True freshman running back Ka'Deem Carey looks for daylight in a practice at Fort Huachuca.
Photo by Anthony Gimino

Arizona football newcomers are still off limits to the media until next week — so we haven’t heard directly from freshman running back Ka’Deem Carey — but he is competing for a third-string spot.

Which would be good enough to get him on the field this season.

Fans can get a good look at Carey at Meet the Team night this Saturday at Arizona Stadium. The scrimmage starts at 6 p.m., and this will be another chance for Carey to show the coaches how much he has learned.

“What I really would like to see from Ka’Deem is him picking up his pass protection responsibilities. He has been doing a lot better with that,” said running backs coach Garret Chachere.

Chachere added “being patient as far as hitting the holes and reading the run blocking” to the list of things he is eager to see Carey do at the scrimmage.

“I mean, he can run the ball. And he’s a physical, physical player. He’s a kid who, if he keeps improving, hopefully he can help us this year. But, really, the big thing for me is pass protection and will the game start to slow down for him? Will he not be as jittery? Will he be nice and easy in his movements?

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Sophomore Daniel Jenkins, seen here in the spring game, is a good bet for the No. 2 running back spot. Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic

Arizona wore shoulder pads on Saturday for the first time in fall camp — it will be full pads on Monday — and the Wildcats held their most spirited practice of the first three days.

And by spirited, we mean there were fights.

They happened late in practice during 11-on-11 drills, and the first one started with some late pushing and shoving between offense and defense, with new offensive right tackle Jack Baucus in that mix.

Often, these things are broken up quickly but the scuffle grew from there, eventually with most of the Wildcats coming off the sidelines and several ending in a pile.

No one got hurt, so coach Mike Stoops wasn’t complaining.

“That tells me they’re competing, and that’s important,” he said.

“I think our toughness as a team needs to improve all the way through. In tough situations (last season), we didn’t respond as well as we needed to against elite teams. And that is something we will be tested in very quickly this season.”

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Ka'Deem Carey will wear No. 25 at Arizona, just like he did at CDO. Photo by Deirdre Hamill/The Arizona Republic

Arizona football newcomers report to camp Tuesday morning, so get ready to see a bunch of pictures of some guys you have never seen before trying on helmets.

Coach Mike Stoops typically keeps his newcomers off limits through the first week or so of camp, so don’t expect any riveting interviews Tuesday — just those photos of newbies trying on their equipment.

That doesn’t stop us from looking ahead.

This most recent recruiting class received barely modest reviews — ranked eighth in the Pac-12 by Rivals.com, and last in the league by Scout.com (OK, so that’s a lousy review) — but there is ample opportunity for newcomers to make an immediate impact.

Later, we will have to do a list of “Top redshirts to watch” — such as WR Dan Buckner and left tackle Mickey Baucus — but for now, here are six first-year players to watch.

Arizona will hold its first practice Thursday morning.

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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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Arizona's finish near Signing Day helped Mike Stoops appear to have a brighter future.
Photo by Chris Morrison, US-PRESSWIRE

Signing Day has come and gone, and while some teams still have some pending business, the recruiting rankings are pretty much set.

As of Thursday morning:

–Rivals.com ranked Arizona’s 22-player recruiting class eighth in the Pac-12.

–Scout.com ranked Arizona last in the Pac-12 and 68th in the country.

–ESPN.com ranked the Wildcats seventh in the league.

Arizona’s Mike Stoops delivered from the coaches’ playbook on Wednesday — saying this class filled some needs and that “you get the people you’re supposed to get” — but he also acknowledged that this group of recruits wouldn’t light up the recruiting services’ rankings.

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Ka'Deem Carey.
Photo by Deirdre Hamill/The Arizona Republic

The highest-rated prospect in the state of Arizona — offensive lineman Christian Westerman — is going to Auburn.

The second-best prospect, according to Rivals.com, signed UCLA.

Keep going down the list: Signed with USC, signed with Oregon, signed with Oregon, signed with Nebraska.

Then you get down to running back Ka’Deem Carey from Canyon del Oro High School, the seventh-best recruit in the state.

In a tug-of-war between the major state schools, Carey signed with Arizona over Arizona State on Wednesday. And that’s a sign, Wildcats coach Mike Stoops said, that his program has at least earned some loyalty to the few BCS-level recruits that emerge from Tucson each year.

“I think there’s loyalty now to the University of Arizona,” Stoops said.

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Ka'Deem Carey.
Photo by WildcatSportsReport.com

Canyon del Oro running back Ka’Deem Carey, one of the top skill position players to come out of the Tucson area, will be an Arizona Wildcat.

Carey made the official announcement this afternoon at the high school. A couple of hours earlier, he had faxed in his letter of intent to Arizona, according to Chris Bonney of WildcatSports.com, one of the partners in the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network.

Carey committed to Arizona in June but took a recruiting visit to Arizona State late last month, and his decision has been much anticipated from both sides of the rivalry. For Arizona coach Mike Stoops, it was not only critical to keep a highly-valued local prospect at home but away from the Sun Devils.

Carey ended his CDO career with 5,702 rushing yards and 82 rushing touchdowns. He was 177 yards shy of the state’s rushing record.

Carey was the Arizona Republic’s 2009 Big School Player of the Year. As a junior, he rushed for 2,738 yards and 43 touchdowns on 224 carries — 12.2 yards per carry. Most impressively, he ran for 299 yards and four touchdowns in a 44-0 victory that ended Scottsdale Saguaro’s 37-game winning streak, a Class 4A record.

Ka'Deem Carey poses with his family after announcing he signed with Arizona.
Photo from KOLD-TV's Damien Alameda, via Twitpic

Carey didn’t match those numbers as a senior, as he was limited by injuries.

Rivals.com rates Carey as the 13th-best running back in the country and the 197th-best prospect overall.

Also, check out our updating Signing Day blog. Anthony Gimino is on Twitter @AGWildcatReport

Ka'Deem Carey.
Photo by WildcatSportsReport.com

UPDATE: Ka’Deem Carey has told ASU coaches that he will sign with Arizona on Wednesday, according to a tweet from ASUDevils.com on the Rivals.com network.

The Arizona Wildcats’ football recruiting class won’t hinge on one recruit, but coach Mike Stoops has a significant part of his public relations on the line with Wednesday’s Signing Day approaching.

CDO running back Ka’Deem Carey, who has been committed to Arizona since last summer, has only been committed to a point. He continued to look around and will announce his decision Wednesday between Arizona and Arizona State.

At worst, the Wildcats could lose out on one of their signature recruits in this class, a potential game-breaking running back.

At the least, losing Carey to the school up north would send all the wrong signals, from Arizona’s perspective, about the state of each program. That’s the last thing Stoops needs after losing to the Sun Devils in double overtime and then seeing ASU as an early trendy pick to the win the Pac-12 South.

Carey recently took an official recruiting visit to ASU. Afterward, CDO coach Dusty Peace told the Arizona Republic’s Dick Obert, “It is surprisingly close,” between ASU and Arizona.

Brad Allis of WildcatSportsReport.com and a partner in the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network, quotes multiple sources today in a premium story on WSR.com. The sources are split on where Carey will decide to go.

Carey, who has needed to work on his academics in order to get eligible for college, needs to make C’s this semester in order to be eligible at either state school, according to Allis’ sources.

Perhaps the biggest news in the Arizona Wildcats’ current football recruiting class has been the commitment of local star running back Ka’Deem Carey from Canyon del Oro High School.

But there is another running back recruit in this class, and he is impressive, too.

Jared Baker from Loyola (Calif.) High has been on fire recently after overcoming an early season leg injury. On Friday, he ran 28 times for 253 yards, including a 72-yard touchdown, in a loss.

A week earlier, he ripped off 219 yards and four scores on only 15 carries against Valencia High. In the game before that, Baker rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown on just five attempts.

You can see a lot of Baker from the Valencia game in the video below.

At about the 1:45 mark, he breaks off an impressive 53-yard touchdown run, showing speed and power.

Watch his cutting ability starting at 7:47.

He has another long touchdown run called back at 8:14.

And he goes sideline to sideline for a 56-yard score, starting at 8:52.

Carey did not play Friday night for CDO because of a violation of team rules, according to the Arizona Daily Star. The Star also has reported that Carey, although committed to Arizona, recently took a trip to watch an Arizona State home game.

Random thoughts (and notes) while wondering if Arizona football coach Mike Stoops sent a congratulatory message to Super Bowl-winning coach Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints. Their connection: They were teammates on the replacement Chicago Bears during the 1987 NFL players’ strike …

Say this, the Arizona basketball team is good at one thing: Giving up career highs.

It started with the season opener, when NAU guard Cameron Jones went for 29 points.

Later in the non-conference season, there was the epic 49 points from BYU’s Jimmer Fredette. And the 34 points allowed to Lipscomb’s superb post player Adnan Hodzic.

More recently, Oregon’s LeKendric Longmire came off the bench to tie his career-best with 18 points. On Jan. 31, Theo Robertson poured in 27 points, his personal best. And, on Feb. 6, Washington State big man DeAngelo Casto had a career-high 19 points to go along with plenty of other mayhem in the paint.

In between those two games, Washington’s Quincy Pondexter lit up the Wildcats for 30 points, one off his career high. In any case, he used that to help grab Pac-10 Player of the Week honors.

Basically, if the other team has an elite scorer, Arizona usually can’t stop him, from Wisconsin’s Trevon Hughes (24 points), to Colorado’s Cory Higgins (28), to UNLV’s Tre’Von Willis (25), to Oklahoma’s Willie Warren (25), to Louisiana Tech’s Kyle Gibson (25) to Stanford’s Landry Fields (31), to all the guys mentioned above. …

Mike Bell

Mike Bell became the ninth former UA player to earn a Super Bowl ring. The New Orleans Saints running back only had two carries against the Colts, slipping on an off-tackle third-and-goal attempt from the 1, but he was a key part in the championship season. Bell actually had the most rushing attempts (172) on the team during the regular season.

As for the other Super Bowl-winning Cats:

*Tedy Bruschi has three rings (Patriots — 2002, 2004, 2005 Super Bowls)
*T Bell has two (Steelers — 1979, 1980)
*The following have one — Ron Gardin (Colts, 1971), Edwin Mulitalo (Ravens, 2001), Chris McAlister (Ravens, 2001), Josh Miller (Patriots, 2005), Michael Johnson (Giants, 2008) and Antonio Pierce (Giants, 2008).

For the complete list of ex-Cats in the Super Bowl, go to our sports network partner WildAboutAZCats.com. …

Scout.com released its initial list of top 150 football recruits for next season. How in the world did CDO running back Ka’Deem Carey not make the list? … Reason No. 5,871 to not get put too much stock into recruiting rankings: There was a lot of buzz when running back Ryan Bass — the 31st-best player in the nation, according to Scout.com — committed to Arizona a couple of years ago, and much angst when he then signed with Arizona State. He spent two unspectacular years with the Sun Devils, was suspended at the end of last season and has now transferred to Idaho. …

Jamelle Horne

UA junior forward Jamelle Horne is nothing if not consistently inconsistent, but how in the world has he scored single-digit points in six of the past seven games? Is he injured in some way that has not become public? He began Pac-10 play by averaging 16 points through four games. In the seven games since then, he is averaging 6.3. Something is not right … Four of the 23 football players in Arizona’s recruiting class have spent time on a Division I roster. They are defensive lineman Willie Mobley (redshirted at Ohio State in 2008), defensive end Mohammad Usman (had 10 tackles in nine game with Houston in 2008), linebacker Paul Vassallo (redshirted at Nevada in 2007) and, of course, Texas transfer receiver Dan Buckner. …

Among the football newcomers, long snapper Chase Gorham from Scottsdale is the one most guaranteed of playing time in 2010. The Wildcats lose two seniors on the long-snapping depth chart, and Gorham is supposed to one of the best around. He is the son of Charlie Gorham, a UA kicker in 1972 and 1973. “I know how much I really, really, really love the Cats,” Charlie said in a video interview with Wildcat Sports Report, part of the TucsonCitizen.com sports network. “The minute he steps foot on the football field at the U of A, I am going to be bawling.” …

The father of Arizona basketball commit Jordin Mayes, a point guard from Los Angeles Westchester High School, offered this honest assessment of his son to WildAboutAZCats.com: “Jordin has to learn more about managing the game and getting better at that,” Darryel Mayes said. “He has the skills to score big points when he needs to. As a point guard, he has to get others involved. But as he matures, he will understand more that he must keep the defense on its heels. Sean (Miller) and his staff can see the ability of Jordin scoring when the opportunity presents itself. When the play calls for a bucket, get that bucket. Don’t pass up that shot. That’s called playing too nice.”…

The Arizona softball team begins its season Friday at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe. Mike Candrea‘s team has its home opener on Feb. 20 with a doubleheader against Missouri. One of the changes at Hillenbrand Stadium is a padded outfield fence, replacing the wooden face that has been a hazard to outfielder’s faces. “I’m really looking forward it,” said junior centerfielder Lauren Schutzler. “I was joking with my family that Coach put that up because he’s getting sick of me not catching the ball. That wood wall was kind of a big omen out there. Any time you would run into that wall, you would get splinters, you would bang your head. It was horrible.” The padding comes a few years too late for Caitlin Lowe, who became a YouTube sensation when she crashed into the fence during postseason play in 2007. The outfielders will now have a little security when going hard after fly balls. “But it’s going to be another thing that raises expectations,” Schutzler said. “Coach is going to be like, ‘I put that padding out there for you, you better be going into it.’”