Mustain staying at home in Tucson at the University of Arizona
This is No. 17 in a month-long series of profiles of Arizona high school seniors that signed with four-year colleges. Here's the full list (currently totaling 287) of players from within the state moving on to the next level.
SPOTLIGHT: 2/28/23
Tyler Mustain had himself quite a career at Pusch Ridge Christian Academy. The linebacker/tight end was a three-time All-3A Conference selection on defense. He helped the Lions reach the semifinals twice in the past three years. He was a tackling machine with 349 in his varsity career. On offense, he caught 16 touchdown passes (13 last season).
Those accolades earned Mustain the 3A South Region Defensive Player of the Year. They also got him offers from Idaho State and Northern Arizona. Instead of choosing one of those, he pursued his local school he has followed for a long time. Mustain will walk on at Arizona.
"Playing Power 5 football, and especially the opportunity to play for my hometown school has always been a goal of mine," Mustain said in an e-mail interview. "I grew up going to the Wildcats' games, so the chance to play for them is a dream come true."
Mustain attended most of Arizona's home games last season and was invited to its Preferred Walk-on Day in January. That event gave him a chance to meet coaches and see the facilities.
"During the PWO Day, I got to spend a lot of time with the inside linebackers coach, (Aaron) Van Horn, and that was really fun," Mustain said. "He showed me some of the basics and had a little football quiz for me to do. I am excited to be coached by him and the rest of the staff and compete against nationally-ranked teams for the next few years."
Football quizzes aren't the only thing Mustain excels at. He held a 4.12 GPA entering his final semester this year. That enabled him to receive the Wildcat Scholarship, which will cover most of his expenses as a walk-on.
After going 5-5 during his freshman year, Pusch Ridge became a title contender going 27-7 over the past three seasons (11-2 in 2022). Mustain said the key towards the success was how close the team became. One unique thing for PRCA, a private school, is it goes from K-12 instead of just offering high school years.
"A lot of us have been playing together since elementary school and the guys that haven't been with us for that long were solid players and we got along pretty well with each other," Mustain said. "Also, six of us are going to be playing a sport at the next level, so having that many high-caliber athletes on the field definitely helped us out. Lastly, our team had pretty small numbers (29 on the varsity roster), so we conditioned hard all year long and being able to outlast most teams in the fourth quarter helped us pull away from teams throughout the season."
Mustain has played football for about 10 years. Last season, he posted 160 tackles. He uses his size (6-2, 220) and strength (290 bench/475 squat) to fight off offensive lineman coming up for blocks and make plays in between the tackles.
"I am aggressive and play forward on inside runs and tend to meet the back around the line of scrimmage (15.5 tackles for loss in '22)," Mustain said. "And being a "long" 6-2 allows me to cover ground on perimeter runs. For my size, I'm pretty fast. This allows me to cover a bigger zone in pass coverage and run cover running backs during man coverages."
There was a second Mustain on the Lions. Tyler's younger brother, Bubba, was a receiver in 2021 and last year, was the starting quarterback. Bubba (a junior) passed for 2,637 yards and 30 touchdowns. While Tyler won't be very far away, he said he will miss the team a lot.
"I grew up playing with some of those guys and have made several lifelong friends just from playing at PRCA for the past four years," Mustain said. "I am also going to miss the coaches. Since I was able to play on varsity for four years, I developed a good bond with them and I am going to miss that."
Arizona has announced its Spring Camp practice dates. The Wildcats will begin in just a couple weeks on March 14 and the end of the 15 allotted practices will be the Red and Blue Spring Game on April 15 at 3:30 inside Arizona Stadium. Arizona improved last year from 1-11 in 2021 to a 5-7 mark, which included the reclaiming of the Territorial Cup (ending a five-year losing streak in the rivalry) with a 38-35 victory over Arizona State. The Wildcat defense came up with five turnovers.
Finally, Mustain wanted to extend some gratitude to those who have helped him reach this next level in his education and sports career.
"I would like to take this time to thank my family for always supporting me and helping me out when I need it," Mustain said. "I would also like to thank all of the defensive linemen that I played with, because I would not have been able to make as many plays if they were not soaking up blocks and keeping the offensive line occupied. Lastly, I would like to thank all my coaches for teaching me how to play this great game that I have grown to love."
