Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Arizona Tuesday Twitterbag: Talking injuries and recruiting issues for the Wildcats

Are all these injuries a coincidence or something more?

Welcome to yet another edition of our Arizona Wildcats Tuesday Twitterbag.

Most people have injuries on the mind this week — understandably so — so I’ll take on those questions as well as whatever else some of our readers wanted to know about this week.

As always, follow us on Twitter @azdesertswarm, and get those questions into us each Monday night and Tuesday morning to be featured here!

I think it’s a combination of the two. Some of it is certainly bad luck (see J.J. Taylor) but I also believe some of it is the philosophy the strength and conditioning coaches use, as well as the scheme and style of play this team runs every day in practice.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and the last two years, the team does do different post-practice recovery things that they did not do in the two years prior that I have been covering them. I’ll never be able to say for sure if it’s related, but I haven’t seen anyone else bring it up to this point, and I think it’s at least worth bringing up.

I don’t remember anything like this. Not a lot of teams that I know of have had to rely on their fourth-string quarterback and running back, loose their two biggest playmakers on defense, and also mix-and-match on the offensive line like Arizona has had to do.

I believe that if he applies for that sixth year, he’ll get it. However, Rich Rodriguez made it sound like that he wouldn’t support filing that waiver if the decision had to be made today. That decision will be made in the offseason, but the coaches, doctors, and Ippolito will have to decide if it’s worth it to jeopardize his long-term health to try and get back to play another year. This is the third time he’s torn an ACL. Sometimes things just aren’t meant to be.

Towards the end of the 2017 season if the team isn’t able to find success again next year. Two years ago, Arizona won the Pac-12 South, and was one win away from likely getting a spot in the College Football Playoff. Whatever ways you try to find to discredit that, be it luck or whatever, it still happened. Also, Rodriguez totally changed the defensive staff this year, so he will get at least one more year with them in place. And finally, his buyout will be north of $6 million. Arizona is not ponying up that kind of money. Not right now.

Offensive line play. That group just hasn’t been good enough or consistent enough to allow whoever is the quarterback and running back to do anything. I do really think it’s that simple. Brandon Dawkins and Khalil Tate have shown that they can thrive when given the time to let a play develop, and Tyrell Johnson and Zach Green are no slouches running the ball. They just need the blocking to do so.

If we’re talking first halves, I’d agree with you. The defense has been better than most anticipated, and this certainly isn’t the worst defensive line that the world has seen in the last 50 years like some suggested before the year started. Their late-game performances leave something to be desired still, but I’m sure there are people that are surprised. I for one, am not that shocked by it.

I’m by no means a defensive line expert, nor am I allowed to watch practices to know what exactly is going on with a lot of guys there, Marcus Griffin being one of them. I do think that he’ll continue to get increased snaps, but when someone like Larry Tharpe Jr. shows up and just leaps over everyone on the depth chart, it makes you wonder what’s going on with those guys that have been in the program for 2+ years.

I believe the “big names” Arizona is still pursuing are at skill positions (defensive back, wide receiver). There are some defensive linemen left on their target list, but I’m not sure that any of them are what you’re looking for as far as the freakishly large and athletic type that every team wishes they could land.

You’d have to ask Gabe about JuCo players. I don’t have any idea on that front. But with Josh Allen, I’m not really sure why people would want him on the team. The guy committed, decommitted, recommitted, failed to qualify, sat out a year at Long Beach City College for nothing, and ended up out of shape while doing all of this. He is not the answer.

Get ‘em early. I don’t know if the conference is going to do that December 12th sale they used to do. With a bigger venue this year, maybe they will once they see how early ticket sales go. But if you want all-session passes, it’s best to buy them right away instead of waiting it out. It does not get any cheaper the closer you get to March.

Seriously. I had so many conversations with people on Monday about these new basketball jerseys, and I don’t even know how to explain how Arizona ended up with these other than they have absolutely no say in what Nike provides them.



from Arizona Desert Swarm - All Posts http://ift.tt/2duCExV
via IFTTT

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 4:57 PM   0 Comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home