Arizona Football Adds Former LSU Linebacker to Their Defense
When training camp officially kicked off on July 31, the Arizona Wildcats are now a month away from their season opener, which will be their first in the Big 12 conference and their first under new head coach Brent Brennan.
It also virtually finalizes the roster for the upcoming year after getting their incoming freshman class on campus and those gained through the transfer portal acclimated with their newest destination.
Because Arizona is led by a new head coach following the departure of Jedd Fisch, there will be some new players in the mix competing for a role this season.
Two new additions were spotted at the opening practice.
A couple new players spotted at Arizona's first practice:
— Brian Pedersen (@realBJP) July 31, 2024
* LB Jared Small, who spent 6 seasons at LSU and played last year at Tulane
* P Lachlan Bruce, an Australian who has been at Oregon and City College of San Francisco
Jared Small is an intriguing linebacker addition.
He was a member of the 2017 high school recruiting class but was not rated by 247Sports. Instead of playing football at a lower level, he decided to walk on at LSU, eventually earning a scholarship in 2020.
It looked like he was well on his way to carving out a role, being listed as the starter heading into the 2021 season.
Unfortunately, that is where things went wrong for Small.
He suffered a season-ending injury in practice the week before the opener against UCLA. After working his way back in 2022, he then had another season-ending knee injury just 3 games into the year.
Small departed LSU with appearances in 17 games from 2018-2022, only recording two tackles.
He decided to transfer to Tulane for the 2023-24 season where he finally was able to showcase what he can do on a football field, recording 60 total tackles, 5.5 for loss, and two sacks during his 14 games.
What he can do with the Wildcats will be seen, but he's bringing his amount of experience, grit, and determination to this program for his final year of college football.
In addition to the veteran linebacker, they're also getting a special teams player in punter Lachlin Bruce who started out at the junior college level with the City College of San Francisco before transferring to Oregon in 2022.
The Australian punter will now try to get some consistent playing time with Arizona this year.
BRAD WAKAI