’ve been able to learn the game way more from the coverage piece, the off-ball stuff,” he said. “Working with Coach Bringuel has been awesome. Being on the line, being on the edge, sometimes it’s one-sided, but being here and being able to move around and do a lot of different things, it’s been great.”

Blomstrom and Roussaw’s progress since transferring to Arizona “has been really impressive and it gives us an opportunity to (do) different things and different disguises with those guys in there,” said Gonzales.

One of the disguises is the famous “Red rover! Red rover!” package with four linebackers holding hands pre-snap and one or two linebackers blitz while the others drop back in coverage. The first time it was used in a game, it resulted in linebacker Jabari Mann recording a pick-six against Baylor.

"I saw four off-ball linebackers holding hands and I thought that was hilarious,” Blomstrom said. “We watched the SMU game with my family and they did a lot and I thought that was really cool. … It just gives a different look and confuses them. They don’t know where we’re going and what play we do. It just gives them more to think about.”

With Blomstrom’s pass-rushing ability and growing off-the-ball skillset in pass coverage, “we’ve got some interesting problems to create problems for people by matchups, and it’s really nice when you have the advantage with the matchup,” Gonzales said.

Added Gonzales: “Cooper gives us a big advantage in some of the things we’re going to do with our personnel packages.”

Extra points

— Week 0 of the college football season kicks off on Saturday and this weekend’s slate has a few UA connections. Big 12 opponent TCU, which faces Arizona in November, kicks off the season against North Carolina and head coach Bill Belichick in Ireland Saturday morning. No. 14 USC, Arizona’s former Pac-12 foe, hosts Arizona head coach Brent Brennan’s former team in San Jose State on Saturday.

— Former Arizona running backs coach Alonzo Carter is making his head coaching debut on Saturday, when Sacramento State faces Eastern Michigan on the road at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

“I’m super excited for Zo,” Doege said.

Before Doege interviewed for Arizona’s offensive coordinator vacancy following the 2024 season, a mutual colleague put Doege in touch with Carter. Doege asked Carter: “‘Can you give me the answers to the test? I really want this thing to happen.’”

“And he did,” Doege said. “He put me on game and helped me through the process. Ever since I showed up, he had my back. He does a tremendous job with the relationships with the kids, but he also does a good job keeping the glue within the staff. He was so beneficial for me that first year because I was a new guy trying to implement the system, the culture. I’m pretty intense, I demand a lot, I have a high standard; I coach the kids hard and he had my back the entire way. I’m forever grateful for Coach Carter and wish him nothing but the best. I know he’s going to have a lot of success.”