Arizona Football Top Five All-Time Linebackers

Throughout its history, Arizona football has seen many ups and downs with the program making 22 bowl games and recording four 10-win seasons. In 1998, the Wildcats finished with a school-record 12 wins capped off with a 23-20 win over Nebraska.

As the program gears up for its 122nd season with head coach Brent Brennan entering his second season at the helm, we will be ranking the top five players at each position to get you ready for the 2025 season.

As we continue throughout this position process of breaking down the top five players of all-time, we have arrived at linebackers, which is a deep and rich position filled with high-level talent and players that made it to the next level.

5. Chris Singleton (1986-89)

During his four-year career at Arizona, linebacker Chris Singleton was a letterman each season and was named first team All-Pac-10 in 1988 and 1989. Singleton was part of the 1986 defense that helped the WIldcats go 9-3 and capped off the season with a win in the Aloha Bowl. The team finished 13th in the final AP Poll.

Singleton would go on to be selected with the No. 8 overall pick to the New England Patriots. He would have a 7-year NFL career collecting 341 tackles and seven sacks before calling it a career.

4. 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.

3. 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.

2. Byron Evans (1983-86)

When talking about Arizona football in the 80s one of the first names that comes to mind was linebacker Byron Evans, who was a recruit out of South Mountain High School in Phoenix and wasn’t even recruited by ASU.

Evans is second all-time in career tackles with 552 recorded for an average of 138 tackles per season. The most in a single season came in 1986 where he racked up 196 tackles.

During his career, Evans was a four-year letterman that was named first team All-Pac-10 in 1985 and 1986. In his senior season, he was named the team’s Most Valuable Player and Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year.

1. Ricky Hunley (1980-83)

If Evans was a name that people needed to know in the 80s in Tucson, linebacker Ricky Hunley was the face of Arizona football and you could argue as the greatest player in the history of the program.

The four-year letterman Hunley recorded a program-record 566 tackles averaging 141 ½ tackles each year. His best season came in 1983 where he collected 176 tackles.

In his career, Hunley snagged 12 interceptions. He was a three-time All-Pac-10 selection, two-time All-American and was Co-Defensive Player of the Year during the 1983 season with Cal linebacker Ron Rivera.

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