Tag: Hunter Echols

USC union: Hunter Echols joins Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks

Pete Carroll’s son works at Arizona under Jedd Fisch. Echols, who played for the Wildcats as a transfer from USC, found an opening.

Former USC Trojan Hunter Echols will be joining the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent. The connection between Seahawk head coach Pete Carroll and son Brennan Carroll, who works on the Arizona staff under head coach Jedd Fisch, seems to have helped create this arrangement.

Brennan Carroll is the offensive coordinator for the Wildcats. The younger Carroll was in a very good position to recommend Echols to his father, who is looking for some hidden gems to boost the Seahawks’ defense, which had its moments in 2023 but stumbled in crucial losses to the Raiders and Panthers at home.

Hunter Echols will get a chance to prove himself in Seattle.

Echols spent five years, playing four of them, at USC from 2017-2021. The former Trojan redshirted as a true freshman in 2017. In four seasons he piled up 50 total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and three pass breakups over 37 games.

Echols started all 12 games at Arizona after transferring their this past season. At defensive end he led the defensive line with a career-high 54 tackles (26 solo, 28 assists) and tallied 4.5 sacks.

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Know the Opponent: Arizona’s athletic defense is still a work in progress

Arizona will throw out athletic defenders on the field, but the results aren’t quite there as of yet.

Oregon has the kind of offense that the 2022 Arizona Wildcats dread. The Ducks are far from one-dimensional. The Ducks can run the ball just as well as they can throw it.

Arizona has shown the ability to limit the passing game, but the Wildcats haven’t been able to stop anyone’s run game, something Oregon will look to exploit on Saturday night.

As a team, Arizona is giving up 213 yards on the ground. One reason is that their front seven is a talented, but young group. The Ducks will need to look out for defensive end Hunter Echols, a fifth-year senior that leads the Wildcats with 3.5 sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss.

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According to Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, the Ducks expect Arizona to mix up formations up front in order to cause confusion.

“Their front, that’s built a little bit off their front. I know their defensive coordinator (Johnny Nansen) has a front background as well,” he said. “But I think they’ll play a variety of fronts; they’ll be three down, they’ll be four down, they change their blitz packages a good amount. And obviously, they try to play to his (Echols) skill sets and use his talents. He’s a good player. He’s disruptive and it shows up.”

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The Wildcat secondary is pretty good and it’s led by safety Christian Young, a senior from Houston. He was second on the team last season with 68 tackles. So far this season, Young has 29 tackles through five games.

Junior Christian Roland-Wallace is Arizona’s most experienced and best corner and he’ll surely get himself acquainted with Duck receiver Troy Franklin. It’ll be a good test for Oregon’s receivers and tight ends. Arizona hasn’t allowed a receiver to go for over 100 yards as of yet.

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