Monday morning’s practice was the Arizona football team’s first in full pads this fall, preparing for the annual trip to Fort Huachuca on Wednesday. The team had a longer-than-usual 11-on-11 period, and worked on red zone offense at the end of practice. Here’s what else happened Monday:
- Tyler Slavin had a great day. He scored two touchdowns in 11-on-11 drills, and had around six or seven catches. One catch was a bomb where he wound up 20 yards behind the defense, but Slavin was on the receiving end of a number of screens and slants as well.
- Arizona’s offense has been showing some three-back sets, using Keola Antolin, Taimi Tutogi, and either Kylan Butler or Daniel Jenkins. That gives the offense a lot of options, so it’ll be curious to see what the coaches end up doing there.
- John Bonano looked good on kickoffs today, putting every ball inside the 5-yard-line, and putting a few into the end zone. Kickoff distance has been somewhat of an issue the past few seasons, and it would be a big weapon if Bonano could get the ball into the end zone more regularly.
- Dan Buckner showed breakaway speed today, taking an inside screen about 60 yards. Buckner exploded through the hole, then outran cornerback Jonathan McKnight for another 20 yards or so before heading out of bounds. He probably would have scored had the play been in a live game.
- During the red zone offense period, the offense faced a third-and-long from about the 15-yard-line. Foles got pressured, but rolled out to his left and ran up the sideline before jumping across the goal line for a score.
- Transfer quarterback Tom Savage throws a pretty ball. He hasn’t gotten any reps in the 11-on-11 drills, but it’ll be interesting to see how he does once he gets that chance. The knock on him at Rutgers was that he held onto the ball too long, which is something that can only be measured once he gets a pass rush coming at him.
- Matt Scott struggled today. He overthrew a couple of screen passes during the 11-on-11 segment of practice, and was intercepted by Jourdon Grandon a play after another near-interception was dropped.
- The offensive line is showing improvement, getting Foles at least enough time to go through a couple of reads. There haven’t been any plays where Foles immediately has defenders in his face the last few practices open to the media.
- Mohammed Usman and C.J. Parish continue to impress with their speed off the edge. It’s not going to be easy for teams to slow them down.
That’s all from Monday’s practice. Tuesday morning is the team’s final practice before leaving for Fort Huachuca, where the team will practice six times in three days after having Wednesday off.