Arizona is back at work today after having a couple days off. The team will practice again Thursday but will have the weekend off. Here are the quick notes from today's bye week practice.
* Anu Solomon and Brandon Dawkins are both fully back into practice and taking reps again. Dawkins is further along than Solomon but both are now full participants once again.
* Someone who is not participating in practice is Nick Wilson and at this point the expectation is that he will not be out there for an extended period after a new injury has popped up in addition to the ankle injury he had before. Asked if it could be weeks Rich Rodriguez said yes. In my opinion if he's willing to go that far with it publicly you can probably add a couple weeks onto that timeline which if Arizona is 2-7 or 2-8 at that point you have to wonder if you just shut him down for the year. Either way Arizona expects to be without him for a while now.
* For all those wanting something to blame for the injuries Jacob Alsadek let off some steam about his unit today. He said guys are getting injured because they are not spending enough of their own free time in the weight room. He said that is the biggest thing he thinks the young guys have had to learn the hard way in some cases. He's tried to urge as many as he can to come in on their free days to get extra work in to help prevent it in the future.
* I've said this before when asked but my belief is that one of Arizona's big recruiting issues is how it pursued high-ranking prospects in the past. If Arizona felt like it was out or didn't have a good shot it would start working on other recruits where less competition was present. Rodriguez was asked what the issues he has started to correct on that side are and he said just that. The willingness to go after and stick with more prominent recruits throughout the process. To be frank Arizona has settled on kids in the past because they were more of a sure thing when it came to getting and keeping their commitments. That has changed now and you're starting to see that in this class.
* To end today's practice the young players and scout teamers scrimmaged and Rodriguez said some of the injured players are being limited this week. It sounds like things went well with the newcomer scrimmage and the staff likes the direction things are heading with them. At this stage though it doesn't sound like any more redshirted will be burned for the rest of the year.
* Anu Solomon and Brandon Dawkins are both fully back into practice and taking reps again. Dawkins is further along than Solomon but both are now full participants once again.
* Someone who is not participating in practice is Nick Wilson and at this point the expectation is that he will not be out there for an extended period after a new injury has popped up in addition to the ankle injury he had before. Asked if it could be weeks Rich Rodriguez said yes. In my opinion if he's willing to go that far with it publicly you can probably add a couple weeks onto that timeline which if Arizona is 2-7 or 2-8 at that point you have to wonder if you just shut him down for the year. Either way Arizona expects to be without him for a while now.
* For all those wanting something to blame for the injuries Jacob Alsadek let off some steam about his unit today. He said guys are getting injured because they are not spending enough of their own free time in the weight room. He said that is the biggest thing he thinks the young guys have had to learn the hard way in some cases. He's tried to urge as many as he can to come in on their free days to get extra work in to help prevent it in the future.
* I've said this before when asked but my belief is that one of Arizona's big recruiting issues is how it pursued high-ranking prospects in the past. If Arizona felt like it was out or didn't have a good shot it would start working on other recruits where less competition was present. Rodriguez was asked what the issues he has started to correct on that side are and he said just that. The willingness to go after and stick with more prominent recruits throughout the process. To be frank Arizona has settled on kids in the past because they were more of a sure thing when it came to getting and keeping their commitments. That has changed now and you're starting to see that in this class.
* To end today's practice the young players and scout teamers scrimmaged and Rodriguez said some of the injured players are being limited this week. It sounds like things went well with the newcomer scrimmage and the staff likes the direction things are heading with them. At this stage though it doesn't sound like any more redshirted will be burned for the rest of the year.
