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AG's Wildcat Report - Dispatches on the Wildcats, from Anthony Gimino

Arizona safety Adam Hall suffers likely ACL injury; Stoops shuffles secondary

by on Apr. 01, 2011, under Arizona football

Adam Hall's knee injury means he might have to watch from the sidelines for all of the 2011 season.
Photo by Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats starting safety Adam Hall likely has a torn ACL, according to early testing, which could put him out for the 2011 season, coach Mike Stoops told TucsonCitizen.com on Friday night.

Hall suffered the injury in Wednesday’s practice.

“He was just up competing for a football against a receiver, and he just came down on it awkwardly,” Stoops said.

This is the second major injury of the spring for the Wildcats. Backup running back Greg Nwoko suffered an ACL tear last weekend. Stoops has estimated both rehabs at about seven months, give or take. Best-case scenarios seem to be a late-season return.

Hall’s injury figures to be more significant. Hall, who was the team’s nickel back last season and is the defense’s most feared hitter, began spring as the starting free safety. His backup is Josh Robbins, who redshirted last season as a freshman, but Stoops will be shuffling a deep secondary.

Senior Robert Golden, who played two seasons at safety before starting at cornerback last season, will move back to his old position.

Stoops said his spring plan included giving Golden a lot of work at safety anyway.

Arizona has senior Trevin Wade and sophomores Shaquille Richardson and Jonathan McKnight at cornerback.

“We’re good at corner,” Stoops said. “We feel that is where we are the strongest in the secondary.”

Golden and sophomore Marquis Flowers are now in line to be the starting safeties. Click here for the pre-spring depth chart.

Hall, from Palo Verde High School, was arguably Arizona’s top recruit in its 2009 class, rated as a four-star prospect. Hall made 54 tackles last season (fifth-best on the team) and intercepted two passes.

He has not redshirted, so he could sit out all season and return as a junior in 2012. Any possible return from injury late in the 2011 season would have to be weighed against the wisdom of burning through a year of eligibility.

Stoops noted that Arizona hasn’t has many ACL injuries in the past, but his team had two within five days.

“It’s disappointing to lose two players of that caliber this early in spring,” Stoops said. “To have two guys go that fast, it’s weird. Injuries kind of snowball like that.”

Stoops will be hoping to get through Saturday’s scrimmage without any more problems. The team will have an open practice at Arizona Stadium from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 1st, 2011 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Arizona football. Tags for this post: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Fraser007

    Oh crap!!!!!!!!

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  • Carlos J. M.

    Hall’s hits conjure up memories of the Heat-Seeking Missile himself, otherwise known as Chuck “The ASU and Van Raphorst Annihilator” Cecil.  This dude from Palo Verde High can hit; maybe even harder than Chuck.  Just love the way he separates the ball from the player and gives Arizona a chance at some more offense everytime the other team calls a play his way.  He will be missed.  But I’d love to see Randy’s kid play a little ball too though.  Let’s strap the darn thing on already!

  • Laser Cats 4

    I love this dude. Hope it heals up quick need him back on the field hunting ducks.

  • azbret

    I hope they’re getting a huge benefit from spring ball, because it’s coming at a huge cost.  Nwoko and Hall figured to be huge keys to sucess in 2011.  A few years back, Greg Hansen wrote a piece about how unnecessary spring football really was to the big picture.  After setbacks like this, it’s hard to disagree.

    • Mark B. Evans

      Spring practice is more important for the offense due to their complexities and need to work new guys into the system. The defense just needs to be there to give the offense something to work against.

      Pity. Hall was becoming one of my all-time favorites, mostly for his nastiness than for his play.

  • Pingback: After knee injury, Arizona’s Adam Hall says he’ll play at some point in 2011 - AG's Wildcat Report

  • Carlos J. M.

    If there’s a silver lining it’s that the way early season injuries are just that: Early.  Well that and the fact that they’re at two positions where the Cats are relatively stocked.  You just mentioned the DB situation, Anthony.  And over at RB, with Nwoko down, thank goodness Stoops had the sense to look ahead a little bit and sign two game-ready RBs.  It’s just that neither one is that big, bruising runner type like Nwoko.  Time to do some creative coaching.  Maybe find a JC RB?

  • c

    Dirty player.  Karma.

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