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Lack of news = stability

by on Apr. 01, 2010, under Sports

I wish I had some big news stemming from Wildcat football spring practice, but I don’t…and that’s a good thing. The fact is a lack of drama and splashy headlines means that there is a lot of stability within the program.

While there are still a number of jobs being competed for, most won’t be settled until the fall. The good news is that there are competent bodies at every spot and there do not seem to be many glaring weaknesses.

It has taken quite some time, but Mike Stoops has brought stability and talent to the program. With the possible exception of the linebackers, there are experienced, capable players at every open spot.

Although there are four new co-coordinators, three of them were on the staff a year ago, so the transition has been very smooth. The players have been very positive about the new roles of the coaches.

There is also a new quarterbacks coach, the first dedicated quarterback coach of the Stoops era. Both Mike Canales and Sonny Dykes were offensive coordinators as well as the quarterbacks coaches. Frank Scelfo enters the picture and made no bones about having to make some tweaks to his passers’ mechanics.

The linebacking spot is an interesting one, in that only Jake Fischer and RJ Young saw any meaningful time last year, and even that was mostly in mop-up situations. The Cats are still sifting through the linebackers, which include three junior college players and three very young players.

The stability means that the Cats can do some experimenting. They have moved some players around in the defensive backfield, including trying safety Robert Golden at cornerback, the position he originally occupied when he was a freshman.

Some of the biggest news is about the two transfer wide receivers. Texas transfer Dan Buckner passes the eyeball test, while former West Virginia receiver Gino Crump has been a pleasant surprise.

It may not be a great spring for those of us in the media looking for stories, but it may just be a great spring for the Wildcat football program.

More in TC Sports Network:

TC All-Star Selections

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 12:47 am 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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  • bigdog

    After attending a practise or two every year on my way to work I notice the same thing including this year since Stoops took over- the team is “selected” prior to a ball being snapped. Who taught Stoops and the coaching staff anything about business and yes football is a business. As a sucessful businessman you do not and never tell or indicate to your lower level employees that they do not stand a chance to succeed- Stoops does! He needs a break through attitude to get to the next level and this includes recruiting higher level players in a “competitive market” . I do not think he can get to the next level because of his viewpoint and early selection process. Yes the younger players are fighting for a position but try and tell a youngster that he must try harder when the media guide and media have already selected positions in January! Really wants their inner souls to try. I guess I am this bitchy against Stoops because I find it hard to believe that this program can move forward with this selection attitude plus I am upset that I recently found out from one of the parents that U of A at the last 2 bowl games did not invite or even talk to the players parents inviting them to participate in the bowl week festivities including on Christmas day in San Diego-No class and another thing holding the program back from moving up to the next level- guess the parents do not matter to U of A.  And now for the 2011 Wildcat starting lineup…… 

  • http://burningchips.com Travis

    bigdog
    My guess is you’re on the young side.  You maybe a fan for a long time so I understand some points.  However, I will say this: As an alum of just four years ago, 06, and season ticket holder I’m thrilled with what Stoops has done and the article points out why: there’s stability.  For the first time in 11 years Wildcat fans feel great about their football program.  The abortion that Stoops has cleaned up has been an achievement.  The fact that players from big-time programs like Texas and West Virginia are transferring for a chance to compete shows how far the program has come.
    As far as the next level, trust me he’s getting there.  The Holiday Bowl is quite an achievement in year 6 after what he went through cleaning up the mess.  But it comes with a dose of reality: we are a basketball school.  In revenue and facilities we’re probably the 8th most appealing program in the conference.  USC, Oregon, Washington, UCLA should always be better than us on paper.  The fact that we were essentially 6 seconds away from our first Rose Bowl.  That’s saying a lot in itself.

  • Brad Allis

    I disagree with you on this one. I do not believe Stoops pre-selects his starters. While older players are often “slotted” into a spot, they legitimately beat out other players for the job. In fact, I’d argue that spring is so uneventful because almost no jobs are decided until fall camp, which leaves players hungry over the summer.
    There have been exceptions (Louis Holmes) but for the most part the jobs are won and lost on the practice and playing field. If the starters were “pre-selected” then high profile freshmen like Devon Ross and Robert Golden would have played from day one, instead of having players like Wilrey Fontenot and Marquis Hundley win jobs.
    I am not sure Stoops ever gets to the “next level” and can’t speak on the treatment of parents at the bowl (have not heard those complaints) but I do believe he lets guys battle and picks who he feels is best.

  • bigdog

    The media guide on the Uof A website was posted on the Internet in Mid-February which means it was made up in January. Interesting that Adam Grant was already “selected” as left starting tackle without clearing NCAA 6th year of eligibility. Jenkins moved up as running back due to injuries but will be sitting down with Nwogo- a waste of play talent. Stoops can not bring football to the next level due to his lack of mentoring as in any business climate. Had he been mentored under a consistant top 10 coach (Tressel, Holtz) may have stood a chance with this team just ask Carroll. U of A has also shown this mentality to not find top mentoring people by hiring AD Byrne-the U’s claim “we hired the second youngest AD in Div 1 sports”. Not a smart move. Experience counts. Ask Lute. Bottom line is positions set and all the fighting in the world will not help. And yes the parents were ignored at the bowl games and considering that 40 of them lived within an 1 1/2 drive of San Diego.That was no class by the U of A. Incidently the “travel team” at the Holiday Bowl consisted of 187 people considering that only 105 players made the trip-perks, glad the parents were ignored. This is an other example of why the program cannot move forward.Cheers.  

    • Brad Allis

      A few couters (and note, I do not necessarily believe that Stoops is the end all/be all)
      1. Don’t take any UA website media materials as gospel. The media guide/spring prospectus are generated by the Media Relations Department. Any depth chart is tenuous and fluid. In fact, if you were reading the actual “media guide” it was from last season. Just because the on-line media materials (which are mostly for the media’s used in writing stories/covering games) has a guy on the depth chart it does not mean it is so.
      2. Funny you mention Carroll, he was not mentored by a top-10 NCAA coach, he came from the pros. Granted, he has ties to the great Bill Walsh, but also had ties to Richie Kotite I belive. Stoops did work under Bill Snyder, Hayden Fry and brother Bob.
      3. Again not sure aboutt the bowl game. The players I talked to were not upset with how their families were treated, but rather the fact that they were forced to leave prior to Christmas. The players all wanted to spend the holidays with their families and then head to San Diego on the 26th. This was difficult because the Holiday Bowl committee had team commitments on the 26th.
      While I don’t know how the parents were treated, the school can only do so much. They can’t provide anything for the families (i.e. dinners, tickets to team functions at Sea World, the zoo, etc.) I know there was a team dinner on Christmas and that parents/families could attend if they did not want to do something on their own with their child. Other than that, I cannot speak intellegently on the subject, but would love to hears some specifics.
      4. In my mind the bigger questions on Stoops are not how he deals with the depth chart, but: can he recruit “stars”. So far he has built a program with a lot of solid pieces, but only a couple star players (Cason, Brittion, Gronkowski the exception) How does he run the day to day operations? Can he allow his coaches to coach? Can he make game time decisions (last year he was better, but we’ve seen a number of iffy decisions in the past).
      I follow the program closely, talk to coaches frequently and just don’t see the issues with the depth chart like you do. With the exception of Scott getting the start last year, I really did not see a single player who should have move up the depth chart who didn’t. Conan won the RG job after a great spring/fall. Herman Hall leapfrogged Kerley because he outplayed him. David Roberts earned time due to his play, not where he was “slotted”. You don’t seem to like Nwoko, but he never stole carries from a healthy Grigsby or Antolin.

  • http://www.rosawesley.com mark

    Brad,
    can help me with the information below I would really appreciate it.

    Information for walk-ons:
    Walk-on process
    Report dates
    Practice schedules (before school starts, during school)
    Run times for conditioning drills for running backs. (Is it a mile test, 100 yard test…)

    If there is someone else who can help me with this information, please let me know.

    Thank you in advance.

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