Arizona football's Treydan Stukes 'improving' after leaving season opener

In his refurbished role in Arizona’s defensive secondary, nickelback Treydan Stukes was on pace for a career performance in the Wildcats’ season-opening victory over Northern Arizona.

Stukes had four tackles and two stops for loss in 31 defensive snaps in the first half before exiting the game in the second quarter after a hard collision with NAU running back T.J McDaniel in the second quarter.

Stukes, who had the seventh-highest Pro Football Focus grade against NAU (77.3), was replaced by senior Martell Irby, who ended the night with seven tackles, two pass breakups and a tackle for loss. Irby, a former UCLA Bruin, is the only newcomer who was named team captain and was recently elevated from walk-on to scholarship status.

During his news conference on Monday, Jedd Fisch didn’t have an update on Stukes, “other than he’s improving,” said the UA coach.

Implying Stukes’ injury is concussion-related, Fisch said the junior defensive back’s availability for Arizona’s road opener on Saturday at Mississippi State won’t be decided until Thursday or Friday “based on all of the protocols that are in place.”

“We can’t make those decisions,” Fisch said. “That will be told to us by the training staff.”

Cats ‘have to be more disciplined’

The Wildcats had 11 penalties for 89 yards against the Lumberjacks, including a targeting foul on Arizona safety Gunner Maldonado in the third quarter that got him ejected for the remainder of the game and the first half of Saturday in Starkville.

“We need to not have five penalties that are personal fouls. We talked about that as a staff, whether it be an unnecessary roughness on a punt, whether it be an unsportsmanlike conduct with a shove late, whether it be two roughing the passers or targeting, we just can’t have those plays,” Fisch said. “That is not going to work against an SEC opponent this week. We have to be more disciplined there.

“But in regards to be challenged to be more physical, they were. Being challenged to run to the ball, they were fantastic. Being challenged to play with great effort, they did that. And being challenged to become elite communicators, they’re working hard at that as well.”

Added Fisch: “And Gunner knows. Gunner came right up to me and said, ‘Coach, I’m sorry, I need to be better,’ and he knows that and so do all of our guys and so do most guys who get thrown out for targeting. Unfortunately, there are some instincts that occur that you sometimes get caught up in (during) the game, and that mistake happens.”

Third-year safety Isaiah Taylor, who is expected to start at free safety alongside “boundary” safety Dalton Johnson on Saturday, took over for Maldonado and had a 72.8 overall grade from Pro Football Focus in 18 defensive snaps. True freshman and Chandler Hamilton product Genesis Smith had one tackle in 22 defensive snaps.

“We have a really good group right there that can rotate through. ... Genesis came in and played really well as well,” Fisch said.

Maldonado had the second-lowest PFF grade (53.9) by any Wildcat on defense, including a 50.4 grade for tackling. PFF gave Maldonado a 38.1 tackling grade in 11 games during the 2022 season. The hard-hitting Maldonado, who is a team captain this season, sometimes emphasizes too much on the contact of a ball-carrier, causing him to either lose the player — or worse, get ejected for targeting.

“If you can just lead with your shoulder, tackle with your shoulder. Keep your head out of it. You’re just going to have to deal with some of those plays that aren’t necessarily the same blow-up shots,” Fisch said. “If you go back in time and look at all of the blow-up shots of old and you want to try and get your defense going and look at the film, you go, ‘I can’t show any of these,’ right? None of these blow-up shots of old aren’t allowed any longer. You have to be disciplined and you have to lead with your shoulder.”

There are plenty of “blow-up” shots from Maldonado’s position coach, Chuck Cecil, who garnered a reputation for his “too vicious for the NFL” hits as a player, but he recognizes that tackling without leading with a helmet is “a part of the game,” Fisch said.

“He knows the game is not the same as it once was,” Fisch said of Cecil. “He does a great job of coaching his safeties up and explaining the differential between when it was when he played, which was 30 years ago versus now.”

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Extra points

Fisch, on Arizona going 1 for 5 on third-down conversions against NAU: “It was a weird game. ... We weren’t able to convert on the easy ones. ... So we gotta be better at third down. I know it sounds weird because we only had five of them, but we’ve gotta be better at third down. We’re going to have more this week.”

Fisch, on second-year cornerback Ephesians Prysock, who had six tackles and two pass breakups on Saturday: “He tackled really well. He’s got great range. I mean, you’re talking about a 6-foot-4 corner that can run, so when you have that and play man coverage, it’s hard to throw around that because of his length and speed. ... He’s getting confidence. As he continues to grow and build confidence, he’s going to be a really good corner for a lot of years.”

Fisch, on Mississippi State: “Certainly a very tough opponent. I think Coach (Zach) Arnett has done a great job defensively. Now that he’s the head coach, and I’m sure he’ll continue to do a great job. ... They are tough to move the ball on. He knows exactly all the answers to the test. You can tell he’s been in that defense for a very, very long time, either running, coaching it, being a (graduate assistant) in it — whatever it might be, he is an expert in that defense, so we have our work cut out for us there. ... We’re excited about the challenge. We’re excited about going down to Starkville.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Treydan Stukes 'improving' after injury in Wildcats' football opener