Treydan Stukes, Genesis Smith and Gavin Hunter have been some of the players getting reps at the new Stars position this spring.
Stars coach Brett Arce likes to mess with people, saying he coaches the best players on the team, but it’s just a fancy name for a defensive position.
“It’s really a nickel position,” Arce said Tuesday. “It’s our nickel safety hybrid. So the safeties and nickels are all kind of interchangeable. We use that term star but a lot of people say nickel.”
Smith and Hunter both are coming from the safety room and are getting their feet wet with the new position. Smith appeared in all 13 games in 2023 for UA and showed he was ready for a larger role this season.
“Another guy that’s just really versatile, long and can run,” Arce said. “Not afraid of contact. A guy that star position needs to be able to fit the run, play in the box, not be scared to go up and take on 300-pound pullers and Genesis has really matured and grown his game in that aspect. The physicality he showed a lot last season in his ball skills, his range, his cover skills, and he’s really grown his game physically being able to fit that box.”
Leading the position group is Stukes, a senior who has 24 career starts and was Arizona’s nickel corner last season. But he isn’t the most vocal leader in the locker room; he leads in a different way.
“If you put on the tape, you’re gonna see for yourself his game,” Hunter said of Stukes. “And that’s attached to his preparation and just the way he approaches it every day. And that’s something that I take away from him, just how to approach each and every day. Never get comfortable. Just keep trying to get better every day.”
Stukes enjoyed the change and the process of learning the nickel corner spot last season and now coming into this spring he’s looking to focus on getting more comfortable.
Retaining defensive backs coach Duane Akina as defensive coordinator continues to prove a key piece on why the majority of the defense has stayed together.
“It was super important,” Smith said. “I felt like it wasn’t much of a change. So, that was also easier on us just being able to play fast because it;s a similar defense from last year so I feel like that was a key part of that.”
Arizona’s improved defense was aggressive last season and the plan is to ramp up that aggressiveness.
“I think we’re going to be aggressive this year,” Arce said. “We’ve been bringing some heat and giving some offenses some different looks. We want to bring the game to the offense, not always have them dictate what we do. So, I’d say yeah it’s going to be more aggressive.”