Spring practice comes to an end this week for Arizona, which since mid-March has been installing new systems on offense and defense while integrating dozens of new players adding since December.
“We’ve still got work to do, but I think we’ve made great progress,” coach Brent Brennan said Saturday night after a workout inside Arizona Stadium.
The Wildcats have three practices remaining, including the Spring Showcase on April 19. But along the way the NCAA transfer portal will re-open on Wednesday for a 10-day period.
Players have already started announcing their intentions to enter the portal, with dozens listed on 247Sports’ tracker. Nobody from Arizona has shown up on there, but inevitably they will. But who, and how many, is anyone’s guess.
“I don’t think you ever know until you’re in it,” Brennan said, adding he’s hopeful the amount of movement is nowhere near what it was during the winter portal.
Following a disappointing 4-8 season the Wildcats saw more than 30 members of the 2024 team enter the portal. A few withdrew, and the UA added 25 transfers.
“There was so much movement then,” Brennan said. “I think all of us in football are hopefully moving toward a situation where we have a single portal like the other sports do. The two portals in football makes that extremely complicated.”
Brennan said that Arizona could look to add more pieces from the portal depending on needs identified during spring ball, plus from whatever losses it incurs from this window. More help on the offensive and defensive line would likely be the priority, particularly the group protecting quarterback Noah Fifita.
“The offensive line is always a work in progress, that’s something that continues to go all the way through training camp and doesn’t solidify until you play games,” Brennan said.
Injuries have compounded the uncertainty on the offensive line, with various players missing time during spring. Projected starting left tackle Rhino Tapa’toutai is still recovering from knee surgery, while Georgia Tech transfer Jordan Brown is out indefinitely and several others have been in and out of practice.
Senior Chubba Ma’ae, who started on the defensive line last season before getting injured, has been shifted to the offensive side and has seen time at center and guard.
“Chubba didn’t play defensive line until he was in college,” Brennan said. “It’s really a natural spot for him. Last year when he was coming off his injury, when he was redshirting, he had to play some scout team O-line and he did a heck of a job.”
Overall, Brennan has been happy with how spring ball gone considering all the newness. He said he’s been impressed with the development shown by many of the newcomers, particularly at receiver, linebacker and in the secondary.
“Anytime you introduce three new coordinators there’s going to be a lot of teaching, a lot of learning, a lot of mistakes,” he said. “But I think the players have been really diligent with their process of doing what they’re asked to do. We’ve done a great job of making strides knowing where to go, what to do.
“On offense it’s how quickly you’re attacking people vertically, how quickly your receivers are getting on top of defenders or kind of getting into their cushion and kind of run past them. And on defense, in my head, how I look at it is, how quickly the air disappears. Like when you’re trying to get the ball to a good player in space and you do that and there’s people all over him. That’s that team speed you’re looking to increase and I think we’ve done that.”