How many wins will Arizona finish with this year?

We’ve seen the predictions for the Arizona Wildcats to finish fourth or fifth in the Pac-12 South this year, but what exactly does that mean?

What record do we expect Arizona to finish the season with? We dive into that in our second roundtable of the week:

Gabe Encinas: I think 7-5 is pretty fair. I would go 3-0 through non-conference play, with a win against either Utah or Washington State. Then picking up wins against Colorado, Oregon State and Arizona State.

I don’t totally buy into the Washington hype and I think playing the Huskies earlier in the year helps, but that will be a very tough game to win. We know how the past four games vs. UCLA have gone and I don’t think that trend ends. Arizona has played USC extremely tough these past four years and there’s potential for an upset win, not necessarily the top 10 win that Rich Rodriguez has captured each of his four seasons in Tucson, but still a quality win. And then all I have to say about Stanford is Christian McCaffrey, the guy who should have won the Heisman last season.

Drake Horner: 8-4. The offense should be one of the best in the Pac-12. Defense is a very big question mark, but Arizona has never really had a good defense since RichRod took over. In 2014, Arizona was 105th in total defense and went 10-2. All the defense needs to be is average. The schedule is favorable as there are only four road games. USC, Washington, and Stanford are at home, and Rich is always good for one upset. I think Arizona wins a game it shouldn’t and loses a game it shouldn’t. If the defense is better than expected, all bets are off.

Steve Apter: I’d be pleasantly surprised if they finished above .500 and I predict they will be 6-6 this season. Unlike last season where they coasted to three early victories, they start the year against a really tough opponent in BYU. The Cougars may be welcoming a first year coach in Kalani Sitake, but he is inheriting a senior-laden roster including signal-caller Taysom Hill and a stout defense led by safety Kai Nacua. Earlier in the off-season, Arizona Athletic Director Greg Byrne revealed that as of late May, BYU had sold more tickets to the season opener (being played in Glendale) than Arizona…ouch. BYU is currently a 2.5 point favorite and even with a few more late ticket purchases by Arizona fans and alumni, this is going to be a tough initial test for the Cats.

Arizona should win their next two games easily against Grambling State and Hawaii but where can they guarantee wins after that? Both Washington schools played them pretty tough last season. Wins against USC, Stanford or UCLA will be unlikely, and while they should beat ASU and Colorado, trips to Salt Lake City and Corvallis will be winnable but still no cakewalk. The first four games are crucial. Let’s say they beat Washington and lose to BYU, they’ll feel like they’re playing with house money heading into a difficult four game stretch. If they can somehow pull out two wins amongst two on the road against UCLA and Utah, and two at home against Stanford and USC, then at 5-3 they would then feel in contention for the Pac-12 South by winning their final four against WSU, Colorado, OSU and ASU to finish 9-3 with only two losses in conference. However, I think a more likely scenario is going 3-5 through the first eight games and 3-1 in the final four to finish with a .500 record and a trip to the whatever bowl.

Brandon Combs: I would say either 7-5 or 8-4. Arizona should go 3-0 in non-con play with conference wins against Colorado, ASU, Oregon State, and Utah. I believe the 8th win will come against either Washington, USC, or Washington State. Arizona has played USC tough the past few years, with an almost win last year. Washington has a ton of hype surrounding it, but we’ll have to see how that plays out when the Huskies come to Tucson. Wazzu does have a deadly passing attack, but if the defense can hold, I believe Arizona’s offense will be too much. Regardless, Arizona is bowl bound this upcoming season.

David Potts: 6-6. Even if this is a bit of a transition year for Arizona, I think the team should be able to scrape out a bowl appearance. That said, there isn’t much room for error, and a win against BYU would go a long, long way to push the Wildcats to bowl eligibility.

Ronnie Stoffle: This is tricky because the defense is such a wild card. For simplicity sake, let’s assume their defense is statistically similar to last season’s. We know the offense can and will score plenty of points. I think it’s fair to assume eight wins (7-5 and a bowl win), is probable. We know Tucson is a dangerous place for favored opponents and sometimes, even heavily favored opponents. I trust that they can beat Washington, SC or Stanford at home.

However, let’s assume that the defense is statistically better with getting off the field on third down and take-aways. This should be worth at least an extra win. It feels like nine wins (8-4 and a bowl win) is the ceiling given the tough start to Pac-12 play.

Now, let’s assume a scenario where the defense is statistically worse than 2015 and the injury bug strikes again. The quarterback depth is better suited to handle Anu’s absence but that darn start to conference play is so brutal. If this scenario occurs, I can absolutely see a 5-7 season.

In essence, football is basically organized pushin’. That guy’s pushing, that other guy there is pushing, that fellow on the other side of the field is pushing. Everybody’s constantly pushing each other around the field. So it follows that to be successful, you need to be the pusher more often than the pushee.

B.J. Hill knows a little something about that, as he is coming off an impressive sophomore season in which he recorded 50 tackles, 11 of those for a loss. Already a large and strong human, he appears to have gotten even stronger this offseason.

That’s a lot of weight. That’s like benching three of me. Or roughly 12,000 McNuggets. (And after spending time actually calculating that number, I feel somewhat disappointed that pounds is the standard for weightlifting benchmarks, and not McNuggets. How many McNuggets ya bench, bro?)

Anyway, Hill is just one of several members of the Wolfpack football team showing off impressive weightlifting numbers, as ESPN’s Andrea Adelson explained on Twitter this afternoon:

NC State returns eight starters on defense and should be led by its front seven, bigger and stronger than any group Dave Doeren has had with the Wolfpack. Seven players power cleaned over 350 pounds during the offseason: defensive ends James Smith-Williams, Kentavius Street and Bradley Chubb, along with defensive tackles Justin Jones, Eurndraus Bryant, B.J. Hill and Monty Nelson. When Doeren arrived four years ago, he only had one player hit that mark.

Let’s hope this helps lead the defense to a better season, because between the unknown QB situation and the schedule, the defense has to be better. Maybe these guys, what with their improved strength and therefore improved pushing skills, can simply sack the quarterback on every play. Boy that would really help out a lot.

As the Sooners took the field in Waco on a rainy Saturday night it was clear that this was a game that they had been looking forward too for some time. The Sooners were punched in the mouth early as Bayor had little trouble driving the length of the field and scoring with seemingly no push back from the Sooners defense.

The Sooners however punched back and eventually out slugged the Bears to win convincingly in Waco 44-34. One of the biggest highlights of the game was a beautiful 39 yard touchdown pass from Mayfield to Sterling Shepard in the middle of the second quarter.

The Sooners handed Baylor their first loss of the season and in doing so vaulted themselves back into the college football playoff discussion. Mayfield finished with 270 yards passing and 3 touchdowns. He added another 76 yards on the ground and another TD as well.

You can see the highlights from the game here.

Jeffery Simmons showed up in court today and was found guilty of simple assault and malicious mischief.

Jeffery Simmons, whose actions were caught on a video that went viral, was found guilty of simple assault and malicious mischief today.

Simmons is also charged with malicious mischief and disturbing the peace by fighting

— Cody Long (@CodyLongWTVA) July 26, 2016

Simmons attorney puts in no contest plea for assault charge…not guilty pleas for other charges

— Cody Long (@CodyLongWTVA) July 26, 2016

Jeffery Simmons found guilty of simple assault, guilty of malicious mischief #wtvanews

— Cody Long (@CodyLongWTVA) July 26, 2016

Simmons will be responsible for paying restitution to Sophia Taylor, the woman that was seen fighting with and ultimately forced onto the ground by Jeffery Simmons and another woman. The restitution will cover hospital bills and damage that resulted to Taylor’s car. Simmons will also have to pay a couple of fines, one for simple assault and one for malicious mischief.

Fines: $175 for simple assault and $300 for malicious mischief

— Cody Long (@CodyLongWTVA) July 26, 2016

In restitution Simmons will pay $711 for medical bills and $175 for alleged damage to Sophia Taylor’s car

— Cody Long (@CodyLongWTVA) July 26, 2016

As Sophia Taylor was involved in the altercation before ultimately being forced on the ground by Simmons and another woman, she is responsible for paying a fine for disturbing the peace.

Jeffery Simmons was in court today. Here’s the details: pic.twitter.com/FomGmGNqvb

— Joel Coleman (@JoelTColeman) July 26, 2016

Although this won’t stop people from talking about it, especially folks on message boards and twitter, the case has been taken care of in the legal system. Simmons will now be preparing for football season by wrapping up the required counseling Mississippi State has set for him and then serving his one game suspension before he can play.

Meyer notes that the reason behind the suspension was academic related.

Another setback has hit Ohio State defensive tackle Dylan Thompson. Thompson, who was redshirted in the 2014 season with a knee injury, has been declared academically ineligible for the 2016 season.

With the Buckeyes returning only three starters on defense, the 6’5, 275-pounder would’ve been in the mix for playing time.

Listed as a redshirt sophomore, the Lombard, Illinois, tackle was a three-star product in high school per 247Sports, and was cited as a top 50 DT prospect before he declared for Ohio State.

This is not the first time suspensions have been doled out at Big Ten Media Days. Last year, Urban Meyer announced the suspension of four Buckeyes for their season opener against Virginia Tech.

In other news, foot surgery doesn’t look fun.

In case you thought all the talk about Mitch being hurt last year was overblown, I direct you to this tweet:

/shudders

Yes, that’s actually Mitch’s foot following his surgery. No, that doesn’t look fun at all. What got Mitch to the point of needing all…that? Well, here’s a description from Andy Greder of the PiPress:

Mitch Leidner first tore a ligament in his left foot against Texas Christian.

[snip]

He ripped it, and played through it, in 2014.

Then in the first week of the 2015 preseason camp, he tore another ligament. In the third game against Kent State, he said he dislocated his “second toe and tore some ligaments around that one.”

[snip]

Before the Quick Lane Bowl on Dec. 28, a magnetic resonance imaging test revealed “nothing left,” he said. Leidner stared down questions about him playing and earned MVP honors in the 21-14 win over Central Michigan.

After the game, he quickly had surgery to “reconstruct the whole top of my foot,” and then rehabbed during spring practices.

The results of surgery (especially foot surgery) often look worse than they feel. Here’s Andy on how Mitch is recovering:

Leidner is preparing to finish this season healthy. He has shed 20 pounds since the December surgery to be exactly 230. After coping with not being able to sprint, he’s now going 100 percent and has increased his miles per hour from 18-19 to 20-21.

How this will translate onto the field remains to be seen, but given everything Mitch has been through you can’t help but root for the guy to have a great season!

Syracuse’s head football coach appeared on the ESPN morning show to talk SU Football, his former players in the NFL and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.

Dino Babers needs 365 days.

That’s one year, according to him, that he needs to get to know this Syracuse Orange program and these players and have them get to know him. One year to do some gardening for a program that went 14-23 in three years under coach Scott Shafer, to clean things up and see what the program can grow into.

This was one of the topics discussed by the first-year Orange head coach during his appearance on the ESPN Radio morning show ‘Mike and Mike’ on Tuesday. It was part of his day participating in the ESPN Car Wash.

Babers was his usual self: charismatic, relatable and in the mood to tell a few stories.

One of those stories was about how he’s spent a large portion of his career coaching football at traditional basketball powerhouses. He listed off some of the schools on his resume, including UNLV, Arizona and UCLA, and then talked about how he loves coaching football at “basketball schools”. Here’s what else Babers had to say about that topic:

“I worked at UNLV when Tark (Jerry Tarkanian) was there when they won a National Championship. I worked at the University of Arizona when Lute Olsen won a National Championship. I was at UCLA the two years that Ben Howland (he needed some help from Greenberg to remember the last name) was there and went to the Final Four twice. But that wasn’t my fault, he should’ve won it….Now to answer your question, I absolutely love it. I think that it’s OK that Syracuse is considered a basketball school.

When you look back into our tradition, and you look at all of the great things and great football players that we had there in the past. Ernie Davis, the GOAT – Jim Brown, are you kidding me? Floyd Little, along with Don McPherson, Donovan McNabb, (Chandler) Jones, Dwight Freeney. We’ve had fantastic football players there. What we need to do is just bridge that past to the present so we can have an opportunity to have an outstanding future.”

He was also asked about how he plans to wipe the slate clean and pick the program back up, and this is where he got into his talk about needing a year to get to know the program. Here’s what he had to say about turning the program around:

“The first thing is I needed them to listen to one voice. I talked to a lot of alumni…I said please let me have 365 days with these guys. Everybody wants to help. Everybody wants to get in, and I want all of their help. But what I need to do is just circle the wagons and really get to know this football team and have the football team get to know me and my coaches.

After those 365 days of pulling out all the weeds and fertilizing it and watering it and seeding it, let’s see what we can blossom into.”

Babers, who brought along a big sample of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que sauce for his hosts, began the interview by giving the audience a quick history lesson on the Syracuse hot spot:

“I’ll tell you what, the story of that barbecue place is outstanding. The gentleman that owns that thing, he took a tour of the United States, all the Southern states, and was an apprentice in all the top barbecue places. Tennessee, Georgia, Texas. After he did it, I think it was about three or four years after he was an apprentice down there, he came back up to Syracuse, N.Y., and opened up his own place. It’s been doing fabulous up there. If you’re going to eat barbecue, that’s the place.”

Mike Golic: “So, he stole all their recipes when he was doing that, huh?”.

Babers: “Basically, he was a good coach”.

I told you he likes to tell stories. By the way, Mike Golic was so excited about the BBQ sauce that Babers brought, that he told him he’d be rooting for Syracuse in every game this year. Of course, he forgot that Syracuse is playing his alma mater, Notre Dame, at Metlife Stadium this fall.

Babers was also asked about a couple of his former college players now playing in the NFL, Josh Gordon and Jimmy Garoppolo.

Gordon, whose indefinite suspension was just lifted by the NFL for his multiple drug violations, played for Baylor when Babers was coaching there. Babers vouched for his character, saying that he trusts him to babysit his kids and be around his family. He called him an “outstanding person” and “the most talented wide receiver I’ve ever had”, acknowledging that he’s “got one issue”. “I hope this time he gets it right,” Babers said.

Garoppolo, who is set to start the first four games of the NFL season for the Patriots while Tom Brady serves his “Deflategate” suspension, is a player who Babers couldn’t believe ended up at Eastern Illinois, where he was coaching at the time. Babers said, after seeing Garoppolo throw five passes, he thought a lot of coaches should be fired for passing him over.

Babers closed the interview by calling ‘Mike and Mike’ his idols, saying he watches them every morning.

Want to watch for yourself. Here’s the full segment below:

Mark Stoops is expecting a big step up in production from sophomore linebacker Josh Allen.

For far too much of Mark Stoops’ tenure, linebacker has been a weakness more often than not.

That seems hard to believe, given the fact that NFL guys like Avery Williamson, Bud Dupree and Za’Darius Smith have been roaming the field under Stoops’ watch. But as good as those guys were, a lack of depth and more impact players along this unit has left it struggling mightily against the heavy-hitting offenses UK sees week in and week out in the SEC, not to mention what Louisville did last year.

That debacle was just one of many examples of the backers not being good enough, something Stoops doesn’t foresee being the case in 2016. In an interview with KSR, Stoops expressed confidence in this unit taking a major step forward this coming season.

Among the players Stoops expects to step up include projected strongside linebacker Josh Allen, who played sparingly as a true freshman last year, and is expecting big things from now that he’s more familiar with the system.

“You’re not going to recruit a better looking outside linebacker in the country,” Stoops said of Allen. “You’ve just got to bring them along. He was a true freshman. You guys have heard me talk about how hard it is to play that position. That’s where it’s hard when you’re trying to piece the whole thing together when you come from where we came from.”

Allen played in all 12 games as a backup linebacker and on special teams as a true freshman in 2015. He recorded just four tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and one-half sack, but just avoiding  a redshirt and seeing the field shows how much the staff thought of him.

Allen needs to step up in a big way for the UK backers to become a strength in 2016, or at least, avoid being a weakness.

Arizona scores with a versatile JuCo linebacker

The Arizona Wildcats now have 24 commitments for the 2017 recruiting class, still a top 15 class according to all major recruiting services. The latest commitment for the class came by way of junior college prospect Delshawn Phillips, a 6-foot-2, 228 pound linebacker out of Garden City Community College (Garden City, Kansas).

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Phillips was a 2-star prospect out of Cass Techinical, a football powerhouse. He signed with Western Michigan on National Signing Day of 2014, but ended up at Garden City. He is now a 3-star JuCo prospect, ranked 59th in the nation and second among inside linebackers.

In his first season with the Broncos, he racked up 72 tackles, seven sacks and forced one fumble through 11 games. This drew the attention of the Arizona coaching staff, landing an offer on June 13th.

“I was mainly communicating with Coach (Tony) Dews,” he said about his communication process. “It all started when they came to visit GCCC and they liked me.”

Phillips flew under the radar throughout his commitment, keeping quiet about his process.

“Nobody knew, but I had been wanting to commit (to Arizona),” he explained. “I just had to see the place, see my fit and then I felt like family. The whole environment was cool.”

Phillips is 100 percent committed to Arizona. His recruitment started to pick up, but that doesn’t matter to him anymore.

“Yeah, no need to name them,” he said when asked about if any other schools were recruiting him as hard as the UA. “Arizona blessed me with a scholarship so therefore no other schools matter.”

Phillips is an extremely versatile athlete that can be used all over the field. He says the coaching staff sees him as an outside linebacker that could be an edge rusher, also able to move in the box.

He plans to graduate in December and enroll at Arizona in the spring of 2017. He will be able to contribute immediately and become a staple of the defense moving forward.

His freshman year highlights from Garden City are below.

TCU picked up a promising tight end commit in the 2016 class, and they have a few upperclassmen on the roster who could make an impact as well. Will this year see an uptick in the utilization of the position?

TCU’s offense gets a lot of credit for being one of the most innovative in college football and for good reason. However, the tight end position has not been one of the great benefactors of this innovate approach to offensive game planning and I can’t help but think that’s a little humorous. If anything, it’s at least a little ironic.

If Cumbie and Meacham had coached TCU 50 years ago in the Southwest Conference, they probably would have used the tight end all the time. Taking a player who had the skills of an offensive lineman and a receiver and utilizing them as both? How innovative! Think of the possibilities! Right? Anyway, I think 1960s Cumbie and Meacham would agree with me.

Tight Ends: 2015

Last year the tight ends did have their moments, at least more than the previous year. I hear they call that a trend and that it’s a useful way to predict future performance. Last year Dominic Merka and Charlie Reid saw most of the action. Even combined, their performance didn’t make for an impressive stat line, but it did seem like the ball went to the tight end in important situations more than in 2014.

Dominic Merka was the starter last season at tight end, and he saw most of the action. He caught a total of four passes for 54 yards and scored a touchdown against SMU. That touchdown mattered, but mostly because that SMU game got waaaay closer than any of us would have liked. His biggest catch of the year came in the Monsoon Bowl against Baylor, when he brought in a seven yard reception on 2nd and 13 to set TCU up with a manageable third down. The Frogs would end up scoring on that drive, and, you know, winning the game.

Tight Ends: 2016

Charlie Reid backed up Merka for most of last year, but he saw action in nine games, recording three receptions for 24 yards and one touchdown. Again, it was a touchdown that mattered. TCU was down to Iowa State 21-14 in the second quarter, and Reid’s touchdown tied things up. That was Reid’s second career touchdown, after catching one against SMU as a redshirt freshman in 2014. Catching touchdowns against SMU is nice, but when Cumbie and Meacham are drawing up plays to the tight end in the first half of a Big 12 game on the road, well that’s something else entirely.

Reid was listed as the starter on TCU’s post-spring depth chart, but there are three other tight ends on TCU’s roster heading into the fall. Cole Novak is a junior who came to the Frogs from Texas State and saw action in one game last year, making him the most experienced backup on the roster right now. Cole Hunt, a fellow junior, joins him as a graduate transfer from Rice. Hunt made a few starts for the Owls during his career, so he may be capable of challenging for some snaps as well.

Probably the most physically gifted tight end on the roster is a freshman signee from the class of 2016, Artayvious Lynn. He’s listed on TCU’s roster at 6’6″, 247 lbs, making him already the second biggest tight end on the team. Even more amazing than that, the freshman clocked in at a 4.55 second 40. We won’t know until much later if he’s ready to make an impact this fall, but with measurables like that, he might just have Cumbie and Meacham getting innovative with the tight end here in the next few years.