Arizona is going back to work as the week unfolds with another short week. Tuesday was the big work day of the week and from the sounds of it the practice wasn't a particularly good one for the offense and Rich Rodriguez was certainly a little more peeved than normal. It's an important week for the Wildcats so lets just jump right into today's notes.
* I'll start with some injury and uniform notes. Receiver Cam Denson has been a topic here on the boards lately but today was definitely not a good sign for him. After he had the chance to play in the Houston game he didn't play last week in El Paso and today he was in a yellow (limited contact) jersey meaning he didn't do very much. He had a pretty noticeable limp as he works through that foot injury. it's something the team is taking game by game but right now I wouldn't count on him to be out there this Friday.
On the uniform front, Arizona practiced with its new matte blue helmets today and that is required for a team to do the Tuesday before a game if it wants to use those new helmets that week. You can infer from that the Wildcats will be rolling with the matte helmets against Utah, which is rolling with its "satin" red helmets this week.
* Donovan Tate was able to get in the game last week against UTEP allowing him to see his first action on a football field since high school. There has still been an adjustment period for the freshman quarterback who turns 27 next week. Rodriguez has been pleased with his development so far though.
"He hasn't played in eight years," Rodriguez said. "Sometimes we forget he's an older guy, but but he hasn't played football in eight years. I've been really proud of him and his progress in a month and a half of practices. He's gonna keep getting better. He's a talented guy who can throw and run, and again he's mature.
"I'm really proud of the way he's worked."
For Tate it was fun to be able to get in a game again and throw a pass and get back into a sport he has been away from for so long.
"It's kinda been a long time waiting for the opportunity to get in there and play and get my feet wet a little bit," he said. "It was fun."
Tate has been happy with his progress up to this point in the time he's been on campus focusing on football again. He admitted that getting used to going to school has been more of an adjustment than playing football again has, but he likes the direction things are headed.
"It's been a lot but I still have a long way to go," he said. "Learning football again is kind of the big thing, but I'm pleased with where I'm at right now but I want to continue to get better week by week to understand the game and get knowledge of what I'm supposed to be doing and when I'm supposed to be doing it."
The freshman said the most difficult part of the transition back to playing football has been understanding defenses and reading defenses. He said the plays Arizona runs have come smoothly and his understanding of the offense is where it needs to be but reading what other teams are doing or are going to do has been his biggest hurdle so far.
He added that Rod Smith has helped him change his mechanics when it comes to throwing a football because it is different than the throws he had to make as a baseball player.
"Coach Smith has done a really good job of helping me loosen up, because it's a different motion for sure going from baseball to football," he said. "We do it everyday, so it's one of those things that once you get the muscle memory and everything gets going you just continue to get better with it."
* Utah now has a former Wildcat on its side with linebacker Cody Ippolito transferring to play for Kyle Whittingham after the season. Not that Arizona expects him to give away the secrets of the team, but it is something the team has to be aware of.
"You have to be aware of that for sure," Rodriguez said when asked about it today. "We change our signals every year anyway, but you still have to be aware of whether its somebody that knows us really well or somebody that you play a lot you've gotta be aware of your terminology, your verbalization and all that stuff for sure. And we make adjustments during the week to prepare for that."
* Rodriguez was asked about when it's the right time to start taking players out of the games in blowouts and he said it's typically not going to happen until the final 15 minutes of a contest.
"Well, I usually get to the fourth quarter," he said. "If you get to the fourth quarter and have a multi-touchdown lead then that's one thing. As you've seen this year and every year there's so many quarterbacks that give teams a chance to come back that I don't get too comfortable too soon. Obviously in a couple of the games we've had big leads and just ran it. We ran it to keep it simple but we also ran it to bleed the clock too."
* Brandon Dawkins spoke again today and opened up a bit more about where his head was at last week after playing against Houston and going through the week of prep for UTEP and during that game. He was asked if he allowed himself to read what was being said about him after the Houston game the UA quarterback mentioned that's not something he can pay attention to.
"You hear it all the time different people saying different things," he said. "A lot of times I'll just hear it coming from the press meetings and stuff like that, 'so and so said you didn't have a good game' and stuff like that. Whatever ... you know? I don't really pay too much attention to it. Nobody is really in this offense to understand what happens. Maybe I threw a ball that went outside a receiver and he turned in but he was supposed to turn out.
"Then it's like, 'what the hell is Dawkins out there doing?' you know what I'm saying? So you have to take it with a grain of salt. Nobody understands this offense as good as I understand the offense for them to speak on me and how I'm doing. They can see the overall performance but they don't really know the ins and outs of it, so I have to be able to be the biggest critic of myself and be able to critique myself because if I go and read what anybody else is writing that's not going to be constructive to anybody."
* I'll start with some injury and uniform notes. Receiver Cam Denson has been a topic here on the boards lately but today was definitely not a good sign for him. After he had the chance to play in the Houston game he didn't play last week in El Paso and today he was in a yellow (limited contact) jersey meaning he didn't do very much. He had a pretty noticeable limp as he works through that foot injury. it's something the team is taking game by game but right now I wouldn't count on him to be out there this Friday.
On the uniform front, Arizona practiced with its new matte blue helmets today and that is required for a team to do the Tuesday before a game if it wants to use those new helmets that week. You can infer from that the Wildcats will be rolling with the matte helmets against Utah, which is rolling with its "satin" red helmets this week.
* Donovan Tate was able to get in the game last week against UTEP allowing him to see his first action on a football field since high school. There has still been an adjustment period for the freshman quarterback who turns 27 next week. Rodriguez has been pleased with his development so far though.
"He hasn't played in eight years," Rodriguez said. "Sometimes we forget he's an older guy, but but he hasn't played football in eight years. I've been really proud of him and his progress in a month and a half of practices. He's gonna keep getting better. He's a talented guy who can throw and run, and again he's mature.
"I'm really proud of the way he's worked."
For Tate it was fun to be able to get in a game again and throw a pass and get back into a sport he has been away from for so long.
"It's kinda been a long time waiting for the opportunity to get in there and play and get my feet wet a little bit," he said. "It was fun."
Tate has been happy with his progress up to this point in the time he's been on campus focusing on football again. He admitted that getting used to going to school has been more of an adjustment than playing football again has, but he likes the direction things are headed.
"It's been a lot but I still have a long way to go," he said. "Learning football again is kind of the big thing, but I'm pleased with where I'm at right now but I want to continue to get better week by week to understand the game and get knowledge of what I'm supposed to be doing and when I'm supposed to be doing it."
The freshman said the most difficult part of the transition back to playing football has been understanding defenses and reading defenses. He said the plays Arizona runs have come smoothly and his understanding of the offense is where it needs to be but reading what other teams are doing or are going to do has been his biggest hurdle so far.
He added that Rod Smith has helped him change his mechanics when it comes to throwing a football because it is different than the throws he had to make as a baseball player.
"Coach Smith has done a really good job of helping me loosen up, because it's a different motion for sure going from baseball to football," he said. "We do it everyday, so it's one of those things that once you get the muscle memory and everything gets going you just continue to get better with it."
* Utah now has a former Wildcat on its side with linebacker Cody Ippolito transferring to play for Kyle Whittingham after the season. Not that Arizona expects him to give away the secrets of the team, but it is something the team has to be aware of.
"You have to be aware of that for sure," Rodriguez said when asked about it today. "We change our signals every year anyway, but you still have to be aware of whether its somebody that knows us really well or somebody that you play a lot you've gotta be aware of your terminology, your verbalization and all that stuff for sure. And we make adjustments during the week to prepare for that."
* Rodriguez was asked about when it's the right time to start taking players out of the games in blowouts and he said it's typically not going to happen until the final 15 minutes of a contest.
"Well, I usually get to the fourth quarter," he said. "If you get to the fourth quarter and have a multi-touchdown lead then that's one thing. As you've seen this year and every year there's so many quarterbacks that give teams a chance to come back that I don't get too comfortable too soon. Obviously in a couple of the games we've had big leads and just ran it. We ran it to keep it simple but we also ran it to bleed the clock too."
* Brandon Dawkins spoke again today and opened up a bit more about where his head was at last week after playing against Houston and going through the week of prep for UTEP and during that game. He was asked if he allowed himself to read what was being said about him after the Houston game the UA quarterback mentioned that's not something he can pay attention to.
"You hear it all the time different people saying different things," he said. "A lot of times I'll just hear it coming from the press meetings and stuff like that, 'so and so said you didn't have a good game' and stuff like that. Whatever ... you know? I don't really pay too much attention to it. Nobody is really in this offense to understand what happens. Maybe I threw a ball that went outside a receiver and he turned in but he was supposed to turn out.
"Then it's like, 'what the hell is Dawkins out there doing?' you know what I'm saying? So you have to take it with a grain of salt. Nobody understands this offense as good as I understand the offense for them to speak on me and how I'm doing. They can see the overall performance but they don't really know the ins and outs of it, so I have to be able to be the biggest critic of myself and be able to critique myself because if I go and read what anybody else is writing that's not going to be constructive to anybody."
