Gold Nuggets: Star OT Jaxson Kirkland out Week 1 for Washington, Jayden de Laura takes his lumps for Arizona
Welcome back for this week’s Gold Nuggets, Saturday Out West columnist Jon Gold’s weekly trip around the Pac-12.
Read below for news, notes and quotes from the second week of fall camp…
Arizona: De Laura shakes off a bad day
Coming off a major award — Pac-12 offensive freshman of the year — it would be easy to consider Jayden de Laura a finished product.
But de Laura reminded Arizona followers of his fallibility in Thursday’s practice, when head coach Jedd Fisch told reporters “he was maybe overthinking here or there.”
While de Laura is an instant upgrade at the position for the Wildcats, this is quite the change for him. He initially committed to Washington State to join a Mike Leach offense, but Leach left for Mississippi State. De Laura stuck it out with Nick Rolovich and shined last season after showing his inexperience as a true freshman in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign.
Now learning a completely new offense, de Laura is going through his growing pains. And he appears to be learning from them, the Arizona Daily Star’s Michael Lev reported.
“There were some things that he just needed to see,” Fisch told reporters on Saturday. “He just needed a rhythm. He’s got a nice little confidence about himself that when he feels that he knows something, he’s going to execute it really well.
“Sometimes when you have a new play coming in or a couple new things … he was maybe overthinking here or there. But Jayden is getting better every day. I just tell him, ‘Trust the process.’ If you do that, good things will come your way.”
Arizona State: Investigation lingering on
One of the biggest knocks on the NCAA — and certainly the most justifiable — is the level to which it drags its feet over investigations into college football and basketball misdeeds.
And, yes, there were certainly myriad misdeeds committed by the Arizona State football coaching staff the past few years.
But, as The Athletic reported on Tuesday, the NCAA is taking its sweet time with the Sun Devils.
“I know that we haven’t, out of my office, been very vocal about anything because we’re asked not to say anything by the NCAA,” ASU president Michael Crow told The Athletic. “And the NCAA is moving in deliberate fashion. I don’t believe they’ve even interviewed our remaining coaches yet.”
And the thick cloud over the program remains, without an end in sight.
Cal: Sirmons ducking the father/son discussion
I’m kind of annoyed that the Sirmonses — defensive coordinator Peter and his son, star linebacker Jackson — aren’t taking a more generous approach with the media when it comes to their unique story.
Sorry, guys, but it matters when one of the Pac-12’s top linebackers transfers within the conference to play for his father. That’s a story, no matter how much they try to play it down.
“It’s a bigger story to the media, fans and people on the outside than it is inside the program,” head coach Justin Wilcox, according to CalBears.com’s Kyle McCrae. “Inside of here, it’s really a non-story.”
That’s just absurd.
This doesn’t happen very often, and it begs 1,000 questions.
When did Peter first see in Jackson the makings of a college football star? Did Jackson know Peter was on the verge of being hired by Cal when he first committed to Washington? What does mom have to say about all this?
We need answers.
Colorado: Can Sanford turn the offense around?
Colorado’s offense wasn’t just bad last year, at times it was historically bad. And new offensive coordinator Mike Sanford got a first-hand look at just how bad. Sanford was in the opposing booth, serving as offensive coordinator for Minnesota, when the Golden Gophers held Colorado to 63 total yards in a 30-0 blowout on Sept. 18.
Sanford must love a challenge, willfully leaving an ascending Minnesota program to join that kind of offense. It says something about him that he could watch that kind of performance and then decide to join that program.
“To be honest, I think that I saw an offense, at least in that particular game … that was just trying to find itself relative to its own confidence,” Sanford told the BuffZone’s Brian Howell. “That really was our offensive staff’s main objective when we first got here was to have a process to restore their collective confidence and their individual confidence.”
That won’t be an easy task, as the Buffaloes have scarce offensive talent. But a good coaching mind and a willingness to share it – that’s the first step to turning things around.
Oregon: QB situation still unsettled
Either new Oregon head coach Dan Lanning is playing some game with the media or Bo Nix is in for a wake-up call.
Lanning insisted after Saturday’s scrimmage that none of three quarterbacks vying for the Ducks’ starting gig — Nix, Ty Thompson and Jay Butterfield — has separated from the others.
Nix, who started at Auburn for 3 seasons, is still the favorite to get the gig. But it’s a bit worrisome that Lanning has not made the decision public yet.
“I think everybody’s had shining moments and I don’t think there’s one that separated themselves out from the other,” Lanning told the media on Saturday, according to the Oregonian’s James Crepea.
With a season-opening matchup against Georgia in the offing, that news does not inspire confidence.
Oregon State: D pitches a shutout
It’s not really a surprise when a team’s defense gains an early edge in fall camp over the offense. Nor is it particularly indicative for either side of the ball.
But Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith has to have mixed emotions coming off the Beavers’ first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday. In nearly 2 hours of action with nearly 100 plays called, the Oregon State offense produced exactly zero touchdowns.
From the Oregonian’s Nick Daschel: “There were no scoreboards or fans. But it was clear the first formal scrimmage of Oregon State’s preseason camp was won by the defense.
After 2 hours of scrimmaging Saturday, there were no offensive touchdowns.
Now, some caveats. The No. 1 offense played only 3 series. There was no offensive script of plays. There were no 2-minute drills, and few red zone situations.
Still, there also were no touchdowns over 120 minutes.”
“We gave them almost 100 plays,” OSU coach Jonathan Smith said. “Now, we didn’t give them great field position throughout. But I mean, that’s a credit to the defense.”
Stanford: Cardinal wideouts get recognition
On3 Sports ranked their top wide receiver units in the country, and it is not much of a surprise that USC ranks No. 2 overall with a corps highlighted by impact transfers Jordan Addison, Mario Williams and Terrell Bynum.
What is a surprise?
How about Stanford ranking No. 9?
Here’s what On3 has to say about a unit that features wideouts Elijah Higgins, John Humphreys, Brycen Tremayne and Michael Wilson, as well as talented tight end Benjamin Yurosek:
“If QB Tanner McKee can stay healthy (and upright behind a line that has questions), his receiving corps will produce. And these receivers are big dudes: Each of the five listed is at least 6-2 and three are at least 6-4 (Humphreys, Tremayne and Yurosek). Yurosek is one of the most talented tight ends in the nation.”
UCLA: Top recruit ailing
A punishing 6-foot, 200-pound safety out of Sierra Canyon High, Kamari Ramsey rates as the top prospect for UCLA since Sean Rhyan in 2019. For a program that has struggled to recruit the high school ranks during the Chip Kelly tenure, Ramsey’s arrival was an important one, and he figured to be in the safety rotation early in his UCLA career.
That fast start may be on hold with Sam Connon of AllBruins reporting that Ramsey missed practice Friday.
The Bruins cannot afford their top high school recruits to miss out on any crucial development. They simply do not have many to waste.
USC: New fan collective a headache for Trojans
Mike Bohn and the USC athletic department have let it be known that they’d prefer all NIL deals pass through their AD-adjascent collective, BLVD. But the creation of a fan-run collective, Student Body Right, has flown directly in the face of that.
Such is the reality of this new Wild West landscape, and USC fans have — rightfully so — taken matters into their own hands.
That leaves head coach Lincoln Riley in an awkward place, as the Los Angeles Times’ Ryan Kartje reported Friday.
“I think we’ve had a lot of signs internally that people want to support our program and are excited about what’s going on here,” Riley said. “That’s a notion we’re not surprised of. We very much believe in the BLVD concept, not only for what it can do for our student-athletes but also making sure we stay within the rules and have people that have been in this business and are experts in the field is very, very important to us.
“Listen, this is new for all of us. It’s still evolving in all kinds of places, all over the country, and I’m confident we’ll be able to bring everyone together and make sure it’s one united effort.”
Utah: Diabate coming along nicely
Well, Utah’s Mohamoud Diabate just delivered the quote of training camp so far, when asked about his excitement of opening his Utah career against his former team, the Florida Gators, in The Swamp.
“Nothing compares to it. It’s going to be a great environment, a great opportunity,” Diabate said. “It’s like going to my ex-wife’s house. It’s going to be fun. I still have a lot of love and respect for those guys and the university (at Florida). Right now, we’re just focusing on what we’ve gotta do. And when that time comes, it will come. We’ll be ready.”
The Deseret News’ Jeff Call had a nice piece on the new Utah linebacker, who is expected to be one of the most impactful defensive transfers in the Pac-12.
“He’s a long-levered guy,” Utah cornerback Clark Phillips III told Call. “He’s kind of the new-school linebacker. He’s super fast. He’s got range. It’s fun looking over and seeing a dude like him across the middle,” he said. “I’m like, ‘They’re not getting a quick slant.’ That’s definitely fun seeing. Overall, he’s busting his butt and trying to get better.”
Washington: Kirkland out for opener
Washington was dealt a spiritual blow with the announcement on Saturday that star offensive tackle Jaxson Kirkland will be forced to sit out the Huskies’ opener against Kent State. Kirkland, who had to petition for a special waiver to be able to return for a sixth season, has been handled with kid gloves by the coaching staff as he returns from offseason ankle surgery that scuttled his hopes of turning pro in 2022.
Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer didn’t get into specifics when detailing Kirkland’s situation, according to Inside the Huskies’ Dan Raley, but he did say that the school appealed the one-game suspension. Kent State shouldn’t pose any problem for the Huskies, but being without their emotional leader won’t help.
Washington State: Jackson drawing praise from coaches
While one crucial Cougar is missing important time in fall camp, another has stepped up his game to the obvious delight of Wazzu coaches.
Head coach Jake Dickert announced his early MVPs of fall camp on Thursday, and edge rusher Brennan Jackson drew Dickert’s praise, according to CougFan’s Jamey Vinnick.
“Defensively it’s easy — it’s Brennan Jackson,” Dickert said. “He’s been a human wrecking ball … he just has only one way he knows how to do things and that is full throttle.”
Considering Ron Stone’s undisclosed injury, that news is important to Washington State fans. The preseason all-conference pick has practiced sparingly in fall camp. His health remains paramount for the defense.