Defensive Line

[ANGCatFan]

SB Nation had a story on our most concerning position group. Majority consensus - defensive line.

If you thought the depth at linebacker and running back were bad, just look where we sit at D-line.

Starting Experience (4)
Sani Fuimaono (18)
Luca Bruno (12)
Parker Zellers (6)
Jack Banda (1)

Returning (3)
Aiulua Fanene
Calvin Allen
Marcus Griffin

Newcomers (5)
Darrell Cloy Jr (former tight end)
Justin Belknap redshirt
Finton Connolly redshirt
JJ Allen
Justin Holt

It is still unclear what our base defense will look like, but I'm going off the assumption it will be more like Boise State than Arizona 2015. In either case, it will likely mean 3 defensive lineman since a hybrid linebacker is the 4th man on the line in the Boise State model. Last year Boise's base defense included a NT, DT, and DE. So here's my guess at a depth chart:

NT - Fuimaono, Zellers
DT - Bruno, throw a dart at Fanene, Griffin or Connolly
DE - Banda, Allen (Calvin or JJ)

Fuimaono and Bruno should be solid, but after that we have either experience or size issues. Vince Amey has his work cut out for him and I expect to see most of the guys (except Holt and Belknap) get a shot early to try and see who will be playing when we get to conference games.

[Newportcat]

Rich Rod and his staff have done an absolutely terrible job recruiting for the DLine and developing any sort of Dline talent. It is by far my biggest concern going into this year as we do not have one payer on our team at the DL position who I think will even sniff an NFL training camp.

I feel like we have done a much better job along the OL and like the current and future prospects there but just so many issues and this current recruiting class has not addressed it yet either.

[azpenguin]

I'm curious to see what Amey does with these guys. There's some talent there, maybe not a lot of world beaters, but Bruno, Sani, Zellars have had moments and I think Griffin will be good with better coaching. Cal Allen is a bit of a wildcard; I don't know how good he really is but I'm intrigued to see how he does with the new staff.

[Newportcat]

There is little to no talent along the DLine. Name one guy we have along the DLine that will even get an invite to an NFL camp when their college career is done or has any shot at being named All Conference. Saying there is some talent along the DLine is a complete homer line.

Sani is undersized and Zellars is undersized if he was a LB. Bruno has looked OK at times but is injury prone and Griffin has been a bust from what I have heard. Cal Allen has no speed off the edge

Now without someone like Josh Allen or Fotu, who admitingly were probably not going to contribute a ton, we are screwed.

The D Line is the reason why I can not see any predicting we win more then 7 games this year as some teams with good OLine's like Stanford, USC, and Washington should completely control the trenches and could make for some ugly games unless we score 50+.

[azpenguin]

We'll see. New staff, new scheme... they haven't played a down this season, so the book ain't been written yet.

[azgreg]

Is it too late to go with a 2-4-5?

[tgrumpy2]

From everything I read it seems that not only was the old defensive coaching staff underrecruiting, they were also under coaching. There are certainly no world beaters there but I think with better coaching and a shot of new enthusiasm that Dline will be better than as lot of you think.

[chiefzona]

The pressure is definitely lighter on this bunch. I don't have much optimism for the DL this year but I'm sure they'll be a surprise or two.

[ANGCatFan]

From the official site:

Before the Wildcats began their offseason conditioning several months ago, Sani Fuimaono was issued a challenge by the Arizona coaching staff.

Head man Rich Rodriguez and new defensive line coach Vince Amey wanted Fuimaono to shed about 30 pounds before his senior season. Instead of just playing nose guard, they wanted Fuimaono to roam the defensive line and play all three positions up front.

Fuimaono took the challenge to heart. When he reported for camp earlier in August, Fuimaono had lost 35 pounds and weighed in at 267 for his senior season.

"My body is screaming 'thank you,'" Fuimaono said with a smile after Arizona's 11th training camp practice Monday morning. "I was excited they asked me to do that. The recovery process has definitely been easier now that I've dropped some weight."

With his new frame, Fuimaono figures to be a valuable piece on the defensive line for the Wildcats, offering a unique combination of ability, versatility and experience.

"He's lost weight, he's in great shape," coach Rich Rodriguez said. "He looks like he's ready to play a lot of plays. I hope we don't have any linemen who have to play 70-80 plays, but Sani is in good enough shape to do that."

Fuimaono will do whatever his coaches ask him to do as a senior. But like Rodriguez, he wouldn't mind not playing 80 snaps a game and helping some of the younger defensive linemen in the program to continue to develop. As a senior, Fuimaono has worked to become a leader of the line and hasn't been afraid to tell the younger players to pick it up.

"To have some guys who have been around the program a long time to pass on knowledge to the younger guys and tell them what to do in difficult situations is important," Fuimaono said. "I'm trying to be a good example for them. Sometimes the guys mess around and ask me if I'm a coach now. It's just if I see something that will benefit them, I will speak up. I care about them and I care about this program."

[dmjcat]

The DL is the single biggest concern I have going into the season. We lost Fotu, Gilbert and Worthy.......we have
Zero serviceable replacements for them. To give you an idea of how bad off we are, we will have two 247lb walk ons
in our 2 deep. I believe that keeping Sani and Bruno healthy (he's already nursing a foot injury) will be the key in getting
back to the 6 win level and another bowl. If we lose one (or God forbid both of them) to injuries we might see several of our PAC 12 opponents set all time records against our defense.

http://tucson.com/sports/arizonawildcat ... fc89f.html" target="_blank

http://www.azdesertswarm.com/football/2 ... no-belknap" target="_blank

I think Coach Ameys honest assessment tells it all:

"Toe-to-toe no," Amey said when asked if Arizona’s undersized d-line can match up against bigger o-lines. "We have Fish (Fanene) that’s a bigger guy who knows that he’s got to compliment Zellers. A lot of movement. But if we go toe-to-toe, we won’t be able to hold up with the bigger guys. So we have to move around a lot, stem, and stuff like that."

[whatisee]

I'm thinking Fish is going to have a big year. Predicting 7 sacks for the Fish this year.

[ANGCatFan]

[azgreg]

Watching the 1986 ASSu game and that defense was under size but fierce. maybe this squad can duplicate that.

[Sid]

Watching the 1986 ASSu game and that defense was under size but fierce. maybe this squad can duplicate that.

Does Marcel Yates look worried?

Has Marcel Yates said this season will be a complete disaster and he needs 2-3 years to recruit and build his defense?

Get ready, it's mother fucking on!

[azgreg]

Watching the 1986 ASSu game and that defense was under size but fierce. maybe this squad can duplicate that.

Does Marcel Yates look worried?

Has Marcel Yates said this season will be a complete disaster and he needs 2-3 years to recruit and build his defense?

Get ready, it's mother fucking on!

I'm excited to watch 'em.

[Puerco]

Watching the 1986 ASSu game and that defense was under size but fierce. maybe this squad can duplicate that.

Does Marcel Yates look worried?

Has Marcel Yates said this season will be a complete disaster and he needs 2-3 years to recruit and build his defense?

Get ready, it's mother fucking on!

You sure are excited. Hope you're right but doubt it.

[Newportcat]

Watching the 1986 ASSu game and that defense was under size but fierce. maybe this squad can duplicate that.

Does Marcel Yates look worried?

Has Marcel Yates said this season will be a complete disaster and he needs 2-3 years to recruit and build his defense?

Get ready, it's mother fucking on!

You sure are excited. Hope you're right but doubt it.

I hope so too but I am really nervous about our DL. Starting two undersized Walk's on (Grossly undersized too). The movement up front pre-snap should help and there is some size in the depth chart but still just feel like there will be some games where teams completely dominate the line of scrimmage and run all over us.

I just can not see how anyone can be optimistic about our DL. LB's and Secondary I think there is talent there and some experience. DL on paper just looks like a train wreck waiting to happen. I have never seen how you have a strong defense without a strong DL that can control the line of scrimmage and put pressure on the QB.

[Newportcat]

I'm thinking Fish is going to have a big year. Predicting 7 sacks for the Fish this year.

7 Sacks....for a 300+ DT who is not starting...I would bet you and take the under on that all day long

[azpenguin]

I just can not see how anyone can be optimistic about our DL. LB's and Secondary I think there is talent there and some experience. DL on paper just looks like a train wreck waiting to happen. I have never seen how you have a strong defense without a strong DL that can control the line of scrimmage and put pressure on the QB.

Yates was able to get a lot of pressure at Boise St. and didn't have a lot of big guys. His best D-lineman was 6-3, 248. What he did was rely on a lot of blitzing, the kind of blitzing the 3-3-5 should be using. You don't know where that fourth guy is coming from. Or the fifth. There are typically 2-4 guys that pre-snap look like they may be coming and you don't know which one, or if it's someone who looks like they were going to drop back. The stud may or may not have his hand on the ground, and you don't know if he's rushing. One key difference is that the three down linemen aren't just eating blockers, they're aggressively going after the QB. The thing with all of this blitzing is that your corners have to be on point because they're on an island a lot. I'm more concerned with how the secondary plays than I am the line.

As I've said before, AZ's defense doesn't have to be top 20; if they're top 80 then they're going to win a lot of games. (Even with Solomon and Wilson out last year they still put up 37 ppg.) Whether or not they can make a big defensive leap with the guys they have... stay tuned.

[EVCat]

Defensive recruiting was neglected by Casteel. He was really a great mid-game adjustment coach, but he didn't want to recruit, and he didn't want to take the required changes to his staff to get recruiters on staff. RichRod tried to get Jeff to change his staff to make up for his own deficiency, but he wouldn't do it. So we are here.

We need to keep teams in front of us. Use speed to make the opposition execute on 9 and 10+ play drives to score. Use varied pressure from blitzing to shake things up. Yates and co will have to call fantastic games for our defense to be even average. But our offense is capable of putting up numbers, and we will have a lot of home games with that extra from a crowd. I see 7 to 8 wins, no more, no less.

[azcat49]

As usual, we just need a couple more possessions that we steal from the other team, either through stops or turnovers. I think this defense will be much more aggressive and will turn the ball over better than what we saw last year.

Teams probably will figure out before to long that they may be able to just line up and power over us and run it down our throat. Hoping we get great LB play and stay healthy for the season

[azpenguin]

To me the biggest two things about the defense will be turnovers and 3rd and long. They simply were not forcing teams to cough up the ball like previous Casteel teams. And if you have an opponent stuck in a 3rd and long situation, you have to get off the field. Allowing conversions on third and long lost them UCLA and WSU. (UCLA was a blowout, but it didn't have to be. On four of UCLA's scoring drives, they converted on third and long. 3rd & 8, 3rd & 13, 3rd & 9, 3rd & 8. If you get stops and get the defense off the field three of those four times, that's three less TDs and three better chances to score.) On the TD drive from Wazzu that broke AZs back, when Arizona absolutely needed a stop, they converted a 3rd & 19. USC converted a 3rd & 10 on one scoring drive and then converted 3rd & 8 and 3rd & 6 on another. There's too many times they could have gotten off the field and instead allowed a team to sustain a drive. If they can stop teams on third and long, things will look a lot better.

[Merkin]

To me the biggest two things about the defense will be turnovers and 3rd and long. They simply were not forcing teams to cough up the ball like previous Casteel teams. And if you have an opponent stuck in a 3rd and long situation, you have to get off the field. Allowing conversions on third and long lost them UCLA and WSU. (UCLA was a blowout, but it didn't have to be. On four of UCLA's scoring drives, they converted on third and long. 3rd & 8, 3rd & 13, 3rd & 9, 3rd & 8. If you get stops and get the defense off the field three of those four times, that's three less TDs and three better chances to score.) On the TD drive from Wazzu that broke AZs back, when Arizona absolutely needed a stop, they converted a 3rd & 19. USC converted a 3rd & 10 on one scoring drive and then converted 3rd & 8 and 3rd & 6 on another. There's too many times they could have gotten off the field and instead allowed a team to sustain a drive. If they can stop teams on third and long, things will look a lot better.

How many of those did Casteel rush 3 and put 8 back in coverage?

That really irked me, the lack of blitzing to put any pressure on the QB. Elite Div I QBs will take that any day.

[azpenguin]

The maddening thing about rushing 3 was that the 3-3-5 is designed to work by sending blitzers most of the time. When they did that against USC and Utah it paid off.

[Newportcat]

I just can not see how anyone can be optimistic about our DL. LB's and Secondary I think there is talent there and some experience. DL on paper just looks like a train wreck waiting to happen. I have never seen how you have a strong defense without a strong DL that can control the line of scrimmage and put pressure on the QB.

Yates was able to get a lot of pressure at Boise St. and didn't have a lot of big guys. His best D-lineman was 6-3, 248. What he did was rely on a lot of blitzing, the kind of blitzing the 3-3-5 should be using. You don't know where that fourth guy is coming from. Or the fifth. There are typically 2-4 guys that pre-snap look like they may be coming and you don't know which one, or if it's someone who looks like they were going to drop back. The stud may or may not have his hand on the ground, and you don't know if he's rushing. One key difference is that the three down linemen aren't just eating blockers, they're aggressively going after the QB. The thing with all of this blitzing is that your corners have to be on point because they're on an island a lot. I'm more concerned with how the secondary plays than I am the line.

As I've said before, AZ's defense doesn't have to be top 20; if they're top 80 then they're going to win a lot of games. (Even with Solomon and Wilson out last year they still put up 37 ppg.) Whether or not they can make a big defensive leap with the guys they have... stay tuned.

First, comparing the size of our DLine to Boise State's is kind of wrong given they do not face the same sized OL on a weekly basis being in the MWC. We should be much bigger then them.
Second, that best DLineman was really playing the STUD position and was a 2nd round pick this year so basically a DE/LB kind of like Deandre Miller
Third, you are actually wrong about their sizes as their Starting DT's were 311 LBS and 297 LBS. The DE was 6'5 272 and the backup DE was 6'3 255 LBS. They had another 303 LBS DT who played and a 275 DT who played as well. Their starting size was MUCH bigger then our 233, 247, 247, and 271 this year.

Our DLine is definitely not Yates's fault at all as he just got here but it is going to be a major problem this year no matter how much we blitz, or do crazy pre-snap things. Those things will certainly help create turnovers and slow some teams down some times, but as mentioned here, there will be times when teams just run right at us and nothing we will be able to do.

[whatisee]

I'm thinking Fish is going to have a big year. Predicting 7 sacks for the Fish this year.

7 Sacks....for a 300+ DT who is not starting...I would bet you and take the under on that all day long

dude can climb palm trees bare handed. Being positive since this is his last year. I bet he get's a NFL sniff just because of his size and the fact his brother played in the NFL. Stay positive!

[Puerco]

I like that we're going with a more aggressive D this year as well, but with the rewards come the risk. We'll inevitably get burned more often than we did under Casteel, at least until improved recruiting kicks in. We may get more takeaways and plays for loss, but the flip side of that is always there. I hope by mid-season that we aren't pining for the good old days of Casteel's bend-and-break 335.

Like Newport says, not the staff's fault this year, but could be nerve-wracking regardless.

[Newportcat]

I like that we're going with a more aggressive D this year as well, but with the rewards come the risk. We'll inevitably get burned more often than we did under Casteel, at least until improved recruiting kicks in. We may get more takeaways and plays for loss, but the flip side of that is always there. I hope by mid-season that we aren't pining for the good old days of Casteel's bend-and-break 335.

Like Newport says, not the staff's fault this year, but could be nerve-wracking regardless.

Puerco

That is like the third time you have agreed with me in the past week....has hell frozen over?

I also like we are going more aggressive as I was so sick of the bend but don't break defense. But unless Neal and Cruikshank magically turn into McAllister and Cason, we could have a lot of big plays against us by being more aggressive with our blitzing given our front 4 will have difficulties putting pressure on the QB.

[Sid]

I like that we're going with a more aggressive D this year as well, but with the rewards come the risk. We'll inevitably get burned more often than we did under Casteel, at least until improved recruiting kicks in. We may get more takeaways and plays for loss, but the flip side of that is always there. I hope by mid-season that we aren't pining for the good old days of Casteel's bend-and-break 335.

Like Newport says, not the staff's fault this year, but could be nerve-wracking regardless.

I think you can scrap that "pining for the good old days" with the amount of time & energy the new staff spent very early on teaching (hands on) proper technique and fundamentals. That speaks volumes to me and should to you as well.

I get that were small on the DL and we have our glaring weaknesses at other positions too, but I will embrace & remain hopeful that our defense as a whole will be much improved just with the new leadership.

Notice I didn't mention scheme. What good is a defensive scheme anyway if the offense knows what's coming on every snap? Maybe that alone will be good enough for a couple of surprise wins this season?

The defense also has spent all Summer hearing from hacks like Greggy telling the world they suck. We will know soon enough, but give me a bunch of warriors, eager to learn and that will tear down mother fucking walls for you over the Louis Holmes of the world any day of the week!

[catgrad97]

The 3-3-5 was a lazy, retrograde defense under Casteel.

There were no "good old days," only one really good player, and I think our recruiting won't fall off to the point where we'd trade Scooby for the rest of our defense.

So no nostalgia for any of RichRod's defenses at Arizona. Not here. Damn the torpedoes.

[azpenguin]

We'll find out how good the corners are this year. Too many times last year they had to cover too long because of the lack of pressure. I think they get burned for some big plays but I also think they get more picks this year as there's going to be more throws made by QBs running from pressure. If it turns out that the corners are actually better than they showed last year, this could be fun. I still think we're gonna see a lot more pressure on QBs this year.

[Puerco]

Newport: eh, I usually don't disagree with you about the actual sports. It's in all the stuff surrounding them where you're wrong and I'm right!
Sid: Again, I hope you're right, but I'm not seeing a huge influx of talent this year compared to the kids we've lost, so we've basically still got the same warriors. If we see any measurable improvement out of the defense this year, then the coaching staff deserves an immediate raise, contract extensions, and probably a gaggle of 50 virgins to serve them ambrosia and wine.
CG97: You're right, of course.
Penguin: Where's the pressure going to come from? Gimmicks?

Sorry guys, unless there's something completely unexpected in the 4-2-5 we're going to be in for a long year on the D side of the ball. Of course, we're pretty much used to that these days, so it won't come as much of a shock.

[ANGCatFan]

[azpenguin]

Ain't played a down yet. I'll give these guys a chance to prove themselves before proclaiming any doom and gloom.

[Merkin]

With Casteel's defenses ranked in the 100's, anything in double digits has to be an improvement. Hoping for 70th or so with the new coach, scheme and attitude.

[ASUHATER!]

With Casteel's defenses ranked in the 100's, anything in double digits has to be an improvement. Hoping for 70th or so with the new coach, scheme and attitude.

70th would probably mean we win 9 games. that would mean we gave up like 8-10 points a game less. i'll definitely take that this year.