The Arizona Wildcat football team began spring drills last week and have a number of questions to answer, especially on the defensive side of the ball. One of the biggest questions involves the defensive line.

QUESTION: Can Arizona replace Earl Mitchell and Donald Horton?

Answer: The Wildcats lose two of their top three defensive tackles, and while they will not be easy to replace, all is not lost. The Cats have a lot of quality bodies, even if they are relatively inexperienced.

The Cats return starter Mana Mikaele and Dominique Austin who saw a lot of time last fall. Austin will miss spring drills but will be full strength by the time fall camp opens.

Wildcat coaches are high a number of players including JC transfer Jonathan Hollins. Hollins was a JC transfer last year but was able to redshirt and still has two years of eligibility remaining.

Also impressing the staff is redshirt freshman Justin Washington. He’s another big, athletic tackle. He isn’t a huge run stopper, but could be a very similar player to Mitchell.

Jowyn Ward has seen action the past two seasons, but has yet to be more than a role player. Ward is one of the strongest players on the team as well the second biggest of the interior defensive linemen.

Chris Merrill is another big body inside that has impressed and Sione Tuihalamaka is arguably the fastest, most athletic of the big guys inside.

This group will need to impress in the fall. The Cats signed four defensive tackles in the recruiting class. Ohio State (via a JUCO) transfer Willie Mobley has been brought in to play right away and the Cats are high on the three freshmen, especially Kirifi Taula and Sani Fuimaono. While they’d love to redshirt all three, they won’t hesitate to play them if they are ready.

The Cats will announce their 2010 recruiting class on Wednesday afternoon. As we discussed yesterday, the offense addressed most of their needs. For the defense it is much of the same.

For all your signing day coverage, including the FAX TRACKER, player bios and breaking news visit WILDCATSPORTSREPORT.com all day long on Wednesday.

Defensive Tackles

Committed: (3)
Kirifi Taula 6-4, 275  Servite (CA) HS
Willie Mobley  6-2, 270 Orange Coast College/Ohio State
Sani Fuimaono 6-2, 270, Punahou School, Honolulu, HI

Fills Needs: A
The Cats lose two DTs but grab three in the class. Mobley can come in and play right away and Taula and Fuimaona have very bright futures. All three have the size and athleticism to be good players in the Wildcats’ system.

Defensive Ends

Committed: (2)
Dan Pettinato 6-5, 222 Nevada Union HS – Grass Valley, CA
Mohamed Usman 6-1, 240 Navarro College

Fills Needs: C+
This rating goes up if Pettinato surprises. He’s an unknown commodity at this point, but has intriguing size and if he can develop, then maybe he can bolster the group. Usman is a speed rusher who will get a chance to fight for playing time right away.

Paul Vassallo

Line Backers

 

Committed: (2)
Derek Earls 6-3, 220 North Dakota State College
Paul Vassallo 6-3, 240 Sierra College
Kyle Benson 6-2, 215 Corona Del Sol HS – Tempe, AZ

Fills Needs: B+
The Cats wanted JC backers who could transfer at the semester and found two. Both Earls and Vassallo have great size and are already in the strength and conditioning program. After losing all three starters and their nickel back, the Cats will need both Vassallo and Earls to fight for starting jobs. Benson is overcoming a knee injury but is ahead of schedule in his rehab and he has great upside.

Defensive Backs

WildcatSportsReport.com

Committed: (3)
Jourdon Grandon 6-0, 180 Westview HS – Avondale, AZ
Josh Robbins 6-3, 195 Canyon del Oro HS – Tucson, AZ
Marquis Flowers 6-2, 195 Millenium HS – Goodyear, AZ

Fills Needs: B-
Flowers will see the field right away and could be a starter, but the other two are terrific athletes, but likely projects. The Cats needed a cornerback in the class and did not get a pure cover corner, but did get three quality athletes.

Special Teams

Committed: (1)
Chase Gorham 6-2, 225 Chaparral HS – Scottsdale, AZ

Fills Needs: A
The Cats rarely offer special teams performers, but Gorham is not only a terrific long snapper but a Wildcat legacy.

“What is going on?” That is what a lot of Arizona football fans are wondering right now. The Wildcats have lost their fourth recruit in the last three weeks and could lose a fifth.

Arizona learned that quarterback Matt Brown has decided to de-commit from the Wildcats and will apparently wind up at TCU.

“It’s 90-10,” Brown told WildcatSportsReport.com when asked what the odds of him winding up at TCU and not Arizona.

For Brown, it is easy to pinpoint why the Wildcats are falling out of favor, Sonny Dykes. Brown was enamored with Dykes’ version of the spread offense and now that he is gone to Louisiana Tech, Brown is thinking about staying closer to his home in Texas.

Wildcat coaches Bill Bedenbaugh and David Nichol will meet with Brown on Tuesday night to try and salvage the situation, but as of now it does not look good for the Wildcats.

The situation is also dicey for the Wildcats and defensive line commit Kirifi Taula. Taula committed to the Cats in December without visiting and he decided to take visits to other schools. Oregon State made a great impression and he liked his weekend visit to Washington even more and is now leaning towards the Huskies.

“Well, I actually told the coaches at UW I wanted to be a Dawg,” Taula told ESPN.com’s Greg Biggins. “So I guess you can basically say I’m a soft commitment to Washington now because I still plan to make my official visit to Arizona next weekend.”

That is the good news for the Wildcats. They will get the last crack at Taula. He and his family will host Mike Stoops after coaches for Washington and Oregon State visit and the trip this weekend to Tucson will be his last.

“I’ll take my visit to Arizona and then sit down with my family and make a final, final decision early next week,” Taula added.

Three other players who were previously committed to Arizona will not become Wildcats. All three for different reasons. JC DB Eddie Elder was denied admission and wound up at ASU. He looked to factor in the Wildcat defensive backfield next season, but will instead play for the Sun Devils.

Athlete J.J. Whitaker decided to go to San Diego State. This was not a huge loss for the Cats. Whitaker started showing interest in the Aztecs when they offered a number of his teammates. When he started to think about de-committing the Wildcats did very little to fight to keep him. The loss of Whitaker was lessened by Texas receiver Dan Buckner transferring to Arizona.

The Cats also parted ways with defensive lineman Dominique Jones. Jones claims that the Cats informed him that they no longer had a scholarship at his position and he recently committed to Baylor.

I was having visions of a certain left handed shooter, with a headband on his head and a scowl on his face. Only it was not Salim Stoudamire winning games on a buzzer beater, it was Nic Wise.
Two games, two game winners. When has that happened? Not sure the Cats have had a buzzer beater since Salim Stoudamire in the 2005 Sweet 16 and Wise is drifting into Salim territory at the end of games.

Under Lute Olson the Cats actually were not great with last second shots. Granted, many of his teams were so good that they rarely got into those positions, but when games were tight, Wildcat fans would rather see the defense on the court on the final possession.

Stoudamire was a monster in his senior season, with last second wins over UCLA, ASU and Oklahoma State to name a few. Wise has now got a pair of his own.

So now the big question is whether the Cats can make a run in the Pac-10 and crack the top-three or four and get a tourney bid? As of now I’d say no. Lipscomb is not very good and I do not think the NC State is a top ACC team, especially with Tracey Smith sitting this one out. Despite that, the Cats got the wins.

This sets up a huge game with BYU and the weekend in Los Angeles. The Cats need another quality non-conference win and getting a conference road win or two would go a long way in getting them into position to make a run at the post season. If they fail to win two of the next three, you can probably wave goodbye to the NCAA Tourney.
Apparently Jamelle Horne is a better power forward than he is a doctor. Sean Miller was quoted as saying after the Lipscomb game that Horne told him he was out until February. Well, Horne played, in fact he sparked the team after they went down 8-1 and Miller called a quick timeout. The Cats showed in the Lipscomb game just how much the team needs Horne. Without him they barely beat a bad team from a bad conference. Although Wise is the MVP, Horne is the NMVP, the Next Most Valuable Player.

The Cats have landed in San Diego on Wednesday night and took in the Pointsetta Bowl. While at the game Mike Stoops was interviewed by ESPN and he did say that he felt the Mountain West Conference deserved an automatic BCS bid. Of course Stoops is just 2-5 against the MWC in his time in Tucson.

The Cats wanted to go on Chrstmas Eve, but travel arrangements could not be worked out and they went a day earlier. They will have a morning practice on Christmas but the players with family in town will get to spend the day with their families. Those wth no family in town will do some things with the coaches, their families and the other players.

Recruiting is rolling along for the Wildcats. They received a commitment DT Kirifi Taula this week and now have 20 commitments. Word is that since the Wildcats were invited to the Holiday Bowl that recruitment has really ramped up. Apparently players that were offered scholarships back in the spring but had shown little interest the past few months, have started calling about taking visits to Tucson. The Cats are in a good position. They have filled most of their needs in the class and can afford to take the best possible athletes, regardless of position.