TUCSON -- The Arizona Wildcats regularly started four true freshmen on defense in 2017.
“They were babies last year,” defensive coordinator Marcel Yates said Thursday.
The freshmen are now sophomores. In many ways — ways that could benefit the Wildcats greatly in 2018 — they have grown up.
“I don’t think they understood the defense as well as they do now,” Yates said. “Being a year older, being in the system now for a full year, going through spring ball, going through summer … they’re fitting their gaps better. They’re more downhill. And they’re just bigger.