Adam Hall's return from an ACL tear could be just a couple of weeks away. Photo by Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

At the rate things are going, the Arizona Wildcats are going to need a big second half of the season to make a push for a bowl game. The good news is the Wildcats could get three key players back with half the season to play.

Starting safety Adam Hall might be back even sooner.

Hall is one of three players trying to come back from spring ACL injuries, the others being starting linebacker Jake Fischer and fullback Greg Nwoko. Defensive tackle Willie Mobley tore his ACL in May playing pickup basketball and is out for the season.

“They’ll be a couple of weeks away,” coach Mike Stoops said of the others on Monday, “but I’m confident they will be back.”

More specifically, Hall is slightly ahead in his rehab and the game at Oregon State on Oct. 8 “would be a good estimation” for his return, Stoops said.

He added: “I’m not putting USC out of the question,” referring to Arizona’s game in Los Angeles on Oct. 1.

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RELATED LINK: Arizona’s running game: How ‘explosive’ has it been?

Keola Antolin was Arizona's leading rusher in 2010. Photo by Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic

In collaboration with our Gannett partner, The Arizona Republic, we will be providing a weekly series throughout the summer, previewing the Arizona Wildcats football team.

The Republic sent a photographer to Tucson three times in the spring to capture the pictures needed for its slick presentation of the preview, which you can find here at azcentral.com. You can also read about those other guys all summer in the ASU preview.

At TucsonCitizen.com, we can’t offer the cool look of the preview that you’ll find on azcentral.com, but we’ll give you the text and some of the photography.

Here is the fourth part: The running backs. Look for updates every Friday.

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Willie Mobley at Arizona's scrimmage on April 2. Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic

The ACL hits keep coming for the Arizona football team.

Junior defensive tackle Willie Mobley suffered an ACL tear playing basketball at the student rec center, and will undergo surgery this week, a UA official confirmed Monday.

Mobley played sparingly last season, appearing in 10 games and making seven tackles, including 1.5 for loss and a half-sack. He was slated in the spring to be a backup to sophomore Justin Washington, who had 11.5 tackles for loss and six sacks last season, earning Freshman All-American honors.

Mobley began his career at Ohio State, redshirting as a freshman in 2008, before transferring to Orange Coast Community College in Costa Mesa, Calif., where he did not play in 2009.

Sophomore Sione Tuihalamaka, who made four starts and 23 tackles last season, is penciled in as the starter at the other defensive tackle spot. Arizona has promising depth but is young and inexperienced behind the sophomore starters.

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Greg Nwoko has been Arizona's third-string back in each of the past two seasons.
Photo by Kelvin Kuo-US PRESSWIRE

The junior season of Arizona Wildcats running back Greg Nwoko is in jeopardy because of a knee injury suffered in a scrimmage last weekend.

“He was just making a cut, trying to elude a tackler,” said Arizona coach Mike Stoops. “Just a freak injury.”

Stoops said the preliminary diagnosis is a torn ACL.

“We’ll see how that progresses, but it looks like it will be a long-term deal with him,” Stoops said. “This looks like a seven-month total injury for him. I would imagine we would get him back at some point during the season, but I would imagine it would be the latter end.”

Senior Keola Antolin is expected to be the lead tailback for the Wildcats; he has rushed for 1,830 yards and 21 touchdowns in his career.

Nwoko, who has been third-string behind Antolin and now-departed Nic Grigsby for the past two years, has been Arizona’s bigger-back option. He was listed at 6-foot-2 and 228 pounds last season.

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Running back Greg Nwoko had a couple of big plays in Saturday night's storm-shortened scrimmage/Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

Arizona got in only 20 minutes and 25 plays of its scrimmage Saturday night. Coach Mike Stoops wanted to see more … but, in another sense, he had seen enough.

At least, he had seen least enough to know that defense remains the overriding concern of these Wildcats, now 12 days away from the opening kickoff at Toledo.

“I was hoping we would be a little bit further along, but we have a lot of young players,” Stoops said after lightning cut short the scrimmage at Arizona Stadium.

“That correlates to some confusion. We have to eliminate some of the confusion so we can play faster and more effectively defensively.”

The team was scheduled to have Sunday and Monday off, but, given the abbreviated Saturday night, Stoops said he likely will hold a scrimmage during that time. That young back seven on defense needs the work.

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Freshman receiver Austin Hill makes a catch over the coverage of freshman Jourdan Grandon/Photo by Brad Allis, WildcatSportsReport.com

The alarm clocks rang early.

“I try to wake up as late as I can, but I woke up at 4:45 to be on the bus at 5:30,” said Arizona senior defensive end Ricky Elmore. “You wake up and stumble into the locker room and try to get to the bus on time.”

The Arizona Wildcats began fall camp Thursday morning at 6:15 a.m., and other than a little to-be-expected rust, coach Mike Stoops liked what he saw physically.

“Overall, I’m pleased with what our guys look like,” Stoops said.

“Our young guys, watching them move around for the first day, there are going to be some guys who are going to help us from the recruiting class of a year ago. I can see that already.”

It was only the first day, so we’ll just have to wait a little bit on exactly who those guys are … but certainly freshman safety Marquis Flowers is one to watch (especially if the Wildcats seem intent on using a lot of nickel coverage).

And, as you can see from the photo snapped by Brad Allis of TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network partner WildcatSportsReport.com, freshman receiver Austin Hill made a couple of nice, difficult catches.

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Arizona starting running back Nic Grigsby, who has been battling a shoulder injury for most of the Pac-10 season, is out for this week’s game at Arizona State, coach Mike Stoops said during his weekly Monday news conference.

What’s more, backup running back Keola Antolin, who offers some of the big-play potential that Grigsby has, is questionable because of a shoulder injury that forced him out early in the second quarter of last Saturday’s game against Oregon. Antolin, however, was asked Monday about that, and he said, “I didn’t know that until right now.”

Antolin still has to be further examined before a decision is made.

Arizona likely will be down to third-stringer Greg Nwoko and fourth-stringer Nick Booth.

“It has hurt us,” offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes said, talking about dealing with chronic injuries to Grigsby and Antolin through the Pac-10 schedule. “We’ve not had as many big plays as we’re used to having around here.”

Also, slot receiver David Douglas is out for this week because of a thigh injury, Stoops said.

Arizona is a 31-point favorite this week against Washington State. How rare is that? Well, the last time UA was favored by that much, the year was … uh, 2008.

Grigsby

I did some research on this last season before UA played Washington on Oct. 8. The Wildcats ended up being 24-point favorites. At the time, that matched the biggest point spread in Arizona’s favor since at least 1990; finding anything beyond that was going to require time in the archives/library that I didn’t/don’t really have.

But when UA played at Washington State last season, on Nov. 8, the spread was 41 points.

Safe to say, that is the largest point spread for Arizona in the Pac-10 era. This week’s game likely is No. 2.

In any case, it’s pretty rare stuff that coach Mike Stoops is having none of.

Stoops said Washington State “is more than capable of coming in here and winning. Does anyone expect that? Probably not. But it happens every week.

“Anyone can beat anybody on any given day. That’s been proven. I feel foolish even talking about it. … I think our kids understand that. Hopefully, we’re smart enough to understand that.”

Stoops was asked, in so many words, at his regular Monday press conference if the quality of this week’s opponent would factor into a decision to rest running backs Nic Grigsby and Greg Nwoko.

That’s not a question that a coach is going to answer completely honestly — why, yes, Washington State is so lame that we’re going to use only our second-stringers — but it’s a reasonable point.

There really is no need to hurry Grigsby and Nwoko back onto the field against the Cougs. Those guys need the extra time off to heal shoulder sprains.

As it is, Stoops said both running backs are “very questionable,” for Saturday’s homecoming game, which begins at 1:30 p.m.

The time-off debate is different for defensive end Brooks Reed, whose ankle injury has kept him off the field for almost all of the past four games. His inactivity means it’s a good idea to get him re-acclimated to the speed of the game before a season-defining four-game stretch to end the season.

“Getting Brooks back this week will definitely improve our defensive position and our ability to rush off the edge,” Stoops said. “That is something that he consistently gives you every time he steps on the field.”

At running back against Washington State, Stoops can use heavy doses of Keola Antolin and Nick Booth. Or the Cats could throw abut 50 screen passes. Those are basically runs, anyway.

True freshman H-back Taimi Tutogi, who is a solidly built 250 pounds, played running back in high school and could be used in short yardage situations, Stoops said.

Preparing for a code red emergency, Arizona will have true freshman Daniel Jenkins ready to rip off his 2009 redshirt. But, if all goes well, he stays on the sideline with Grigsby and Nwoko.

Consider WSU’s defensive stats:

• 119th out of 120 teams in total defense (511.13 yards per game).
• 114th in rushing defense (220.38 yards per game).
• 114th in scoring defense (37.38 points per game).

So, the theme of the week for the Wildcats is not overlooking 1-7 Washington State, not getting heads that grow too big for their helmets with everyone congratulating them for being ranked for the first time in nine years.

Stoops joked that one of the benefits of being ranked — Arizona is No. 21 in the AP poll and No. 18 in the BCS standings — is seeing the team name scroll across the ESPN ticker during other college football games.

“I think you have to take pride in it to stay there,” Stoops said of the rankings.

“But we don’t want to be a one-shot wonder. We have played some awfully good football the last two years. You want to build a consistent Top 20, Top 25 program, and this is something you can take pride in.”

Arizona running backs Nic Grigsby and Greg Nwoko won’t practice this week while rehabbing shoulder sprains suffered last Saturday against UCLA, coach Mike Stoops said this afternoon. He didn’t make any prediction whether they would be available when UA resumes play after its bye week, at home against Washington State on Nov. 7.

“Nic and Greg will be week to week,” said Stoops, adding that he didn’t know which one would be back first. “”We’ll know more as they progress throughout the week. Keola is back healthy, and that was a big bonus for us, offensively.”

Keola Antolin, coming back from an ankle injury, played just the second half against UCLA, but rushed 16 times for 77 yards. He is strong enough to handle a significant workload, with a bit of a break from Nick Booth, if Grigsby and Nwoko can’t go against Washington State.

Stoops said the coaching staff will look at freshman running back Daniel Jenkins as an option, if UA gets any thinner at running back. Jenkins is one of two freshman running backs who are trying to redshirt. Wide receiver Bug Wright is another possibility.

Stoops said starting defensive end Brooks Reed, who has missed almost all of the Pac-10 season because of an ankle injury, will continue his rehab this week in an effort to be close to 100 percent for the Cougars game.

“We need to get Brooks back,” Stoops said. “He’s such a huge part of our defense. That is a huge part missing for us — his consistent pressure off the edge.”

UA-UCLA game blog

Arizona coach Mike Stoops said after Saturday’s 27-13 victory over UCLA that starting running back Nic Grigsby and third-string back Greg Nwoko each suffered sprains of the AC shoulder joint during the game.

For Grigsby, it’s an aggravation of an injury he has been playing with for a few weeks. He left the game in the first half. Nwoko left the game late in the third quarter and had his left arm in a sling as he left the field.

“How severe, to what degree, I will know more next week,” Stoops said.

Second-string back Keola Antolin, who didn’t practice late in the week and didn’t play in the first half as he was trying to rest an ankle injury, came in during the second half. He rushed 16 times for 77 yards and made what offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes called the play of the game.

Antolin gained 11 yards on a draw on third-and-10 from the UCLA 36 in the third quarter. Arizona scored on a 25-yard catch-and-run by Juron Criner one play later for a 20-6 lead.

“He still has been bothered by that ankle, but that’s the best he has looked in a while,” Stoops said. “It was good. we needed him. We needed to run the football.”

Fourth-stringer Nick Booth added a 6-yard touchdown run with 34 seconds left in the third quarter for the game’s final points.

Dykes joked that maybe some of UA’s receivers can help at running back; UA did have good luck running several fly sweeps to its wideouts (a combined nine carries for 95 yards). But running back depth could really be an issue for the next game — vs. Washington State on Nov. 7 — and beyond.

Who is behind Booth on the depth chart?

“Open tryouts for running backs,” Dykes joked.

You have to go down to Kylan Butler and Daniel Jenkins, both of whom are true freshmen who are redshirting.

“Hopefully, we won’t get to that point,” Dykes said. “We’ll probably get those guys some reps this week and see who we feel is a little bit further along, and go from there.”

Elsewhere, quarterback Nick Foles was suffering from the flu, which helps explain his mixed night. He threw three interceptions — two on deflected passes — and made a bad handoff exchange with Nwoko for a lost fumble on the first play of the second half. In general, he just wasn’t quite as sharp.

He threw a lateral that linebacker Akeem Ayers broke up and safety Tony Dye scooped up for a touchdown on a fumble return. Dykes said Foles had the option to call a run or a pass on that play, and should have called a run based on the defense.

“We kind of made a bad decision,” Dykes said. “The thing is, we’ve run a thousand of those this year and he’s made the (right) decision probably 98 percent of the time.”

Dykes said Foles seemed to wear down as the game went on, although Foles’ other numbers don’t look bad — 22 of 34 for 247 yards and two touchdowns.

“Probably didn’t play as well as he has been up to this point, but at some point, he was going to have to come back to earth,” Dykes said. “Tonight, he did. It was humbling. The good thing is he was tough enough to overcome it and make enough plays for us to have a chance to win. The defense, obviously, played fantastic.”

Speaking of that defense, it was without starting defensive end Brooks Reed again. Reed has missed almost all of the past four games because of an ankle injury. D’Aundre Reed, who has been playing with a broken hand, started the game in Brooks Reed’s spot, but aggravted the injury and came out in favor of Apai Tuihalamaka.

Stoops said the goal is to get Brooks Reed healthy during the bye week and especially have him ready to go for a rugged finish to the season — at Cal, vs. Oregon, at ASU, at USC.

“We’re trying to get Brooks back to full strength,” Stoops said. “The back end of our schedule, there is a lot there.”