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AG's Wildcat Report - Dispatches on the Wildcats, from Anthony Gimino

Stoops: Defense not good enough to ‘play for championship’ right now

by on Aug. 21, 2010, under Sports

Running back Greg Nwoko had a couple of big plays in Saturday night's storm-shortened scrimmage/Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

Arizona got in only 20 minutes and 25 plays of its scrimmage Saturday night. Coach Mike Stoops wanted to see more … but, in another sense, he had seen enough.

At least, he had seen least enough to know that defense remains the overriding concern of these Wildcats, now 12 days away from the opening kickoff at Toledo.

“I was hoping we would be a little bit further along, but we have a lot of young players,” Stoops said after lightning cut short the scrimmage at Arizona Stadium.

“That correlates to some confusion. We have to eliminate some of the confusion so we can play faster and more effectively defensively.”

The team was scheduled to have Sunday and Monday off, but, given the abbreviated Saturday night, Stoops said he likely will hold a scrimmage during that time. That young back seven on defense needs the work.

There were a few highlights packed into the 20 minutes of scrimmage.

Quarterback Nick Foles nicely worked the first-team offense down the field in the opening possession, driving 70 yards, capped by a 4-yard touchdown pass to Dave Roberts.

Foles rolled right on the play and fired a low pass into the front corner of the end zone. It was one of the those “only the receiver could catch it passes” as Roberts went low and curled up for the catch.

Third-string running back Greg Nwoko, who missed the spring because of shoulder surgery, looked strong and quick. He went 29 yards on a swing pass from Foles and later scooted 24 yards on a draw play. One problem: He fumbled at the end of that run, as safety Anthony Wilcox knocked the ball loose. Cornerback Trevin Wade recovered for the defense.

Another highlight for the defense was safety Adam Hall ripping the ball out of the hands of tight end Jack Baucus after a reception. Baucus recovered, though.

“We’re still defensively not where we want to be,” Stoops said. “We’re not playing good enough to play for a championship at this point. If we don’t get better, then we are going to struggle.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at 9:35 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • http://www.landrovergeeks.com Land Rover

    Will be kind of weird to have an Arizona team not up to par on defense.

  • Carlos J. M.

    This could be more a case of the Big D not being as bad as it looks and the Big O being that good and more.  If you look up and down the defensive depth chart, these guys aren’t pushovers by any stretch.  I mean, there are some big, fast, tough guys there who know how to play the game.  There’s a good mix of young and old talent on that side of the ball, but maybe a little weighted toward the young side of things.  Going up against this offense, this early, this much and getting beat can only help matters.  To a man they’re all students of the game and it shows.  The coaching is right there as well.  They just need to get healthy, stay with it and be able to hit someone else, like Toledo.  It’ll happen in a short amount of time here.   

  • Pingback: Stoops: Arizona defense not good enough to win championship | Ben Maller

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