Taylor Mazzone breaks down Arizona’s outside receivers

Cedric Peterson | Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

There might not be a position group more intriguing on the Arizona Wildcats than wide receiver where experience is lacking but potential is booming.

What is pretty unique is that the Wildcats have two receivers coaches. Taylor Mazzone tutors the outside receivers, while Theron Aych looks over the inside receivers.

Mazzone and Aych met with the media Monday. Below is what Mazzone had to say about the outside guys. (You can watch the full interview at the end of the article).

Go HERE to read what Aych said about the inside receivers.

On Cedric Peterson’s development: “He’s put a lot of work in since winter time and over spring time and summertime. You can tell he’s gotten stronger. I believe on the top of his routes, he’s done a great job getting more physical and separating from defensive players. So I’ve been very excited to see what he can do. Last year we had a bigger guy in the boundary with (Shawn) Poindexter and now Ced now being a guy that can do both outside to the field and to the boundary, he can now separate in those critical situations. So I’ve been excited to see where he’s taking his senior year.”

On if Peterson has taken on a leadership role as the only senior: “Oh yeah. From day one when the older guys left, he came in and you could tell he’s been prepared mentally, you could tell there were some things on his chest that he really got the chance to give off to the players and say it’s about the team. And he has that everyday drive that you want everybody in the room to have, and it’s great to have him to have that pedestal and that mic and be able to share with the rest of the guys, especially young ones.”

On redshirt sophomore Drew Dixon’s development: “I think Drew has become a little more patient in his route running. Whenever you make that change like Jamarye from quarterback to receiver, you don’t understand that when you get in press coverage, you kind of panic a little bit. This is new. There’s a guy holding me up at the line of scrimmage. So relax, rely on your fundamentals and have the patience to get open. I think he became a little more mature in that mindset, so he’s been doing a great job all camp.”

On former QB Dixon learning to use his frame: “He knows when the ball’s in the air, it should be his. Him being 6-3, 208 pounds, he has to know that that ball in the air is his. So just an aggressive (mentality). As a quarterback, do you have that aggressive gene in you or not? And I feel like he’s found out that if you want to play in the Pac-12, you better have that aggressive gene when the balls in the air because that DB on the other side, he has the same gene going for that ball. And then with the two DBs we go against every day (Jace Whittaker and Lorenzo Burns), it’s unbelievable to go against those type of caliber DBs that have seen a lot of football.”

On Tre Adams: “He’s been good. Tre has been working hard. He’s been a guy that from spring, he finally got more reps, and he’s just kind of building every day from that situation. But I’m excited. He’s a very talented young man. Got the length, gets out of breaks very easily. I’m excited. I think with Coach (Brian Johnson) in the weight room, he put a lot of muscle on and just keeps getting stronger and faster.”

On Jalen Johnson, an athletic 6-foot-2 freshman: “Mental side of it, he’s been really grasping the offense very quickly. Sometimes I’m looking at while he’s taking notes, and he’s very thorough on what he’s talking about. When you speak, he listens. and that’s very nice to see a young guy already had that mindset of being professional day in and day out. So just very excited about how you can kind of comprehend the offense and understand that each week is gonna be a new game plan.”

On Stanley Berryhill III: “He brings that that quickness at the line of scrimmage. That’s his strength. He’s obviously a returner as well, so he has that top-end speed. And he’s competitive. He made a lot of competitive catches last year for touchdowns versus big opponents. And the one thing I think when I think Stan Berryhill, I think fearless. It doesn’t matter what the situation the game is, he’s right there like dying to get in. He’s a guy that you always have to pull back a little bit. So anytime he goes in, I know that he’s going to be right on.”

On the outside receivers as a whole: “I think it’s always difficult when a guy like Poindexter, who gets a lot of reps throughout the game and he’s been kind of vocal point of our team since last fall, is gone. ... Now it’s like, ‘all right, who’s going to talk now? Who’s going to motivate? Who’s on motivate with their play?’ And I think during the spring and now fall camp, the guys that we know and they know are going to make the plays on the field, we develop that trust. ... They’re buying in they understand now that their number’s called and it’s time to go.”

On Jamarye Joiner’s transition from QB: “Big athlete. It’s been done before with a guy like Jamarye that can bring that durability. He’s a big, strong guy. He can go in there and block the big sam linebacker, he can get open by his athletic ability. I mean, he’s been great and he knows the offense coming from the quarterback room to the receiver room. He understands the mental side of a quarterback, knowing where the progressions are, where he needs to get open.”

On Jamarye’s physicality: “He’s prideful. He might do a talk about field, which is great, gets the intensity going, the competition going. And so when you get receivers out there that are buying in and want to throw the hands on some d-linemen or linebackers, it’s fun to watch.”

On Joiner’s chemistry with Khalil Tate: “I think just between Khalil and Jamarye, it’s about timing. But with him being the inside receiver and him playing the position, he knows landmarks. And once you get to that landmark at the right time, you kind of become on the same page very quickly. So he’s done a great job with Coach Aych working every day in the film room and taking to the field. He knows where to be at the right time.”

Taylor Mazzone breaks down Arizona Football’s outside receivers

Posted by AZ Desert Swarm on Tuesday, August 13, 2019

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