Arizona Coordinators Discuss Heated Rivalry and Successful Season

Just two days remain between the Arizona Wildcats’ biggest game of the season, a heated rivalry match between them and the Arizona State Sun Devils that has lasted since 1899.

The Wildcats’ offense ran all over the Baylor Bears’ defense on the way to a 41-17 blowout victory in Casino Del Sol Stadium and now face the challenge of doing the same to an ASU defense that ranks second in the Big 12 when it comes to stopping the rush.

Arizona’s defense must also play at its very best when it goes up against the Sun Devils offense that ranks fifth in the conference, third in rushing and eighth in passing.

Both Gonzales and Doege had plenty to say in Tuesday’s press conference, from the emotions of playing in a fierce rivalry game to what their squads need to do to come out of Mountain America Stadium with a fifth consecutive win. Here is a collection of what they had to say.

“We stink at stopping the run. So, what are they going to do? They’re going to run it a thousand times. Sims is going to probably have 50 carries. Raleek Brown’s going to have 40. And then they’re going to isolate Jordyn Tyson one-on-one. They’ll get us to put 10-to-11 guys in the box and see if they can beat our DBs one-on-one. That’s what I would do if I was them. That’s what I keep hearing.”

“So, I think they’re a damn good football team. I think Jeff Sims, if you watch the Iowa State game he’s physical, he’s big, he’s strong, and he plays football with the right demeanor. Raleek Brown, if you watched the Colorado game on Saturday night, he is physical, twitchy, fast.”

“Jordyn Tyson was finally back and I think he’s the best 50-50 ball catcher in America. I mean, he’s he is elite when the ball’s thrown up in the air. So, our DBs are gonna have a great challenge when they throw it to them.”

“People have struggled running the football on them and it’s because they’re really stout up front. They do a good job of doing what they do well. I think the linebackers are very active and then I think they got two really, really, really dynamic corners that they’re allowed to play on an island and play man free with.”

“I think their safeties are really, really, really aggressive and very, very physical. There’s a couple times on tape and they’ll come down and smack you, smack you. They’re extremely physical and they’re good at what they do.”

“It’s passion over emotion and anything you do in life, if you make an emotional decision, it’s most of the time stupid and wrong. Then if you make a passional decision it means that you will put a commitment and made a commitment to make that choice. And so we cannot be full of emotion and there will be a ton of it all the way from the the warm-ups. That’s how it is.”

“In 2018, they had to line the Arizona State Troopers across midfield because there was a couple of interactions within the teams before the game. It doesn’t need to be that way. This is a great rivalry that the people up there don’t like the people down here.”

“We retain the quarterback and then we had to build around him when we started at the offensive line position the biggest part of that is we hit because you take five or six transfer linemen you’re hoping that you hit on two or three of them and we really hit on all of them and we hit in a big way. I mean KD (Ka’ena Decambra) is a major player for us.”

“Tristan (Bounds) ended up being a major player for us. Ty Buchanan is a major player for us. So those guys helped us turn us around pretty quickly. And then obviously some skilled guys with our receivers with (Luke) Wysong and Hut (Kris Hutson and (Tre) Spivey and all those guys. It just end up being a good group um of talent.”

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