Breaking Down the Wildcats' Special Teams Unit

Arizona is inching closer to the start of its 2025 season with the game three days away against Hawaii at home with a 7:30 p.m. (MST) kickoff on TNT.

The game marks the second year of Brent Brennan as the head coach as he will be looking to turn things around after an underwhelming 2024 season where the Wildcats went 4-8 losing 7 of their last 8 games.

Oct 19, 2024; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats punter Michael Salgado-Medina (19) against the Colorado Buffalos at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

To get things back on track, Brennan made several changes to his coaching staff with the addition of Seth Doege as offensive coordinator, Danny Gonzales as defensive coordinator, Josh Miller as tight ends coach, Josh Bringuel as linebackers coach, Joe Salave’a as defensive line coach and Craig Naivar as special teams coach.

Plus, Arizona now has 61 new faces on the roster that came in through the transfer portal and the 2025 recruiting class. The staff wanted to add speed, experience, size and strength to its roster.

One area that the team was going to need to fix and adjust at was with its special teams unit after losing kicker Tyler Loop to the NFL Draft and figuring out its punting situation compared to a season ago.

Coach Naivar added to the room by snagging Australian punter Isaac Lovison to compete for the starting job along with returner Michael Salgado-Medina.

However, Salgado-Medina competed not only at the punting position but also as the place kicker going up against Lovison and freshman kicker Tyler Prasuhn.

As camp came to a close and both punting and kicking battles looked to be neck and neck, it was thought that Salgado-Medina would be the place kicker and Lovison would take on the punting duties.

Sep 28, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Brent Brennan (center) during the third quarter against the Utah Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Brennan's Thoughts

However, when the Wildcats and Brennan released the first depth chart of the season, there was a surprise within the special teams unit with Salgado-Medina being named the starting punter and place kicker winning both battles.

"That was not the plan going into the season, but that's how it played out in training camp. Everything that we do is decided on the field. That's how it played out in training camp, so credit to Michael,” said Brennan. “He did a really nice job in camp, and so did the other guys... The good news is that we do have competition which is going to keep the pressure on those guys to continue to achieve and continue to compete."

Can It Be Done?

Now, has it been done before in the past?

Yes, there have been situations where one specialist has been doing all the kicking on the roster. However, it isn’t easy to do and can be taxing on the body as the season goes along throughout the 12-game schedule.

Still, it wouldn’t shock me if we see Lovison take over the punting duties at some point throughout the season.

You have to remember that Lovison is adjusting to American football rules and going away from the mindset of rugby. Naivar pointed out that he was able to make some of those adjustments quickly after a week of camp.

However, he still might not be fully ready for a high-level college football game and may need a few weeks to get truly ready for the season and is ready to roll.

This is something to keep an eye on throughout the course of the season as things may change week-to-week as we get closer to conference games.

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