Arizona was supposed to have a normal practice today with full pads but the rain and lightning had other plans. That meant a short practice of only about an hour since the team started late and ended early because of the weather. So today's post-practice notes will be a bit shorter than normal as the team will get back to work tomorrow morning as things shift from evenings to morning time for the next couple days.
* Arizona had planned to switch up camp anyway for Friday and Saturday but Rodriguez said he wised the team could have gotten more in today but today's practice will just move to tomorrow morning and the team will pick it up in on Friday with an 8:15 practice. Asked if practicing in the rain has any benefits for later in the season Rodriguez said it could but they simply didn't have enough time to do much tonight.
* It finally happened. After months of waiting the media was finally able to talk with freshman linebacker and leading candidate for the "WILL" linebacker spot, Tony Fields II, today. The Las Vegas-Desert Pines standout continues to be the player penciled in for that starting job and things have continued rolling for him. I asked him what the biggest improvement with his game has been since he ended his high school career and he said his weight. Fields is a bright kid and it's clear he pays attention to the details and he said as of now he is 227 and he arrived in Tucson at 194. He wants to be around 230 or 235 by the time the season arrives so he continues to put in extra work to make it happen.
Fields has done everything you'd want from a freshman and he has put himself in position to be a big part of the defense this year.
* I was asked about Fransisco Nelson in another thread and I mentioned that I had not heard anything about him in camp. Well now I have the answer. One reason I hadn't noticed him during either of the open practices is because he's not out there. At this point he is not on the 105-man camp roster but he remains on the team. He is expected to be added back on the active roster when camp is over but for now it sounds like an injury issue for the redshirt freshman defensive end.
* We're getting to the point in camp when players are beginning to separate themselves so I asked Rodriguez how soon decisions on which players will end up redshirting will come. He said that is still a few weeks away with the plan right now being to not make those decisions until closer to the first game.
"Really not until the first game," he said about making a redshirt decision. "We've gotta obviously make a decision on game week about who's gonna be on the two-deep and all the units, and even then it may change as we saw last year with guys we were planning to redshirt had to play a little bit as freshmen. But by the week of the first game we'll have a depth chart and an idea but that could change throughout this long season too."
* To wrap up this set of notes today was the day Arizona's new president, Dr. Robert C. Robbins, stopped by practice to check things out. It wasn't a bad day for the staff and Rodriguez to show how much they need an indoor facility with practice getting shortened but the UA president spoke to the team and things went well according to Rodriguez.
"Had a nice talk with Dr. Robbins," he said. "The team met the new president which was great and we'll just make up the work tomorrow."
* Arizona had planned to switch up camp anyway for Friday and Saturday but Rodriguez said he wised the team could have gotten more in today but today's practice will just move to tomorrow morning and the team will pick it up in on Friday with an 8:15 practice. Asked if practicing in the rain has any benefits for later in the season Rodriguez said it could but they simply didn't have enough time to do much tonight.
* It finally happened. After months of waiting the media was finally able to talk with freshman linebacker and leading candidate for the "WILL" linebacker spot, Tony Fields II, today. The Las Vegas-Desert Pines standout continues to be the player penciled in for that starting job and things have continued rolling for him. I asked him what the biggest improvement with his game has been since he ended his high school career and he said his weight. Fields is a bright kid and it's clear he pays attention to the details and he said as of now he is 227 and he arrived in Tucson at 194. He wants to be around 230 or 235 by the time the season arrives so he continues to put in extra work to make it happen.
Fields has done everything you'd want from a freshman and he has put himself in position to be a big part of the defense this year.
* I was asked about Fransisco Nelson in another thread and I mentioned that I had not heard anything about him in camp. Well now I have the answer. One reason I hadn't noticed him during either of the open practices is because he's not out there. At this point he is not on the 105-man camp roster but he remains on the team. He is expected to be added back on the active roster when camp is over but for now it sounds like an injury issue for the redshirt freshman defensive end.
* We're getting to the point in camp when players are beginning to separate themselves so I asked Rodriguez how soon decisions on which players will end up redshirting will come. He said that is still a few weeks away with the plan right now being to not make those decisions until closer to the first game.
"Really not until the first game," he said about making a redshirt decision. "We've gotta obviously make a decision on game week about who's gonna be on the two-deep and all the units, and even then it may change as we saw last year with guys we were planning to redshirt had to play a little bit as freshmen. But by the week of the first game we'll have a depth chart and an idea but that could change throughout this long season too."
* To wrap up this set of notes today was the day Arizona's new president, Dr. Robert C. Robbins, stopped by practice to check things out. It wasn't a bad day for the staff and Rodriguez to show how much they need an indoor facility with practice getting shortened but the UA president spoke to the team and things went well according to Rodriguez.
"Had a nice talk with Dr. Robbins," he said. "The team met the new president which was great and we'll just make up the work tomorrow."
