Arizona Reportedly Was Always Going To Change Offensive Play Callers

When Arizona upset Utah on the road two weekends ago, it was revealed the Wildcats had changed play callers from newly hired Dino Babers to passing game coordinator and tight ends coach Matt Adkins.

That was surprising at the time.

Babers came over after being fired by Syracuse following his eight-year tenure as head coach.

He talked all offseason about wanting to create an offense that did some things differently than how they operated under Jedd Fisch, but to make the transition easier, he kept some of the same verbiage they used before.

In the opening game against New Mexico, it looked like this unit was poised to be one of the best in the entire country, but after that 61-point outburst, they scored 22 against FCS-level Northern Arizona and seven against Kansas State.

The Wildcats went into the bye week with a lot of figure out, and they came out of it with a new play caller that helped them take down the No. 10-ranked team in the country two Saturdays ago.

And apparently, this change was something that was planned all along.

Babers said “it was just a matter of time of when we were going to do it” and that the Adkins, who followed Brennan over from San Jose State, had “accelerated his growth” in the last few months that made everyone comfortable making the change, per Justin Spears of The Arizona Daily Star.

So what does the offensive coordinator do now that he’s not calling plays?

That wasn’t exactly revealed, but Spears did point out that Babers was originally brought to Tucson to not only be the OC, but to also mentor the younger coaches on staff.

He is likely still very much involved in putting together the offensive gameplan alongside Adkins who is now calling the plays.

But, despite the change, there are still questions about this offense.

Following their balanced 358-yard performance against Utah’s solid defense where 197 came through the air and the other 161 was produced by the ground game, Arizona left a lot of be desired on that side of the ball during their loss against Texas Tech.

The Wildcats put up yards, totaling 422, but they failed to capitalize and score touchdowns at a high rate when they were inside their opponent’s territory.

It will be interesting to see how everything progresses, especially since the change in play caller was already something that was in the works by Brennan from the beginning.