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- [00:00]
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- [01:29]
Indiana can, can sort of cement itself as we are no longer this team that's going to be fighting for six wins anymore.
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Jason Shear
Malachi Toney, is he going to be ready?
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Bud Elliott
Dante Moore, he showed improvement, better command. What's going on y'?
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Jason Shear
All?
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Bud Elliott
Bud Elliott here of the COVID 3 College Ball podcast. And this is Summer School. We are back in session with another episode. That's my man Jason Shear joining us once again for another year of summer school. Wildcat authority covering all things Arizona. Jason, how you been man?
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Jason Shear
Doing well. Thanks for having me.
- [02:01]
Bud Elliott
Yeah, man, excited and heck of a basketball season you guys got to cover as well. That was, that was, that was, that was fun to watch, man.
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Jason Shear
Yeah, it was fun. I mean 25 years, it's a final four and a fun experience. Not the way it ended but overall it was a, a great season.
- [02:16]
Bud Elliott
Absolutely. And you know, a great bounce back season for Brent Brennan in year two after a pretty rocky year one there in Tucson. Going nine and four, six and three in the Big 12. I assume vibes are pretty high there.
- [02:29]
Jason Shear
Yeah, yeah, I Mean, it's definitely, you know, you could feel the vibe changing. I mean, the coaches, when they're on the road recruiting, they said it's a, it's a different vibe with recruits and high school coaches, the fans, the expectations are higher. You know, it's not very often you have a season around here like you did last year with Arizona football. So the expectations have risen and I think people are looking forward to football maybe a little more than they did in the past.
- [02:53]
Bud Elliott
Jumping into the offense here. Seth Deggy is in year two and that's actually notable because this is the first time, at least from looking through here that Fafita has had the same offensive coordinator in, in back to back years. And of course Novafita, the, you know, record setting. Is he record setting in Arizona yet? If not like he's, he's gonna probably this coming year with how much he's played. What are you expecting, I guess improvement wise for him this year? Is there anywhere he can actually play better that is actually reasonable to get to?
- [03:18]
Jason Shear
Yeah. He asked us, Diggy this during the spring. I said, look, Noah's obviously really good, but what's, what's that next step? And the biggest thing they're working on is, is trusting the scheme as much as possible. There will be times where Noah will kind of second guess if something's there or will be there. And Seth Diggy's trying to basically get him to say, look, don't second guess it. It'll. It'll be there. And they feel that they're close. I mean, Deggy said he's as close to Noah as he's been any other quarterback previously. But they're at that point where overall, you know, once he trusts that scheme, they think that he's going to be on another level. And, and he's right there. I mean, he's right there. But you could tell even last year there were times where he didn't necessarily make the throw that really Diggy wanted him to make.
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Bud Elliott
Gotcha. Running back wise, I mean, Roscano and Craig are both back, right? I mean, 14 touchdowns last year combined. Kind of a sneaky good running back combo there in, in the Big 12 and, and nationally, I assume they're going to run it back with those two guys, right? Like, I'm not really expecting, you know, much different here, correct?
- [04:25]
Jason Shear
Yeah, those are the two guys. They were out during spring with injury, but they added a Marshall running back, Antoine Roberts. They like him quite a bit. And then they got young guys, Wesley Yarborough and Cornelius Warren. They have a load of group. They like that group a lot. But at the end of the day it's going to be reason. Oh, and Quincy Craig as the main two. And you know, Alonzo Carter, even though he's gone to Sacramento State, you know, he kind of established that he's just going to use who works. I mean there'd be games where they use four running backs and Lia Moyval who worked with him and last year and was promoted to the running backs coach is, is going to have the same mindset but it'll be those two and then you'll see Antoine Roberts and Yarborough had a really good spring camp with, with Craig and Reau out. And then Cornelius Warren is very different than those other guys. He's a, a redshirt freshman, super fast, probably the fastest out of the group. So they'll use him in certain situations also.
- [05:18]
Bud Elliott
I like what I'm hearing so far about this offense. They return a whole bunch at receiver. I mean last year you had a Trio combined for 1,009 touchdowns. You also added what, D.J. jordan in the portal, some tight end portal additions. Like this group should be really good, right?
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Jason Shear
Yeah, the offense should be really good. I mean it, it, it always comes down to the offensive line.
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Bud Elliott
Yeah, we're getting there. That's where I saved some time in this. I got, I got some questions there for sure.
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Jason Shear
But you know, when you look at the skill positions, they added Cole Rusk at tight end from Illinois. Tyler Powell, who's supposed to be the starting tight end and still might be, got injured last season, so he missed the spring and Rusk was really good. They've rebuilt the tight end room. They didn't really like it last year. This year they added three or four guys. Shane King as a transfer. They added Arthur Band from San Diego State. They have Rusk, they have Henry Caballas, he's a high school tight end who enrolled early and has looked really good. And then at receiver, you know, they bring back trace by the Gio. Richardson is in the slot. He was on the team last year, but he was really good during the spring. They expect big things from him. And then DJ Jordan from USC had a nice spring. Jordan Ross from Colorado State had a nice spring. They, they kind of rebuilt the wide receiver in the tight end room and it looked good throughout the spring.
- [06:32]
Bud Elliott
Now, now the kind of like this, all this is very Oregon to me, right? Like, oh, wow. Running backs loaded, quarterbacks loaded, receivers loaded. Will they have time? Will they have lanes to run through? They lose 90 of their 140 starts from last year. Like, a lot of turnover there. What? Bounds is back. One of the starting tackles, and then Deuce is back. Correct. One of the guards. But we got to figure out the other three positions. Like, how are you feeling, you know, about either the internal options or the guys they brought in via the portal.
- [07:00]
Jason Shear
Yeah. So what, what it looks like they're going to do is kind of promote guys that were on the team last year. There were two things that they had to do. They had to bring Tristan Bounds back, and they were able to do that and they were ecstatic. That is a huge deal. He wound up being one of their better linemen by the end of the year. Then they lost Canada Camber at center. That was a big deal. They went and got Washington transfer Zachary Henning, who had a pretty good spring, and then, you know, they had Deuce. They bring him back. Matthew Lotto was on the team last year. He'll wind up starting most likely. Rhino was a. Was a tackle last year. Struggled. They moved him inside to guard, which is probably his more natural position, and he's played well this spring. And then they won and they got some depth. They got Jake Griffin from byu, they got Nathan Hale from San Jose State, so there's depth there. Jew was a freshman last year. They moved him to, to backup center just in case he had a nice spring. So there's still some questions. You know, the, the. The experience isn't necessarily there in terms of. Of starting snaps, but there are guys on the roster that are kind of familiar with the system and are getting boosted up. They. They had a pretty good spring, but, you know, you don't know it until you see it in the game. They're. They're running in shells and all that, so it's not going to be the same. But they feel good about the offensive line overall.
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Bud Elliott
Nice. So maybe I don't. Probably hard to be better than last year, but like, if you avoid that big drop off and you have the more continuity from all the other skill guys and you get Fafita as a senior, I, I can see this offense still being really, really dangerous. Yeah. If the O line can just not, you know, have a drop off, that would make a lot of sense.
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Jason Shear
If the O line is as good as it was last year, I think the offense as a whole will be better than it was last year.
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Bud Elliott
Nice. Is there a guy on offense who maybe we haven't talked about yet or maybe we just kind of, you know, glossed over a little bit? And it's. Maybe it's hard because like you have so many returning starters at all the skill spots. But if there is there a guy who maybe he reaches his potential this year as opposed to, you know, when you or the staff thinks he will, which is probably more of a next year type guy. Like if he all of a sudden the light bulb comes on and he's like he's ready now. Is there a guy like that on this team that changes your opinion of what this offense can be? If he was to hit early?
- [09:16]
Jason Shear
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's early, but Chris Hunter has wide receiver, has a ton of potential and for whatever reason he hasn't been able to reach it and he'll make great plays in practice and I'll have a couple big games and then disappear. He's the guy with their. They're just begging to unlock that next level because if they do, the, the offense changes and he's had games where he looks awesome, like I said, and then the next game you don't even know he's on the field. And so they're, they're trying to find that consistency with him. There's a couple freshmen that have impressed at wide receiver. Caleb Smith, I don't know how much he'll play. He's a 58 slot guy, but in, in a Seth Daggy offense, he knows, in a spread type offense, he knows how to use those guys. He's had some really nice plays. I don't know if the depth is there, but he's a guy where. He may not play much this year, but in the next couple years he'll, he'll be a guy that, that gets legit reps.
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Bud Elliott
He was, he was a beast in 7 on, if I recall, right? Like on the 7 on 7 circuit. Yeah.
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Jason Shear
Okay.
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Bud Elliott
All right, dude, this has been awesome. Let's go and hit a break here. On the flip side, I got a lot of questions about this defense. So we've saved some time for that. And we had a little schedule, little projections and an outlook brought to you by Apple Card.
- [10:24]
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- [10:53]
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Bud Elliott
Hey guys, welcome back into summer school. Here on the COVID 3 podcast, that's Jason Shear, the authority at Wildcat. Authority, of course, your best source for all things Arizona. Jason, let's turn the page here to the defense. So you do get Danny Gonzalez back at coordinator. I thought that was a real nice keep, you know, for them. I'm going to start here with DB because when I watch the NFL draft and I watch the NFL draft declarations, they have four guys go off to the league from, from this secondary. Like that's, that's crazy. One off season. There can't be many teams maybe not named like a Georgia that have ever had that happen. How are they going to go about replacing these guys soon? They're gonna do some, some things differently schematically. But like what's your kind of assessment of this room? And, and let's walk through this.
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Jason Shear
Yeah, that's the question. I mean that is by far the biggest question. With the defense traded Stukes, who went in the second round was a nickel. They went out and got Malcolm Hartzog from Nebraska. That is a lock to be that replacement. Malcolm Hartzog will be the, the starting nickel. Then they kind of rebuilt the, the entire room. They got Dylan Austin from, from Oregon. They got Cam Chapa from Northern Colorado. They got a, you know, they got a few other Players. Now the issue is during the spring those guys were injured. Austin got injured early on in spring. Choppa had an off season procedure and he missed it. So they were running Gavin Hunter who returns from last year and he played in the, in the Holiday bowl and, and they like him quite a bit. And then there's a walk on named Quinn Olson who Danny Gonzalez speaks highly of. But in terms of the safeties, I mean, that's quite. You don't just replace those guys, you know, you don't just replace four NFL picks at corner. They feel fine, you know, but, but safety is the one where, you know, once they get healthy, I think that competition is going to be wide open and fall camp.
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Bud Elliott
Are they going to have to like, do they have the guys up front maybe to generate more pass rush to take some pressure off the secondary?
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Jason Shear
Yeah, I think this D line's better than last year's. I really do. And one of the reasons why is, you know, unfortunately Trey Smith got hurt last season and he was probably going to go to the NFL, but he wound up red shirting the rest of the year and getting one more year of eligibility. So he's, he's a fifth year guy at defensive end. And they return most of the defensive line. Leroy Paulo, Dominic Alessio, Zach Salepa. They've added guys, you know, their D line in the way that Danny Gonzalez works and blitzes from all angles. I mean, Chase Kennedy is back and all that. So they, they like that D line. If you were to ask Danny Gonzalez if this D line is better than it was last year, he wouldn't hesitate to say that it is.
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Bud Elliott
Gotcha. Okay, linebacker. So what? They, they don't lose that much, right? I mean, Brown's back and, and like he's, he's been pretty damn good for them for a while. How do you think about this group?
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Jason Shear
Yeah, they only lost Max Harris. They, you know, they keep Tay Brown and Chase Kennedy. Who are their, their starters. They added Everett Russell from Memphis who's a, a physical downhill linebacker that had a really nice spring. The one guy that's been a surprise is Cooper Blumstrom from, from Georgetown. Big kid, very athletic. You know, you always wonder how those guys are going to translate. And again, it's, it's, you know, you, you kind of find out in games more, but he's been a surprise that, that they like quite a bit. But being able to get Chase Kennedy and, and Tay Brown back is a big deal because those guys are going to be the, the leader of the defense overall. And they know exactly what Danny Gonzalez
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Bud Elliott
wants to kind of the same question on, on defense that I asked you. The offense, like, is there a guy, you know, maybe hasn't reached his potential yet? They'd really, really like if he could kind of come on and play, play to his ceiling this year that could really help this defense.
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Jason Shear
Yeah. So if you ask the defensive coaches, they all say that defensive end Dominic Lassio is the most improved guy from last season, but he hasn't produced yet. And one of the biggest reasons is he just wasn't big enough. And defensive line coach Joe Salovey is just like, look, some people's bodies react different. It takes guys longer. And he's at that point like he needs to be able to produce this year. He had a nice spring, he's going to start, but his numbers haven't been there. And so this is the challenge because I'm not exaggerating when I say every single defensive coach said he is the most improved guy on the roster on that side of the ball. So now for him it's just a matter of turning it into production.
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Bud Elliott
For sure. I turn it to the schedule here real fast. I mean Northern Arizona is a nice warm up. Then you got to go to BYU immediately, which is always a tough trip. Then come home for NIU at Washington State, which is kind of one of those weird, you know, road trips left over, you know, don't love having to go play a non conference game at Washington State. Never an easy place to play. And they, they can throw it around pretty well typically. So that'll be kind of an early test for that secondary somewhat. But you should be able to score enough to where that game's not truly in doubt. Then Cincinnati comes in. I think they probably have some passing game questions. I don't actually talking to Chad right after you of our Cincinnati site at West Virginia, kind of more of a run team. Like not an easy place to play, but they're not a great passing offense. By week, Iowa State again like completely new team. So we'll see, you know, what they look like at Texas Tech. I mean passing games probably a little bit less scary as we sit here today with the unknown status of Brandon Sorsby. I mean still like not an easy game clearly because the roster is loaded. TCU comes to town. There's certainly a lot more run game defense this year than they were under Briles. You know, Utah will kind of see about, about their passing game and then at Kansas State and then, you know, hosting Arizona State. I, they do Play a lot of the favorites to win this league and they're certainly one of them as well. You know, you, you don't dodge Texas Tech, Utah, byu and then you play most of the secondary favorites with Kansas State, Arizona State, you know, tcu, whatnot. You don't get a whole lot of the bottom dwellers. Like I think I'd like to see a little more like Colorado, UCF on this thing. It's not a real friendly draw, but in looking at this, it, if past defense is kind of the concern with the rebuilt secondary, I, I think in some ways this could break for them. Like, I'm not seeing a whole lot of like just dominant passing games on the schedule as we sit here today in early, in early May.
- [18:00]
Jason Shear
Yeah. And I think the Big 12 is a little, little weird this season and there's a lot of turnover. I mean and so you know, if you take that schedule and you say maybe it was last year's schedule, it would make me concerned. Right. Because a lot of those teams that, you know, but there's a lot of questions with, with like Iowa State's rebuilding and you know, if you took that game last year, Arizona got their butts kicked at Iowa State, but that's a completely different team now. I, I, I think that the more I look at the schedule, the better I feel at it. You know, first glance I thought man, this is, this is a bad schedule. You know, at Texas Tech on Halloween it's going to be a really hard game. There's a short turnaround. I think that week. The following game is a Friday night against Kansas State. So, so those two are, you know, will be interesting. But you know, I look early season byu, I think if they can win that game, you know, they're, they're going to start the season pretty strong. And so that, that to me, even though it's early, it's a conference game where it wasn't previously. I think if they can go to Provo and get that upset that, you know, and they were close last year, but I think that'll go a long way in their success overall this season.
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Bud Elliott
I also like, there's no back to back road games, you know, and there's really not the, the late stretch. I mean Texas Tech, tcu, Utah. Well, at Texas Tech, tcu, Utah, at Kansas State, Arizona State, like man, if you find a way to go three and two there, you're, you're sitting pretty. Especially if for some reason, you know, like it's an upset, but it's not a monumental upset to Go in a byu, right. Like it's not an easy place to play, but they're not like 12 point dogs in that game or something silly. You know, like that, that, that's the stretch. I mean that five game stretch is, is one of the tougher ones I think in college football.
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Jason Shear
Yeah, Yeah. I mean it was similar to last year. They had a stretch where they went on the road and it's like, okay, if you can get out of here three and two or, and healthy, you're going to be in good shape. And it's the same this year. If they get out of that stretch three and two, that could mean they had a nine win season. It's that, you know, and so that's the stretch. When you look at it like you mentioned that winning at BYU is tough, but they're not going to be like huge underdogs. That's a winnable game. So you look at that stretch with the short week and then Texas and those teams are probably going into the season going to be more stable than maybe some of the other Big 12 teams. So they can get out of that three and two. That's, that's a big victory for them.
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Bud Elliott
Hell, and honestly like if, if you get the BYU and even if you went 2 and 3, I think you would be in somewhat of a favorable situation with some of the tiebreakers with the way you could shake out just because you, you have played so many of the top teams in this league. It's, yeah, like scheduling variance this year is going to play. The more I look at this, the More these Big 12 episodes that I do. Like some of these teams got a much more favorable draw just in terms of who they play. You know, if you're getting like, if you get like 5 of like Colorado, UCF, you know, Cincy, those types, not they're terrible, but like they're, they're a step down I think in terms of roster quality then, you know, maybe the top six or seven in the league. I mean, yeah, like it's, it matters every year, but it certainly matters when you have a league this large. For sure. Jason, man, I really appreciate it. This is always super informative and I'm a lot more schooled up now on Arizona than I was prior. Man, were you guys. Wait, are they good in baseball this year?
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Jason Shear
No, this is one of their worst years ever. But to be fair, they're in, they're so injured. It's. I've never seen anything like it. They'll play a freshman and he'll be injured on like the first play of the game. I've never seen anything like it.
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Bud Elliott
Dang. Well, maybe a bounce back in in 27 then. Always appreciate it man.
- [21:32]
Jason Shear
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
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