Arizona DB Christian Young opts out of remainder of 2020 season due to ankle injury

The Arizona Wildcats are getting even thinner on defense, while their overall scholarship numbers are pushing them closer to the danger zone.

On the same day that freshman cornerback Edric Whitley announced he was entering the transfer portal, junior safety Christian Young decided to opt out of the remainder of the 2020 season, according to Michael Lev of the Arizona Daily Star.

Young appeared briefly in Arizona's season-opening loss to USC but did not play at Washington. He was expected to factor heavily at the safety position this year after splitting time at corner and safety his first two seasons.

The loss of Young and Whitley is a further blow to an already depleted Arizona secondary. And when factoring in other UA players who have either opted out of the season, transferred, have been suspended or suffered season-ending injuries, the program is down to about 70 available scholarship players.

What makes that significant is that the Pac-12 is requiring teams have at least 53 available scholarship athletes to play games this season. If Arizona were to experience a Covid-19 outbreak it's very likely that could result in game cancellations.