With spring practice underway at many Pac-12 destinations, it's time to do our annual position-by-position breakdown.
Today, we move to the defensive side of the ball and we're starting with the defensive backs. For the sake of time and avoiding headaches, we're going to just separate this into three groups -- the defensive backs, linebackers and defensive line. For teams that have certain hybrid positions and players, we put them into which of those three categories we thought they best fit. If you don't like how we did it, feel free to complain here.
Arizona: Cornerback Jonathan McKnight is out, leaving the Wildcats down a corner. The good news is that Jarvis McCall Jr. is back after finishing last season as Arizona’s ninth-leading tackler. Three players will try to battle it out to start opposite McCall: Cam Denson, Devin Holiday and DaVonte’ Neal. Denson is the most experienced, having started at CB against UCLA and Colorado and finishing the year with 21 tackles and two picks. Holliday played in just six games and finished with two tackles and one interception, while Neal has come over from the offensive side of the ball to help out with depth at the corner spot. All three are in similar physical molds to McKnight but this is going to come down to who can make the most plays. Whoever comes out on top this spring has a fast track to the starting job next fall so these reps are crucial.
However, the Wildcats aren’t as fortunate in the rest of the secondary, where they lost Jourdon Grandon, Tra'Mayne Bondurant and Jared Tevis. Will Parks should fill Bondurant’s spot at spur pretty well, but he needs to bring the leadership of Bondurant and Tevis combined. Jamar Allah, Tellas Jones and Anthony Lopez will fight for minutes this spring alongside juco transfer Paul Magloire Jr., who has already received some praise from Rich Rodriguez. The quarterback turned running back turned safety enrolled early and with so many open reps and so few more opportunities left in his college career, look for him to make the most of this.
Arizona State: The Sun Devils return most of their secondary, but lose boundary safety Damarious Randall, who led ASU in tackles last season and tallied three interceptions. Replacing him will be no small task but Todd Graham has options in James Johnson, Chad Adams and Dasmond Tautalatasi. Whoever earns that starting spot will have the opportunity to work and grow alongside field safety Jordan Simone, who had a breakout year in 2014 after going from walk -on to scholarship player and he’ll look to build on that momentum. And at corner, the Sun Devils return both starters in Lloyd Carrington and Kweishi Brown as well as nickel Armand Perry. So, don’t be too worried if those three don’t get a ton of reps this spring because their spots are secure and now Graham is just looking to build some depth. Perry should get a few more reps as will Solomon Means and Ronald Lewis, as they try to break into the cornerback rotation.
Colorado: The Buffs are in a slightly different position here considering they concluded spring practices yesterday. But here's a run down based off the notes from the spring game that were released as well as some thoughts that led to the event. The depth chart has Ken Crawley (who’s up to 180 pounds) and Chidobe Awuzie listed as the two top cornerbacks. Behind them are John Walker -- who won the team’s award as the most improved defensive back -- and Ahkello Witherspoon in the two deep. Awuzie was kind of a surprise to see atop the list considering how much praise we’ve heard about the rangy Witherspoon but considering that Awuzie is also listed as the starting nickel, we’re still expecting to see a lot of Witherspoon at corner. At safety, Evan White and Tedric Thompson took the starting jobs while Ryan Moeller and Afolabi Laguda fill out the two deep.