Arizona’s coaches have a name for the standard they want to live by, and now they’ve got a label for the players who set it.
Brent Brennan has built his program around “Redline,” a word that’s been part slogan, part measuring stick, and part daily expectation since he arrived. In Arizona’s world, it means effort, execution and accountability: 100 percent energy all the time, doing your job the right way, and owning everything that comes with it.
That approach mattered when the Wildcats steadied themselves last season. After losses to BYU and Houston, Arizona could have folded into a “woe is me” mentality.
Instead, the team closed the regular season with five straight wins and reached the Holiday Bowl. Brennan credits the Redline mindset for helping keep that from turning into a collapse.
Now the program has taken that idea a step further with “Mr. Redline,” a title reserved for the players who embody the standard at the highest level on and off the field. Right now, the headliners are edge rusher Tre Smith and linebacker Taye Brown.
“I would say it’s between Tre and Taye, because Taye is a player that consistently shows up in practice that way, but that’s earned over training camp,” Brennan said. “You come out of spring, you’re like, ‘Hey, this guy plays really hard, this guy personifies redline,’ and we talk about it frequently as a team, but then does it show up in fall camp? That’s what the next three weeks are about.”
Smith’s work has been impossible to miss inside the building. Defensive line teammates Leroy Palu and Julian Savaiinaea both pointed to the way he carries himself every day.
“I mean Mr. Redline himself, watching him, his technique, his mannerism, is just so funny to see redline in breakfast, redline in meetings, redline on and off the field,” said Palu.
“He’s been trying to step out of his shoes and be more vocal, but he’s really a leader of action,” said Savaiinaea. “He leads by his actions, and man, his actions speak louder than his words.”
The title doesn’t stop with the two names at the top. Different position rooms have their own players who fit the mold.
At tight end, Josh Miller pointed to Tyler Powell and Tyler Mustain, with Mustain getting the slight edge.
“I would give the edge to Mustain a little bit, just because he’s everything that you would want in a student athlete,” Miller said. “He’s a great student, he’s trying to conquer a really hard degree here at the University of Arizona.
He shows up to work every single day with everything around his class schedule. He’s an engineer (major), so if he’s got a class conflict he’s got to make it up on his own.”
Cole Rusk, the 6th-year Illinois transfer, echoed that view and named both Powell and Mustain as players who bring it every day.
“Oh yeah, those guys show up to work every single day, and you know what you’re going to get out of them,” said Rusk. “TP is awesome, and I mean since I’ve been here, he took me under his wing and showed me what it’s about. He’s been here a long time, a lot longer than most people you know in the transfer age.”
Running backs coach Lyle Moevao said his room has three seniors who fit the description: Antwan Roberts, Quincy Craig and Kedrick Reescano.
“I would honestly say that those three seniors, Antwan Roberts, Quincy Craig, and Kedrick Reescano, I would say those guys are redline in our room,” said Moevao. “Those are the redline running backs, and I wouldn’t expect anything less from those guys going into the season.”
At wide receiver, Bobby Wade said there isn’t just one player carrying the label. He sees the group as one unit, with a core of dependable guys already established.
“There’s a nucleus of guys that we’ve already been able to identify as everyday guys that we can really lean on, and so we’re going to require that each and every day, and obviously that’s my job to be able to set that standard,” said Wade.
Offensive line coach Josh Oglesby likes that his group works the same way. He doesn’t see the need to single out one player because the room is built around doing the job together.
“Our group works extremely hard, and I don’t know if I could single one individual guy out, especially because we work so much as a unit all the time,” said Oglesby. “The one thing that’s phenomenal about our group is our group embodies that red line mentality because they never complain, they never shy away from the work. Whenever there’s an issue that needs to be fixed, they own it and they really strive to fix it.”
There’s also a younger name drawing attention on the defensive side. Junior safety Quinn Olson, a walk-on, earned praise from Brett Arce, who said he could follow the path of Stukes.
“A name that nobody really knows would be Quinn Olson. He’s a young guy coming up.
He’s a walk-on, but I could see him taking the Stukes path at some point. Started as a walk-on and is working his way into a you know a prominent player.”
Arizona knows who its Mr. Redlines are heading into the season. The bigger question is how many more players can live up to that standard once the games start.
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