Countdown To Camp: QBs

Fall camp for the Arizona football team is rapidly approaching. In just a few weeks the Wildcats will begin the fall camp with an eye on Rich Rodriguez’s first season. We start our preview with the quarterbacks.

Assumed Depth Chart
Matt Scott 6-3, 197, RS Sr.
Richard Morrison 5-11, 183, RS Jr.
B.J. Denker 6-3, 195, Jr.
Alex Cappellini 6-3, 189, So.
Javelle Allen 6-2, 204, Fr.
Josh Kern 6-5, 200, Fr.
Jack Nykaza 6-1, 190, Fr.
Nick Isham 6-0, 195, So. (Transfer)

Just a few weeks after Rich Rodriguez took over as Arizona coach he called the Wildcat quarterback situation “scary.” He had just one player on the roster who had taken a college snap and had lost Tom Savage and Daxx Garman within a few days of each other.

That left Matt Scott and not much else on the roster. After seeing Scott in the spring, returning Richard Morrison to the position and bringing in six new signal callers, things look less bleak.

“It’s less scary,” Rodriguez confirmed after spring drills.

Scott is the starter and the Wildcats have to hope that he stays healthy. He has shown he can move an offense, but has not been nearly as good once he gets his teams into the redzone. If he improves as a passer and the overall feel for the game, then the Rodriguez offense could shine from the start.

If Scott stays healthy, things should be good. If he goes down things look less rosy.

Morrison enters the season as the No. 2 passer, but the Wildcats would love for another player to leapfrog him on the depth chart so he can return to being a full-time pass catcher.

JUCO transfer B.J. Denker may be the most likely to rise up the depth chart, although Alex Capellinni, a walk-on JC transfer, was here for all spring. Freshmen Javelle Allen and Josh Kern will also get a shot, but the Wildcats would love to redshirt one of both of them.

Learning a new offense is always tough, but most of the Wildcat passers have a background in Rodriguez’s offense, which is actually a first in his career running this scheme. At prior stops he had to introduce the quarterbacks on the roster to the offense, either because it was new at the time or the current quarterbacks came from totally different systems and styles.

Scott ran a similar offense in high school and Arizona had read-option plays in his packages the past four years. Likewise the rest of the passers either ran a version in the offense in high school or junior college.