Bear Down Wildcats

Newportcat wrote:two concussions? Thought it was only the one during the Fiesta Bowl

Grigsby got the other one against USC

scumdevils86 wrote:just spewing bullshit as usual machina. don't know for sure if he actually had 2 concussions...but might as well say it anyway!

Up next: Frosh shows up in Nick of time

Who and against whom: Arizona true freshman running back Nick Wilson slices and dices a typically stout Utah defense in a 42-10 road victory.

The numbers: Wilson rushed for a career-high 218 yards on 20 carries -- 10.9 yards per rush -- with three touchdowns.

scumdevils86 wrote:just spewing bullshit as usual machina. don't know for sure if he actually had 2 concussions...but might as well say it anyway!

Wilson was looking forward to giving former high school teammates Devon Brewer and Sharif Williams some grief during their first few practices as Arizona Wildcats.

There’s just one problem.

“I’m still getting called a freshman a lot,” Wilson said with a smile. “I don’t really feel like a freshman after last season. I’m more of a hardened freshman, I feel.”

“I think I did really well,” Wilson said of his freshman season. “I passed my expectations overall. But there’s still a lot of work can be done. Just some little things like vision, cuts, fundamentals, technique, that can help my game get a lot better.”

Wilson also learned college ball is a bit more physical than high school.

The running back suffered a concussion and a shoulder injury during the regular season. He was then knocked out of the Fiesta Bowl with another concussion.

“I felt fine right after, but they wouldn’t let me go back in,” Wilson said. “I was trying.”

Wilson said he’s fully recovered from the head injury. Rodriguez said Wilson won’t do any contact drills this spring in an effort to fully allow him to recover.

Wilson has spent a lot of his time since the season in the weight room, hoping to avoid nagging injuries as a sophomore.

“I wasn’t expecting to get 30 carries in a game as a freshman,” Wilson said. “That’s how it was in high school. To go straight to college and start doing that has been kind of rough on the body, but I just have to get stronger and get used to it.”

The coach is more concerned this spring with finding a reliable backup for Wilson. Rodriguez said Jared Baker, Zach Green and Jonathan Haden will all get extended reps this spring.

Freshman Orlando Bradford should also get a look when he arrives this summer.

He finished as the Pac-12's fourth-leading rusher with 1,375 yards (and it would've been more if he hadn't been sidelined a bit due to injury) -- the most of any freshman last season.

Yet, in a league that had a pretty full stable of backs, his season went largely unnoticed amidst the talk of the Royce Freemans and the Devontae Bookers and the Paul Perkins of the conference.

But Wilson was the best on third downs (of backs who carried the ball at least 150 times). He was tied for the most touchdowns in conference play. He was the best back on a team that featured the most even attack of any team in the Pac-12 (49.5 percent of their plays were passing plays, 50.5 percent were rushing plays).

Nick Wilson was a major beneficiary in Rich Rodriguez's run-happy offense.

Continuing in the line of impressive freshman running backs, Wilson had 17 total touchdowns (16 of the rushing variety). The Fresno native also notched 1,375 yards on the ground in his initial campaign.

With Arizona's up-tempo offense, the Wildcats run a ton of plays. This will equal more opportunities for Wilson to get the rock. There's no doubt (barring injury) he should be able to improve upon his totals from a year ago as a sophomore.