Arizona Post Training Camp Grades: Defensive Backs
Football is just one week away as the Arizona Wildcats take the field against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors on Aug., 30 at 7:30 p.m. (MST) on TNT.
One of the top priorities for Arizona to get back to winning fashion was for the defense to be revamped after last year's 4-8 season saw it ranked 13th in the Big 12, 104th nationally.
Part of the revamping process was promoting Danny Gonzales from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator, as he brings years of experience at both running a defense and head coaching.
Perhaps one of the more interesting spots on the Wildcats defense is the defensive backs, from the cornerbacks to the safeties.
We will be taking a look at the room and assessing the moves that were made over the offseason to bolster that part of the defense and grading them based upon that.
Arizona's coaches
Brett Arce was promoted to the safeties coaching position in January of 2024. He was a key part in 2022 and 2023 in the improvement on that part of the defense and aided in the jump from 148th in 2022 to 45th last season.
Addiditonally, Chip Viney rejoins Arizona as the corner backs coach for his second season with the program after successful stint at San Jose State.
Viney was a big part that had the Spartans finishing second in the Mountain West in total defense, first in pass defense with 12 interceptions and a conference low 183 yards allowed through the air in 2023.
What Arizona has lost/gained in the offseason
- Arizona lost one of its captains, Gunner Malonado, to the transfer portal this offseason, as well as Tacario Davis, Emmanuel Karnley, Jai-Ayviauynn Celestine, Elijah Brown, and Demetrius Freeney.
- What the Wildcast lost, they gained in cornerbacks Michael Dansby, Ayden Garnes, Jay'Vion Cole and safeties Jack Luttrell and Jshon Frausto-Ramos.
- The safety room, particularly, will be a special one as Genesis Smith and Dalton Johnson decided to return to Arizona after spending some time in the transfer portal.
- Treydan Stukes is returning season-ending injury and Marquis Groves-Killebrew is also coming back for the 2025-2 season.
- Other defensive backs added through recruitment out of high school are Gianni Edwards, Dajon Hinton, Swayde Griffin, Coleman Patmon and Kason Brown.
Arizona's Grade: B
All things considered, the Arizona Wildcats defensive backs room gets a B for its aggressiveness in signing experienced corners/safeties, ability to recruit potential star talent out of high school, confidence in the coaches, the leadership and experience of returning players and Gonzales' way of getting players to buy in on his new defensive scheme.
- The return of Johnson, Smith, Groves-Killebrew and Stukes highlights an experienced safeties room that is determined to change the culture of the defense last year.
- The addition of experienced corners and safeties, paired with recruits that were signed, shows an improvement in depth and greatly reduces the concern of injuries derailing the season.
The Arizona defensive backs room would have been graded higher, but some questions still linger. Some injury concerns still linger around one of 2024's captains Stukes.
- Although the defensive backs have shown out through fall training camp, we have yet to see how they will perform in the aggressive, attacking style of defense that Gonzales runs. They will be tasked with being left in 1-on-1 situations quite a bit this year.
- Should Arizona have to lean on its younger DBs later on in the season, we won't know if they will be able to handle the scheme of the defense, leaving said defense vulnerable to the pass.
- Arizona struggled when it got into the in-conference portion of its season, so we will need to see how it performs in that portion.
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Nathaniel Martinez and a set of shoulder pads at 7 years old. He later graduated from Pima Community College in 2023, where he began writing for the Pima Post. He is working to achieve a Bachelor’s in Mass Communication and Media Studies.