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Oct 19, 2024; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats offensive lineman Rhino Tapa'atoutai (59) against the Colorado Buffalos at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Arizona Offensive Line Breakdown

Originally posted on Arizona Wildcats on SI
By Troy Hutchison | Last updated Aug 14, 2025 9:00 AM ET

Arizona football is officially BACK in action and the long offseason is finally coming to an end as the Wildcats have opened up their 2025 training camp to get things geared up for the season with the team set to face Hawaii on Aug. 30 at home at 7:30 p.m. (MST) on TNT.

After an underwhelming 2024 season under Brent Brennan where Arizona went 4-8 after starting the year in the preseason AP Poll at No. 21 and ending the year losing 7 out of its last 8 games, the Wildcats made changes to the roster and their coaching staff.

Brennan revamped his coaching staff by hiring Seth Doege as the offensive coordinator and promoting Danny Gonzales to the defensive coordinating job. Plus, he was able to bring in defensive line coach Joe Salave’a, who is regarded as one of the top recruiters in the nation and a former Wildcat as well.

“When we go through a tough season like we did a year ago, you got to find a way to fix what was broken, fix what wasn’t working and put those pieces together,” Brennan said. “And part of those pieces are how we’re going to do things in terms of how we’re going to coach, what we’re going to do schematically and the other part is who are the players that are going to play those roles.”

Last season, Arizona struggled to keep quarterback Noah Fifita off the turf as he was sacked 28 times in comparison to his 19 during the 2023 season. The WIldcats offensive line was banged up and missing many pieces by the end of the season.

This offseason, offensive line coach Josh Oglesby went out and added depth to the line and now has a total of 20 linemen to work with for the 2024 season.

Here’s offensive line notes throughout the first two weeks of Arizona training camp.

Offensive Line Takeaways

James Snook-Imagn Images

Snapping

Throughout spring practice Arizona saw several bad snaps from the centers and in special teams formations that seemed to pile up by the end of spring ball. It didn’t matter who was snapping, or what the situation was, it was a massive issue.

But, so far during training camp with new snappers for special teams and the same set of centers for the offense, there have been ZERO bad snaps. That issue hasn’t come up no matter which offensive unit is on the field.

Rhino Tapa’atoutai

Last season, Rhino Tapa'atoutai suffered a season ending injury in week six of the season. During spring practice, Brent Brennan made it clear that he wasn't going to participate during that period and would be working his way back for the start of the 2025 season.

Right now, the latest update is that he is still going through that process, which was stated back in spring ball.

Ka’ena Decambra

After transferring to Arizona as a guard, offensive lineman Ka’ena Decambra saw plenty of time snapping the ball as part of the first and second team offense working with Fifita and Locke. During that time, Decambra struggled at snapping with balls spread out like a shotgun blast not knowing where it was going to end up.

However, after working with former Wildcat Josh Baker and offensive line coach Josh Oglesby the snapping problems have been a thing of the past for Decambra, who hasn’t had one bad snap so far through 2-plus weeks of training camp.