Tucson Sugar Skulls kick off season against rival Arizona Rattlers

The Sugar Skulls had their worst season in franchise history with a 2-14 record. Tucson ended its first season under head coach Billy Back on a nine-game losing streak.

Since the franchise’s inaugural season in 2019, Back is the fourth head coach, joining Marcus Coleman, Dixie Wooten and Hurtis Chinn.

This season, Tucson re-signed running back Devonte Sapp-Lynch, who had 78 carries for 406 yards and nine touchdowns. Sapp-Lynch is the younger brother of Super Bowl-winning running back and former Seattle Seahawks star Marshawn Lynch.

The Sugar Skulls also signed Tucson native and wide receiver Drew Dixon, a Sabino High School graduate and former UA wide receiver.

Following four seasons at Arizona from 2017-20, Dixon transferred to Division II Limestone University in Gaffney, South Carolina, where he appeared in 17 games and caught 72 passes for 1,133 yards and nine touchdowns. Dixon signed an undrafted free agent deal with the Green Bay Packers last year, but was waived. Dixon is the second ex-Wildcat to play for the Sugar Skulls. Former UA linebacker Rashie Hodge played for Tucson’s IFL team two seasons ago.

Heading into the season opener against the defending IFL champion Arizona Rattlers on Sunday in Glendale, Back is confident in a turnaround from his group this season.

“We’ve got a great group of guys with good chemistry and a sense of football skills,” Back said of his team. “We’re excited about opening up against Arizona.”

Back joined “Spears & Ali” on ESPN Tucson this week to preview the upcoming season, among other things. Here’s what he discussed:

What have you seen from Dixon thus far?

A: “He’s gotten better every day. Day 1 of camp, he looked like a baby deer trying to walk. (Thursday), he kicked a 40-yard field goal and showed us he can kick. He can play quarterback, play receiver and he’s developed into a guy that we can lean on and count on. We’re excited about him. He’s all of 6-3 or 6-4 and he’s actually playing like his height, which is good to have.”

How much pride do you take in having a player from Tucson on the roster?

A: “We try to recruit some guys from the area. Some guys had full-time jobs and couldn’t make it work with their schedules, but having a guy with a sense of pride for the town, the city, the state, it’s key for us, because that fuels more enthusiasm and the get-done state (of mind) to have guys from this town and the city and can carry it on their back.”

How versatile is Dixon as a player?

A: “We’ve seen him throw and we’ve seen him catch. He can run and he just lined up to kick a field goal while our kicker was at home. He kicked an extra point, we decided to back it up 30 yards and he made it again. He’s got that kicker form, too. It doesn’t look like a receiver kicking, it looks like he has kicked in the past.”

What were some of the biggest lessons you drew from the worst season in franchise history?

A: “That was a tough season, losing games like that. I never had a season where you lose that many games in a season. I’m used to being one of the top two or three in the league. When I look back on it, we had a lot of turnover and we didn’t develop players and we brought a lot of guys in and didn’t have that quarterback-wide receiver chemistry that we should’ve had. We had a young quarterback start the season and he was OK.

“We should’ve worked with our receivers a little bit more to be better. Our defense got better as the year went on because we had the same group of guys in the secondary in the system to work together. Offensively, we couldn’t find the right guy at trigger — at quarterback. We went through, I think, nine of them and they weren’t nearly as good as the first one we had, which doesn’t say much, but you need guys to work with, build and get the chemistry. ... We’re going to work with what we have here and then add some ingredients to the mix.”

The Rattlers are the defending IFL champion. What is it going to take for the Sugar Skulls to reach those heights as a franchise?

A: “We just gotta be consistent. We gotta build the culture that (head coach) Kevin (Guy) has built in Phoenix. We let some things slide last year with players. This year, we’ve already made some moves with guys who didn’t want to do things we wanted them to do and how we wanted it to get done. We’re setting the standard for how it’s going to be. ‘If you want to be here, be here. If you don’t want to be here, don’t be here.’ Playing the Rattlers, we get to size up our abilities with the best in the league. Kevin has done it for the last 17 or 18 years there.

“We have a test at hand. My mom told me, ‘When God wanted to make David king, he didn’t hand him a crown; he put Goliath in front of him.’ We got the Rattlers in front of us now, so we’ll see what we got. But again, we couldn’t find the ocean from the beach last season and we still should’ve beaten the Rattlers at their place and knocked them out of the playoffs in the last game. I like what we got and I like our chances.”