Arizona knew the secondary trio of Gunner Maldonado, Treydan Stukes and Dalton Johnson was staying for 2024, but there were questions on if junior cornerback Tacario Davis would join them on the back end after entering the transfer portal.
Davis was back with the team for the first day of spring practice. He said he decided to stay to continue something special with the team.
“Just to give the new coaches a shot to see, like I don’t want to just hop in there not knowing,” Davis said. “It was really giving them a chance because everybody stayed together for the team and stuff. So, I just wanted to be a part of something special and stay together and stick around and see how the coaches. Give him a shot and see what it’s about.”
Davis showed tremendous growth over last season for UA. He appeared in all 13 games, started 11 and led the conference in pass breakups (15) and passes defended (16).
“It was huge,” Stukes said. “Tacario might have had the most growth last season from the first game to the last game. He’s got all the physical tools and he’s just getting smarter as a football player. And it’s gonna be a great help to have a dominant corner like that out there.”
Johnson, Maldonado and Stukes decided together that they were going to go up to the media room and shoot a video for their announcement, which was played in McKale Center during an Arizona-UCLA men’s basketball game on the big screen.
“That was great,” Johnson said. “I’ve never heard McKale that loud. Super exciting and a lot of emotions. But it definitely showed us that the whole UA community, school, students, they have our back. So that felt nice.”
After the departure of former head coach Jedd Fisch the team bonded together and had internal conversations on keeping the band together.
“It was like a weird couple of days when it all first happened but us three wanted to stay together a lot,” Maldonado said. “And when you got guys like Noah (Fifita) and T-Mac (Tetairoa McMillian), who come up to you and say let’s keep at home. It’s very encouraging.”
What also showed UA’s veteran DBs a sign of trust with new head coach Brent Brennan was the retaining and promoting Duane Akina to defensive coordinator. Retaining Akina left a familiarity factor for the players.
“Definitely a huge role for us,” Stukes said. “We talked about it a lot that the growth we had was no secret and we dedicate a lot of that to the way coach Akina coaches and what he demands from us every day in practice. So when coach Brennan hired him as DC, that definitely swayed our decision.”
Brennan has seen how close this back end of the defense is to each other and how the freeness and trust they play together with.
“Those guys are so close,” Brennan said. “I think the level that he wants to play at and the consistency that he wants to perform at, being in the back end with people you’ve done it with before, and that you know where they’re going to be and trust each other is a huge part of it.”