Ka’Deem Carey needed some help from teammates to be a consensus All-American again. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota is staying. Colorado receiver Paul Richardson is going.
Arizona Wildcats junior running back Ka’Deem Carey is waiting.
Carey, who earned consensus All-America honors on Wednesday for the second consecutive season, figures to be more likely than not to jump to the NFL after this season, but if it was that much of a done deal, he would have said so by now.
“My mind definitely isn’t made up,” Carey said Wednesday after practice. “I’m stuck in between a lot.”
More than a dozen players across the country, including a few key Pac-12 all-stars, already have declared their intentions to skip remaining college eligibility in order to enter the NFL Draft. There were 73 early entries after last season.
Carey said he probably would make an announcement sometime after the Wildcats play in the AdvoCare V100 Bowl against Boston College on Dec. 31.
“But I could make it tomorrow. I could wake up and my mind is set and I just know what I want to do,” he said. “But my plan is to make it after the bowl game and see how the bowl game goes. One game at a time.”
Carey is averaging 156.0 yards per game, second nationally to Andre Williams of Boston College. They met last week at the Home Depot College Football Awards Show, when Williams won the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back.
“He’s a good dude. We have a little bond now,” Carey said.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how he runs in person, and he’s looking to see how I run. We’ll see who comes out with the most yards, because we already made a little inside joke and bet.”
He laughed and said he couldn’t say what that bet was.
“Right after the game, you’ll probably see it, though,” he said.
As for repeating as consensus All-American, Carey thanked everyone from coach Rich Rodriguez to the strength and conditioning coaches to the offensive line. He didn’t have as many big plays as he did last year, though, because the Cats lacked multiple weapons around him to ease the defensive focus on him.
“Frankly, we didn’t have as many big holes as we a year ago,” Rodriguez said. “There were some that were really good blocking and some that were really good effort.”
Related: Ka’Deem Carey’s 22 school records