Arizona Wildcats 2025 Safety Preview

Arizona returns a boatload of experience in its safety room with Dalton Johnson and Genesis Smith leading the way. They both initially entered their name into the transfer portal early in the offseason before making the decision to withdraw their names and return to Tucson after QB Noah Fifita also announced his decision to remain with the Wildcats. 

It was a season to forget for Arizona on the defensive side of the ball last season in a year filled with injuries to key players and underperforming from the team as a whole. 

“I would definitely say that it was a switch up with a new coaching staff coming in,” Johnson said in an interview. “They have their techniques and their ways of doing things and it's kind of blindsiding. But, we decided to stay and bought in to coach (Brent) Brennan. And the season didn’t go the way we wanted it to. But, we have a redemption season coming up.”

Now heading into year two under Brennan, a lot of coaching changes were made this offseason. That included promoting Danny Gonzales to be the next defensive coordinator for Arizona after he spent last season as the linebackers coach and special teams coordinator.

“It’s been great,” Smith said of Gonzales. “He’s definitely changed some attitudes around the building. He’s really emphasized ‘Red Line’ for us, which is effort execution, accountability and is just pushing that standard daily. And I feel like that has evaluated us as a whole.”

One big safety returning behind Johnson and Smith is Jack Luttrell who started many games over the second half of last season due to all the injuries. While he isn’t slotted in as a starter heading into this season, the one message from safeties coach Brett Arce to Luttrell is to “keep working.”

“You never know when your time is going to be ready,” Arce said during spring camp. “I’m putting him in a lot of different situations, multiple positions again, similar thing with Genesis. If someone goes down, you don’t know what’s going to happen. And honestly, it’s a great luxury to have because iron sharpens iron. If someone is not on their A-game that day, we’re going to put the other guy in front.”

The Wildcats also have Gavin Hunter returning to the program who totaled three tackles in a limited role last season and transfer Jshawn Frausto-Ramos who played corner at Stanford and could play a versatile role in the secondary for the Wildcats. 

As the Wildcats look to bounce back, they’ll continue to rely on the veteran leadership of Johnson and Smith in the safety room. And the in-game experience Luttrell saw last season should only help the depth of the position group for Arizona.