Jesse Scroggins takes a snap at Saturday’s scrimmage. Photo courtesy of V. Valdez Photography.

Arizona Wildcats quarterback Jesse Scroggins came jogging off the field, already anticipating the wrath of coach Rich Rodriguez.

“He said, ‘Coach, I’m still learning, I’m still learning,’ before I had a chance to yell at him,” Rodriguez said after Arizona’s spring game Saturday.

Scroggins’ initial pass of the scrimmage was picked off by safety Tra’Mayne Bondurant — not the kind of first impression the quarterback was hoping for — but the news of the spring game was that Scroggins played at all.

The former USC Trojan had been very limited all spring after offseason toe surgery, but he had been lobbying the coaches to let him play, including bugging quarterbacks coach Rod Smith early in the scrimmage.

Smith took the matter to Rodriguez, who gave his approval.

So, Scroggins entered on the sixth possession of the scrimmage … and he excited one pass later after the interception by Bondurant.

“I said, ‘Wow, he broke on me.’ I really didn’t think he was going to buzz me that fast, but Tra’Mayne is a great defender,” Scroggins said.

“I said, ‘OK, this is my first live rep. Things are moving fast for me.’ I tried to adjust to it, and I felt a little bit more comfortable.”

Scroggins, who played at El Camino Junior College last season after two years at USC, directed several more possessions, finishing 6 of 17 for 44 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception.

There is plenty of rust to knock off — he just got out of a walking boot a couple of weeks ago and had been limited to some throwing in seven-on-seven drills — and he really hasn’t played much at all since being a star recruit out Lakewood (Calif.) High School in the 2010 recruiting class.

His appearance Saturday was a spring-ending twist to the quarterback competition, which will play itself out over many more episodes in the fall.

Senior B.J. Denker has a slight edge based on his year of experience in the offense and 15 spring practices under his belt. But Rodriguez is keeping all his options open. Scroggins and the rest of the field — which includes incoming true freshman Anu Solomon — can make up the gap in fall camp.

“I love it,” Denker said of the competition.

“I got a lot of work with the first team this spring and I feel really confident now. My spot isn’t locked in though, so I am going to train hard and try to earn the starting job.”

Scroggins, asked how much he was looking forward to the fall competition, responded, “All the way.”

Scroggins was inconsistent Saturday but showed flashes on a tight slant pass to redshirt freshman Jarrell Bennett and on a fade pass to Bennett for a touchdown.

“We hadn’t gotten to see him live,” said senior receiver Terrence Miller. “Personality wise, he has just as good of leadership qualities as anybody in the country. He’s a great guy to be around, great guy in the locker room and a great teammate. He has a lot of potential.”

Jesse Scroggins on his arm: ‘I can zing it.’ Photo courtesy of V. Valdez Photography

Scroggins (6-3, 210) is known as a pocket passer with decent athleticism and a huge arm.

“I can zing it,” he said. “I can definitely zing it.”

The toe injury had been a problem for at least a few years, and Rodriguez wanted Scroggins to get it fixed in the offseason rather than have it linger into the fall.

“I previously had a turf toe and my toe kept gradually moving over,” Scroggins said. “I never had the chance to really fix it. Coach Rod gave me the opportunity to fix it this spring, and I’m glad for it.”

Denker was 13 of 20 for 246 yards, with four touchdowns and one interception Saturday. Walk-on Jack Nykaza was 8 of 12 for 89 yards and two scores.

Redshirt freshman Javelle Allen was held out because of migraines. Louisiana Tech transfer Nick Isham has been banged up and missed the final two scrimmages of the spring.

And, so, the competition moves on to informal summer workouts before the team reconvenes for fall camp.

This opportunity is the main reason why Scroggins chose Arizona over other options out of junior college.

“Coach Rod, he told me, ‘I’m going to give you a fair shot and may the best man win,’” Scroggins said.

“And once he said that, I was ready.”

Arizona’s B.J. Denker connected on 12 of 14 throws in the win over Colorado. Photo by Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Wildcats will start spring practice Saturday without two of their leading contenders to be the starting quarterback in 2013.

True freshman Anu Solomon, the centerpiece of the recruiting class, doesn’t arrive until the summer. And junior college transfer Jesse Scroggins, who is on campus, is recovering from foot surgery.

“It’s something he probably needed to get fixed earlier in his career,” coach Rich Rodriguez said Tuesday.

“We had a choice. We could maybe try to play with it, but I’d rather have everybody 100 percent in August than have a question mark.

“He’ll be very limited this spring. We’re not sure what he can do. He won’t be in any full contact, but at least he’ll be able to sit in those meetings and learn schematically what we want to do.”

That’s more than Solomon can do right now, but not being around for spring ball — which starts Saturday for the Cats — isn’t the disadvantage it used to be, Rodriguez said. So don’t dismiss Solomon’s chances of winning the job in the fall as the replacement for Matt Scott, who had a strong performance at the NFL Combine this weekend.

“The spring, it’s important, but there are only 15 practices,” Rodriguez said.

“In the days when you had 20 practices, and all were in full pads, it was a little more valuable. Plus, your players weren’t around in the summer.

“Nowadays, the high school kids can come in the summer and work out and train with the whole team, and they teach each other a lot in the summer. You’re a little bit ahead as a quarterback or at any position if you’re here in the spring, but not so far ahead that a guy can’t come in and win a job.”

For spring, the main quarterback competitors will be senior B.J. Denker, redshirt freshman Javelle Allen and sophomore Nick Isham, a sophomore walk-on transfer who has starting experience at Louisiana Tech. Walk-ons Alex Cappellini and Jack Nykaza round out the quarterback depth chart.

Denker will be the only quarterback who has Arizona experience, having started one game last season. He performed well against Colorado … but there’s not much to be drawn from that as the Buffs were horrible and Ka’Deem Carey did the heavy lifting for the offense with a Pac-12 record 366 rushing yards.

“B.J. Denker has proven himself a little bit. He’s played some. But he’s the only one. He’s got to get better,” Rodriguez said. “I’m anxious to see how much better he’s gotten in the spring.”

Allen was a three-star recruit from Prosper, Texas. The 6-2 quarterback was listed at 204 pounds in last season’s media guide. Arizona lists him at 223 this spring.

“Javelle had to get in shape,” Rodriguez said.

“I called him ‘Chubby’ enough times that I think he took it to heart. He’s worked pretty hard. From what I’ve seen, he’s in pretty good shape.”

Rodriguez said Allen is “a guy who has got some talent” and he called the 6-foot Isham “a smart guy.”

Arizona won’t be adding any new wrinkles to the offense this spring, the coach said, so the guys taking snaps should be fine with the scheme after a year of experience with the playbook.

“We just really want to work on fundamentals,” Rodriguez said.

The coaches chart throws and keep stats from practices, but Rodriguez said there is no magic mathematical formula to picking a quarterback. And there is no hurry. Spring will be the start of the process. He’s fine going into fall camp lacking an established depth chart at any spot.

“I’ve been doing this long enough,” Rodriguez said of evaluating quarterbacks. “I know if a guy is progressing well enough that we feel good that we can win with him.

“It’s not so much about finding a starter; it’s about finding guys we think we can win with. Hopefully, there is more than one. We hope to find two or three at every position. That’s a question right now. We don’t know that.”

Rich Rodriguez has plenty of quarterbacks to choose from — all of them inexperienced at the Pac-12 level. Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Soon after he was hired in November 2011, Arizona Wildcats coach Rich Rodriguez was all alone with one quarterback on his roster.

He went to work. He has brought in 10 quarterbacks, including a trio on Wednesday’s Signing Day, in the past 13 months. He even tried to re-convert wide receiver Richard Morrison to the position.

Playing the odds?

“People have accused me before of collecting quarterbacks. Guilty as charged,” Rodriguez said with a chuckle Wednesday. “I like having a lot of quarterbacks and I like to have competition at that position and having at least two, preferably three, we can with.”

First, Arizona has to determine if it has one who can capably replace Matt Scott.

Arizona’s big theme of Signing Day — and the one that will endure for at least the next nine months — is the competition at the quarterback position.

The Wildcats added junior college transfer Jesse Scroggins at the semester break, signed high school star Anu Solomon on Wednesday and pulled a surprise by adding athletic Khari McGee to the recruiting class Wednesday.

Arizona lists McGee as an “athlete,” but Rodriguez says he will get a crack at quarterback.

“He was too good of an athlete not to take, whether it was as a quarterback or a receiver or what have you,” Rodriguez said. “Khari McGee can play at this level.”

Chances are better that Solomon is the future of the position. The Arizona staff identified him early in the recruiting process, about this time last year. Solomon’s numbers and his mountain of victories were obvious. After committing to Arizona last spring, he threw for 35 touchdowns, with only five interceptions, as a senior.

Rodriguez honed in on Solomon’s intangibles and made him an early, high-priority target.

“That’s part of the evaluation process that’s important to us,” Rodriguez said.

“We call them OKGs. Our Kinda Guys. Certainly, you have to have a certain size and ability, but also the type of mentality that they are competitive and want to keep getting better. Especially at the quarterback position — you want to have guys who are gym rats, so to speak.

“Guys who want to study the game, want to keep working on it, want to know everything there is about your program inside and out — and he’s one of them. He’s proven that throughout his high school career.”

Solomon went 56-4 at Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High and won four state titles as he passed for more than 10,000 yards.

“A lot of times, guys recruit on potential, and I understand that, but production is better than potential,” Rodriguez said.

“If you want to see a guy who will be productive in college, find a guy who was productive in high school.”

Well, that applies to Scroggins, too, although you have to go back to the 2009 season to find that production. After redshirting at USC in 2010, he played one snap in 2011 and transferred to El Camino Junior College in 2012.

He was bothered by knee and shoulder injuries last season, and his output was modest: He completed 79 of 172 passes for 1,148 yards, with eight touchdowns and five interceptions.

“I don’t want to say he was forgotten about, but I think he was kind of lingering about there in junior college land and maybe looking for a place to prove himself,” Rodriguez said.

“So, I think the timing was really good for us. I think he’s matured from his experiences and I think he’s hungry to prove himself all over again.”

Solomon and Scroggins fall into the same category — quarterbacks who are athletic guys, not athletic guys who are quarterbacks. The latter might better describe McGee. Whatever. RichRod has won with both styles of quarterback in his read-option offense.

“They are three guys who can athletically throw and run, and I think can all play quarterback at this level,” Rodriguez said.

Solomon is rated the nation’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback by Rivals.com. Scroggins was the No. 5 pro-style QB in his class, according to Rivals.com.

While Solomon finishes high school, Scroggins gets the first chance to make an impression in spring ball, which begins March 2.

The other scholarship quarterbacks vying this spring will be senior B.J. Denker and redshirt freshman Javelle Allen. Redshirt freshman Josh Kern has been moved to tight end/H-Back, Rodriguez said.

The Cats also have Louisiana Tech starter Nick Isham and fellow walk-on Jack Nykaza.

So, let the competition begin.

Now we just have to wait and see if The Collector has accumulated anything valuable.

Related link: Anu Solomon: Another Russell Wilson?

Arizona’s 25 signed players

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Jesse Scroggins throws a pass during a 2011 spring practice at USC. Photo by Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports

Let the battle to replace Matt Scott begin.

Former USC quarterback Jesse Scroggins, who committed to the Arizona Wildcats more than two weeks ago, signed his letter-of-intent Wednesday, the first day a mid-year transfer is allowed to make it official with his new school.

Scroggins spent two seasons at USC before transferring to El Camino Junior College in Torrance, Calif., last summer.

“He’s a talented guy,” Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez told TucsonCitizen.com. “He’s probably a little hungry to go out and prove himself. We’re trying to create competition at every position, and he’ll certainly bring that.”

Scroggins (6-3, 210) has been noted as having a huge arm, but El Camino coach John Featherstone added that his athleticism will also help him translate well to Rodriguez’s read-option offense.

“When he is healthy he can fly with the ball in his hands,” Featherstone told WildcatSportsReport.com, one of our TucsonCitizen.com partners.

“He’s a natural runner with a great arm that can throw with accuracy when he gets good protection in the pocket.”

Scroggins ran into injury and academic trouble at USC, falling behind other young quarterbacks, before deciding to spend this season at El Camino. While trying to shake off the rust in junior college, he failed to post impressive numbers, bothered early by a knee injury and then knocked out later in the season by a shoulder injury.

He suffered the latter injury against Riverside during his best performance — 16 of 25 for 295 yards and three touchdowns.

For the season, Scroggins completed 79 of 172 passes for 1,148 yards, with eight touchdowns and five interceptions.

“I think he can make all the throws,” Rodriguez said. “And his arm is going to be stronger now than when he was out of high school, and his arm strength was good back then.”

Scroggins redshirted at USC in 2010 and played one snap in 2011. He will have two years of eligibility remaining at Arizona.

Scroggins was rated the fifth-best pro-style passer in the 2010 class by Rivals.com. As a senior at Lakewood (Calif.) High, he completed 163 of 258 passes for 2,395 yards, with 35 touchdowns and five interceptions.

Wrote Rivals.com at the time: “He is very mobile for a pro-style quarterback and can buy the extra time in the pocket to extend plays as defenses break down. He also has serious zip and accuracy on his intermediate passes.”

Rodriguez said he was looking to add two quarterbacks to this class, and he will do so when touted high school senior Anu Solomon, from Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High School signs in February. Solomon made the biggest jump of any player in Rivals.com’ re-ranking of recruits after the season. Solomon will arrive at Arizona during the summer.

Rodriguez said the quarterback competition is wide open and he’s not concerned at all about picking a starter by the end of spring ball.

“There will only be hand-wringing if we don’t think we have two or three we think can play well enough to win,” Rodriguez said.

As of now, Arizona will have six quarterbacks on the roster in the spring:

–Senior B.J. Denker, this season’s backup to Scott. Denker started one game, against Colorado.

–Scroggins.

–Sophomore Nick Isham, a walk-on who transferred to Arizona this summer after starting seven games as a true freshman at Louisiana Tech.

–Redshirt freshmen Javelle Allen and Josh Kern. (Allen was ahead of Kern this season, ready to go as an emergency quarterback)

–Walk-on redshirt freshman Jack Nykaza.

Rodriguez told TucsonCitizen.com he would like to keep Richard Morrison ready at quarterback, too, although the senior-to-be is likely to move back close to full time as a slot receiver.

Jesse Scroggins throws a pass at USC spring practice in 2011. Photo by Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Wildcats quarterback competition in 2013 just got more interesting.

Former USC quarterback Jesse Scroggins, one of the highest-rated quarterbacks in the 2010 class, committed to Arizona on a recruiting visit last weekend, according to a report from WildcatAuthority.com on the Scout.com network.

Scroggins ran into injury and academic trouble at USC, falling behind other young quarterbacks, before transferring this summer to El Camino College in Torrance, Calif. Trojans coach Lane Kiffin said this summer that Scroggins’ academic eligibility was not going to be a factor had he stayed.

Scroggins reportedly will enroll at Arizona for the spring semester, with two years of eligibility — and no redshirt — remaining.

Scroggins (6-3, 210) was rated the fifth-best pro-style passer in the 2010 class by Rivals.com, which wrote: “He is very mobile for a pro-style quarterback and can buy the extra time in the pocket to extend plays as defenses break down. He also has serious zip and accuracy on his intermediate passes.”

Scroggins, playing competitively this fall for the first time in nearly three years, did not have impressive stats at El Camino, but he has the same raw skills — specifically a rocket arm — that made him so coveted out of Lakewood (Calif.) High.

“He has the strongest arm we’ve seen here, but we want him to tone it down,” John Featherstone, who has been the head coach at El Camino since 1985, told the Torrance Daily Breeze before the season.

“He wants to throw everything through the wall. We tell him just to flick it to his receivers, to go through his progressions, and he’s getting better at it.”

Scroggins, who battled a shoulder injury and missed two games, was 79 of 172 for 1,148 yards, with eight touchdowns and five interceptions at El Camino. He redshirted at USC in 2010 and played one snap in 2011.

So, how does the Arizona quarterback situation shape up after Matt Scott is done following the New Mexico Bowl?

For the spring, UA is slated to have:

–Senior B.J. Denker, this season’s backup to Scott.

–Scroggins, who will be a junior.

–Sophomore Nick Isham, a walk-on who transferred to Arizona this summer after starting seven games as a true freshman at Louisiana Tech.

–Redshirt freshmen Javelle Allen and Josh Kern.

–Walk-on redshirt freshman Jack Nykaza.

Arizona has commitments from two high school quarterbacks — Anu Solomon, a four-time state champion from Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High, and Tommy Woodson from Monroeville, Pa.

How it all plays out is anyone’s guess.

Denker, in an apparent response to Sunday’s news about Scroggins tweeted this:

I’ve never been the one to back down from competition..

— BJ Denker (@VanillaV1ck7) December 3, 2012