How Arizona’s Linebackers Are Quietly Leveling Up

Harris and Brown lead the way with 25 and 22 tackles, while Kennedy and Wilson have each recorded two sacks so far this season. It has been a group where they have all shown the ability to play multiple positions on the defensive side of the ball.

• "When you teach everything from a conceptual level and from the top down, you have a great teaching progression, because coaches are just great teachers," Bringuel said. "And when you have a great teaching progression, then you can do these things and and for us, it's the same stuff. It's just excellent chalkboard in the body. If you understand how it all comes together, you can do a lot of fun stuff."

There have been a lot of great things that have worked for the linebacker unit under the teachings of both Gonzales and Bringuel. One of the biggest areas of concern for the Wildcats' defense last season was their tackling and physicality, an area that has really been cleaned up by the unit this season.

• "What makes you great on defense is beyond having good players, but it's playing with red line, playing with effort," Bringuel said.

• "And I think that that's something from day one that from the top down, from Coach Brennan and Coach Gonzalez, what we wanted to establish as a team, a defense that plays with tremendous effort and uncommon effort. You have to train that way. And that's why we challenge them in practice every single day to train that way, because then on game day, just trust your training and play the way you've trained all the time."

Arizona is the lone team in the country to not allow a passing touchdown this season, which goes to show how strong both the linebacker room has been as well as the overall secondary have been for the Wildcats.

• "I call Gensis, Stukes and Dalton the three-headed monster just because of their mentality on the field," Wilson said. "Their work is displayed and that's no surprise to me. Those guys work their tail off. They work so hard... I think that says a lot about our staff as well with coach Gonzales putting them in the right position."

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