Arizona All-Quarter-Century Team: Linebackers

Despite the fast start, Arizona found itself trailing 21-14 to Houston (6-1-,3-1) at the half thanks to defensive struggles in the second quarter. And once again, the Wildcats lost the middle eight of the game, which resulted in a Cougars 31-28 win over the Wildcats.

Although Arizona fell on Saturday against Houston and has lost two-straight games, the program is clearly moving in the right direction and has improved drastically from a season ago.

Now with the Wildcats in the bye-week, we at Arizona Wildcats On SI have decided to roll out our All-Quarter-Century Team breaking down the top players at every position over the last 25 years of Arizona football.

Today we are taking a look at the linebacker position and naming our top four players over the last 25 years.

Top Four Linebackers

4. Marquis Flowers (2010-13)

• In the era where the Wildcats were transitioning from Mike Stoops to Rich Rodriguez and looking for consistent defensive play, Marquis Flowers was moved from defensive back to linebacker and became one of the better players at his position during the Rodriguez tenure in Tucson.

• Flowers was one of the top defensive players on the roster totaling 273 combined tackles, 170 solo tackles, 27 ½ tackles for loss, 7 ½ sacks and five interceptions. His biggest pick came in the 2012 New Mexico Bowl against Nevada to seal the 49-48 win for the Wildcats.

3. Spencer Larsen (2005-07)

• As the Wildcats were trying to rebuild after the disaster the John Mackovic era turned out to be, Stoops slowly built the program back up to respectability and turned UA into a tough defensive-minded team.

• A linebacker that became one of the better defensive players not only on Arizona’s roster but in the Pac-10 was Spencer Larsen, who played three seasons with the Wildcats. In three seasons, Larsen played in 39 games totaling 271 tackles, 179 solo tackles, 28 ½ tackles for loss, seven sacks and two interceptions.

• Larsen’s best season came in 2007 when he was named a first-team All-Pac-10 player where he racked up 131 tackles, 87 solo tackles, four sacks, an interception and forced three fumbles.

2. Scooby Wright (2013-15)

• It is hard to put a player on a list like this that truly had one amazing season and was plagued by an injury his junior season. However, that year might be the greatest season by a linebacker in program history and the linebacker to deliver it was Scooby Wright.

• During his sophomore season, Wright was the best linebacker in the Pac-12 winning the Defensive Player of the Year award while being named first team All-Pac-12, first team All-American. He hauled in the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Lombardi Award, the Chuck Bednark Award and the Jack Lambert Award all in the same season.

• In that season, Wright recorded 99 total tackles, 163 combined tackles, 29 tackles for loss and 14 sacks as the heart and soul of the Wildcats defensive unit. That helped the team reach the Fiesta Bowl and finish with a 10-4 record and finish No. 19 in the final AP Poll.

1.  Lance Briggs (1999-02)

• In 33 career games, linebacker Lance Briggs was a tackling machine by racking up 208 tackles while collecting 10 ½ sacks to go along with 36 tackles for loss, three interceptions, 10 pass breakups and five forced fumbles. 

• In four seasons, Briggs was named All-Pac-10 three times making him one of the better linebackers in a conference that was loaded with talent at the time. He was one of five Wildcats to be named to the All-Conference team at that time.