Ka’Deem Carey will try to run past Trung Canidate’s school season rushing record Friday night vs. Arizona State. Photo by Rick Scuteri-US PRESSWIRE
Trung Canidate has been busy.
He was married last weekend, so there was preparation for all that and getting settled into a new life. He hasn’t been following football as closely as he might.
He didn’t know, until doing an interview Wednesday night, that his Arizona Wildcats-record rushing game — 288 yards vs. Arizona State in 1998 — had been obliterated.
I told Candidate that sophomore Ka’Deem Carey ran for 366 yards two weeks ago against Colorado.
“Shoot,” Canidate said, “I should have been there to congratulate him.”
Canidate wanted to know how many carries Carey had.
“Twenty-five,” I told him.
“Twenty-five?” he said in amazement, as if he was expecting me to say something like 40. “That is real right there. I’m actually amazed. I didn’t even know it.”
Canidate blazed to his 288 yards on only 18 carries, a remarkable average of 16 yards per carry. That’s slightly better than Carey’s average of 14.6 against the Buffaloes.
Canidate laughed.
“I would rather have 366 on 25, though,” he said. “That’s a big day right there. Three-sixty-six. Wow. I might have to make a trip down there.”
Canidate, who lives in Phoenix, said he received a text message a few weeks back from a friend in Tucson who said he needed to keep an eye on his season record of 1,602 yards. Canidate said he checked the math and determined that Carey was “going to have to do something astronomically good.”
Like 570 yards in two games?
“I have to say he did something astronomically good,” Canidate said.
I had to give him more bad news, record-wise. Carey is only 18 yards away from breaking Canidate’s school season rushing record. Canidate also holds UA’s career rushing record with 3,824 yards.
Canidate, a first-round pick of the St. Louis Rams in the 2000 NFL Draft, said those records “mean more to you as you get older,” but he also sounded excited about what Carey could do next, especially Friday night against Arizona State.
“He’s on a roll right now,” Canidate said. “The rivalry game, this could be something special.”