Arizona continues making strides on defense
The offseason hope for a young Arizona defense was that it would improve from being one of the worst units in the country to something resembling average.
In five of six seasons under head coach Rich Rodriguez, the Wildcats finished 103rd or worse nationally in total defense. Four times, they gave up at least 34.4 points per game in a season.
This season didn’t start out much better.
But the Wildcats have shown improvement since the start of Pac-12 play, holding Oregon State to 17 points, USC to 24 and Cal to 17. Arizona has seven takeaways in the past two games, including two scores on defense last Saturday night when it defeated the Golden Bears 24-17.
The big differences from early in the season are the addition of 335-pound PJ Johnson into the starting lineup at defensive end and the return of safety Scottie Young Jr.
Johnson missed Weeks 2 and 3 because of a foot injury. Young, who was suspended through most of the offseason, took a few games to get back into the starting lineup but is showing the big-play skills he displayed last season as a true freshman.
Young intercepted two passes against Cal, returning the second one 24 yards for a touchdown and a 24-14 lead with 3:13 to go. He also made seven tackles.
“PJ is playing defensive end,” first-year coach Kevin Sumlin said. “A guy who missed the first couple of games had two interceptions and a touchdown the other night. So, we’ve got a bunch of guys on the field that haven’t really been out there that are veteran players.”
The Wildcats defense will be tested this week by a ground-based Utah attack, led by running back Zack Moss. Arizona (3-3, 2-1 Pac-12) will play a Friday night at Utah (3-2, 1-2), which is coming off a 40-21 win at then-No. 14 Stanford.
Despite the recent play, Arizona’s defense is still just 99th nationally in total defense (428.3 yards allowed per game), 106th in rushing defense (197.3), 70th in scoring defense (26.5 points per game) and 110th in third-down conversion defense (44.0 percent).
Further help would come from senior cornerback Jace Whittaker, who has barely played this season because of injury, but his status is unknown.
There is reason to think the defense will continue to trend in the right direction, though. There were six sophomores in the starting lineup last Saturday night — linebackers Colin Schooler, Tony Fields II and Kylan Wilborn, safeties Jarrius Wallace and Young, and cornerback Lorenzo Burns. Sophomore end JB Brown and redshirt freshman end/outside linebacker Jalen Harris are playing key backup roles, as is linebacker Anthony Pandy.
Johnson, who is just in his first season at Arizona as a junior college transfer, is an older player who is making his young teammates better.
“PJ playing the end has had a big effect on our team up front,” Sumlin said.
“Hopefully that can continue because the last couple of games he’s been very, very effective. I don’t think you can deny that his return has shored up our front because of his size and what he can commands from a double-team standpoint.”