Arizona Fires Defensive Coordinator Marcel Yates And Linebackers Coach John Rushing

The powers that be at Arizona decided to pull the trigger and make some changes on the defensive side of the football team.

Marcel Yates was the Defensive Coordinator for the Wildcats and he will be replaced by Chuck Cecil. This is a solid replacement.

Cecil played for the Wildcats – he was a walk-on and later became an All-American defensive back for the Arizona Wildcats. In addition, he had one of the greatest plays in Arizona history with 100 yard pick six interception against ASU. Here it is:

Also, Chuck Cecil has a lot of experience coaching in the NFL. He was Defensive Coordinator for the Tennessee Titans and and a Secondary Coach for the Rams.

Linebackers Coach John Rushing will be replaced by Hank Hobson. Hobson also played for the Wildcats and started his coaching career as a defensive graduate assistant.

After the first game loss to Hawaii and then the recent three losses in a row, there were constant rumblings that there needed to be a coaching change and it finally happened.

Marcel Yates who by all accounts is a great guy and liked by all the players just didn’t work out at Arizona. In fact, he was so well liked that the players wanted him to be the head coach. Furthermore, I think that is how he kept his job when Kevin Sumlin took over.

It’s difficult to recruit high ranked players to a place like Arizona because of the recruiting competition of the schools in California.

We will find out soon if this was a good move or not and if Chuck Cecil and Hank Hobson will be the full time coaches going forward…