Arizona Wildcats Bold Training Camp Observations

Arizona football is officially BACK in action and the long offseason is finally coming to an end as the Wildcats have opened up their 2025 training camp to get things geared up for the season with the team set to face Hawaii on Aug. 30 at home at 7:30 p.m. (MST) on TNT.

After an underwhelming 2024 season under Brent Brennan where Arizona went 4-8 after starting the year in the preseason AP Poll at No. 21 and ending the year losing 7 out of its last 8 games, the Wildcats made changes to the roster and their coaching staff.

Brennan revamped his coaching staff by hiring Seth Doege as the offensive coordinator and promoting Danny Gonzales to the defensive coordinating job. Plus, he was able to bring in defensive line coach Joe Salave’a, who is regarded as one of the top recruiters in the nation and a former Wildcat as well.

“When we go through a tough season like we did a year ago, you got to find a way to fix what was broken, fix what wasn’t working and put those pieces together,” Brennan said. “And part of those pieces are how we’re going to do things in terms of how we’re going to coach, what we’re going to do schematically and the other part is who are the players that are going to play those roles.”

The energy at practice was high, loud and the pace of play was a complete 180 from the previous season and matches the mindset and mentality that the coaching staff wasn’t to bring to the 2025 season.

Three Observations

Nov 27, 2021; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats place kicker Tyler Loop (33) kicks a field goal against the Arizona State Sun Devils in the first quarter during the 95th Territorial Cup game at Sun Devil Stadium. Ncaa Football Arizona Wildcats At Arizona State Sun Devils | Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Louis Akpa

Coming into training camp, Arizona’s coaching staff was extremely excited for offensive lineman Louis Akpa from the 2025 recruiting class. Out of the six offensive linemen in the class, Akpa has been the guy that is physically ready to be a contributing piece during camp and has gotten the majority of his reps with the second team offense and very few with the first unit.

While working with the second team unit, Akpa struggled early on in camp in 11-on-11 drills and it was clear that he needed to find his footing and get comfortable with the speed of the college game.

However, as the days have moved along in practice, we have seen Akpa slowly progress with his footwork, reaction time and understanding of the offensive system. He has improved drastically throughout camp and is showing why the staff is so high on his potential.

Malachi Bailey

One of the transfers that Arizona fans and the coaching staff were excited about landing was edge rusher Malachi Bailey, who recorded 128 total tackles, 69 solo tackles, 46 ½ tackles for loss and 28 sacks while playing 34 games for Alcorn State.

However, through spring football and the first few days of training camp, Bailey looked overwhelmed at times while getting adjusted to the speed of Power 4 football. It was to the point where seeing him get playing time for the upcoming season didn’t look realistic.

Despite that, Bailey has had a massive turnaround over the last week and a half in camp where he is starting to create issues in the backfield for the offense and has recorded a handful of sacks and tackles for loss.

I can now see Bailey as a rotational edge rusher for Arizona that will be hard for offensive lines to defend in a Gonzales defense that will throw different looks at the opponents.

Kicking Battle

We are entering the final week of training camp ahead of game week for Arizona and one of the position battles that still needs to be figured out is the place kicking game and who will be kicking field goals for the Wildcats.

The two players battling it out are returner Michael Salgado-Medina and freshman Tyler Prasuhn, who have been neck and neck every step of the way throughout training camp.

Right now, it is too close to call and it looks like the competition will come down to the final days of camp.

If I had to pick a kicker right now with my gut, I would go with Salgado-Medina given he is an upperclassman and starting a freshman kicker isn’t something coaches across college love to do, they want experience if they have the option.

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