Arizona Wildcats land on Bruce Feldman’s 2024 ‘Freaks List’
Aug 10, 2024, 6:57 AM
Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan breaks free of Washington cornerback Davon Banks and run for a touchdown during the first half of an NCAA football game, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)
(AP Photo/John Froschauer)
The individual talent for the Arizona Wildcats entering 2024 is there. Receiver Tetairoa McMillan, offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea and cornerback Tacario Davis return with eyes on a successful debut Big 12 season leading to hopes of a first-round selection in the 2025 NFL Draft.
It’s unsurprising that their talent is accentuated by some freakish athleticism.
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McMillan and Savaiinaea made college football insider Bruce Feldman’s annual preseason Freaks List, a ranking of the best 101 athletes in the sport published by The Athletic.
McMillan comes in at No. 23, and it’d probably take a few guesses to hit on what makes him a freak.
It’s not his height, length or leaping ability.
The 6-4, 210-pound junior might have the best ball skills of any young wideout in a generation. In 2023, McMillan had the lowest drop rate (2.1 percent) among Power 5 receivers with at least 100 targets, according to PFF. People in football assume “T-Mac” has a 40-plus inch vertical after marveling at all of his aerial wizardry.
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McMillan attributes his elite ball skills to his timing. He has become much faster since getting to Arizona, going from 19.8 mph to 21.8 mph in two years of a college strength program.
Former Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch told Feldman it’s McMillan’s coordinator and hand-eye coordination that combine to make him an elite receiver and potentially the first off the board in the next draft.
Happy birthday to the best WR in college football! @TMAC96795 pic.twitter.com/55QoboQ1j3
— Blair Vaughan (@blairvaughan41) April 6, 2024
Savaiinaea comes in at No. 37 on Feldman’s list.
An unheralded recruit from Hawaii who quickly emerged as an NFL prospect in Tucson. Savaiinaea allowed just two sacks on 889 snaps as a sophomore last year. At 6-4 and 334 pounds, Savaiinaea is surprisingly lean, with 21 percent body fat. This offseason, he ran faster than 19 mph, bench pressed 406 pounds, power cleaned 355 and squatted 532.
A very early scan of mock drafts from this summer projected Savaiinaea as a late first-round pick.
