Arizona Wildcats Have Two Defenders Leading Country in Key Stat

The Arizona Wildcats have two players among the top of the country in a key defensive statistic.

Sep 7, 2024; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Lumberjacks quarterback Ty Pennington (6) throws the ball against Arizona Wildcats defensive lineman Tre Smith (3) during first quarter at Arizona Stadium. / Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images

One of the most important parts of a defense is their pass rush, and luckily for the Arizona Wildcats, that has looked like a massive strength of the team.

Through the first three weeks of the season, Pro Football Focus released the list of players who have forced the most pressures on the quarterback.

Two Wildcats defenders made the top 10, with one of them in first place.

Tre Smith is tied for the most pressures in the country with 17 so far, putting himself alongside Mikail Kamara of the Indiana Hoosiers.

Smith, though he is an Arizona native, originally committed to the San Jose State Spartans who were then coached by Brent Brennan.

While with the Spartans, the edge rusher picked up 88 tackles with 16 going for a loss and 9.5 sacks. He was a very solid player there and has not skipped a beat at his new school.

The redshirt junior followed Brennan when the coach took over the Wildcats as a three-star transfer and the No. 22 edge in the portal.

His 17 pressures is easily on pace for a career high as he had 47 in all of last season. He's on pace for an absurd 74 pressures this year which would have been good for a second place finish in 2023 behind only Bralen Trice who dominated with the Washington Huskies.

The next highest player was another transfer, Chase Kennedy, who is in a multi-player tie for third place with 14 pressures.

While a lot of the team has struggled these past two weeks, Kennedy has looked sharp.

He's picked up the pace after a mediocre debut with 13 of his 14 pressures coming since the Northern Arizona game.

The redshirt sophomore originally committed to the Utah Utes out of high school as a three-star edge rusher from Dallas, Texas. He was unable to crack the rotation in his first two years there as he picked up just one tackle in seven appearances.

Kennedy has sacks in each of his last two games with another quarterback hit to boot. He has five total tackles and three of them going for stops.

Though the defense of Arizona has had a hard time stopping the run, they have two players who can get after the quarterback at an elite rate which could be a huge advantage for them throughout the season.