Arizona Wildcats 2025 Defensive End Preview

One of the major coaching changes under head coach Brent Brennan this offseason was bringing in former Wildcat Joe Salave’a to coach the defensive line room for Arizona. He heads to Tucson after recently coaching at Miami from 2022-24, Oregon from 2017-21 and Washington State from 2012-16. 

Salave'a most recently served as the defensive line Coach and associate head coach for the Hurricanes. He also coached Kayvon Thibodeaux at Oregon where he was also the defensive line Coach and associate head coach for the Ducks. 

"We are incredibly grateful to have known Coach Seumalo, his wife, Karen, and their family for more than 25 years and to work alongside him for many of those," Brennan said shortly after the hire. "His friendship, leadership and talent for developing players at every level has left a lasting impact on all of us. We wish him all the best in the next steps of his career."

The Wildcats defensive end room will be led by Tre Smith who posted an impressive season in his first year in Tucson. He led the team with 4.5 sacks, while also totaling 53 tackles with one forced fumble and 7.5 tackles for loss. He had transferred to Arizona after also playing under Brennan at San Jose State. 

Dominic Lolesio is expected to line-up on the opposite side of Smith after totaling 26 tackles with one sack and 2.5 tackles for loss last season. 

The Wildcats will be looking for Lolesio to step into a bigger role this year, who said he never considered entering the transfer portal. 

“The portal didn’t cross my mind,” he said during spring camp. “All I was trying to do was just focus on becoming a better young man and a better young player. I still have a lot of growing and developing to do, and I saw that with coach (Danny Gonzales) as the DC and coach Joe Salave’a coming in and taking over the d-line spot. It is working and I am trusting it.”

Brennan also brought in Chancellor Owens from Northwestern State and Malachi Bailey from Alcorn State through the transfer portal.

Owens appeared in 18 games across the past two seasons with the Demons where he totaled 78 tackles with 4.5 sacks and 12 tackles for loss. Bailey recorded 28 sacks and 46.5 tackles across 34 total games at Alcorn prior to this year. 

Eduwa Okundaye fills out the defensive end room for the Wildcats after redshirting last season. 

The Wildcats will be looking to up their aggression on the defensive line and that starts with getting pressure on the opposing quarterbacks on a more consistent basis.