Tremendous News: Former Wildcat Kyon Barrs' NFL Career

Following the end of the Rich Rodriguez era for Arizona came the hiring of Kevin Sumlin, which was looked at as a potential home run hire. However, the exact opposite was true as Sumlin completely destroyed the program, recruiting ties and talent on the roster in a 3-year span going 9-21 during his time.

During the 2020 COVID-19 shortened season, Sumlin’s team ended the year 0-5 after losing seven-straight games to end the previous season. That was what led to the Wildcats historic 20-game losing streak.

However, through all the darkness that was the Sumlin era, the Wildcats had a handful of players that managed to make it to the NFL level after working with Jedd Fisch the rest of their careers in college.

One of the defensive lineman during that time was defensive tackle Kyon Barrs, who has spent time playing in the UFL after college.

But that is changing now with Barrs signing with the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday ahead of the team’s training camp. This means he will get a shot at his NFL dream.

Although Barrs did transfer to USC, he spent his first four years with the Wildcats and played in college from 2019 to 2023 while playing for three different coaches.

While playing for the Wildcats, the 6-foot-2, 290-pound defensive tackle racked up 102 tackles, 13 tackles for loss and five sacks in 51 games for Arizona

With the Wildcats, Barrs established himself as one of the top defensive lineman in the Pac-12 and was able to make the Second Team All-Pac-12 list in his third season with the program.

To be able to make the team in an era that saw many lows for the Wildcats shows how solid of a defensive lineman Barrs was with the program and in the conference.

In his one year with USC, Barrs struggled to be productive, collecting 18 tackles in 13 games played with the Trojans.

After going undrafted, Barrs first signed with the Seattle Seahawks but couldn’t make the roster and was forced to go to the UFL where he played for the Arlington Renegades.

Now, Arizona fans will potentially be able to see Barrs in preseason football as he tries to make the Cardinals’ roster.

This would be another feather in Fisch’s cap, giving him another player he coached at Arizona to make it to the NFL level.

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