This could be a familiar site in 2012: Matt Scott on the move. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Quarterback Matt Scott committed to Arizona in the summer of 2007, and then the Wildcats’ coaching staff spent the next several months fending off other suitors for one of its highest-rated recruits.

Among those schools that tried to pry Scott from Arizona was Michigan. The Wolverines had a new coach searching for athletic quarterbacks to run his read-option attack.

Four years later, Rich Rodriguez finally got his man.

One of the happy developments from Arizona’s 3-8 season has been that Scott was able to redshirt — assuming he doesn’t accidentally stumble onto the field Saturday against Louisiana, of course — preserving his final season of eligibility.

That final year now intersects with Rodriguez’s arrival, giving hope that Arizona can minimize the pain of changing from a pass-based spread offense to a run-based spread offense.

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Matt Scott passes against Washington last season. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images.

Perhaps in a different football world, Arizona Wildcats quarterback Matt Scott could really be like Oregon’s Darron Thomas, running a read-option offense somewhere.

In this football world, Scott gets to be like Thomas for only a week.

Scott, a senior who is still crossing his fingers that he can redshirt this season, has helped prepare the Arizona defense this week by being the scout team quarterback, trying to approximate the go-go speed of the Oregon offense and the run-pass skills of Thomas.

“I wouldn’t call me Darron Thomas, but it’s a lot like my high school offense, so I’m pretty comfortable with it,” Scott said.

“It’s pretty fun to go back and do what I did in high school.”

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Wave goodbye to No. 4.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images.

Arizona Wildcats quarterback Matt Scott has a new number. He hopes coaches don’t have to call it.

Scott, who has been rehabbing a shoulder injury for most of the offseason, opened Arizona’s spring practice Wednesday wearing No. 10. He has been No. 4 since arriving in Tucson from Centennial High in Corona, Calif.

“It is the number I wore in high school,” Scott said of No. 10.

“I wasn’t feeling the 4 anymore. I had to go back to 10. It just feels right.”

It also just feels right for Scott to redshirt this season as a senior behind Nick Foles and then come back and try to be the starter in 2012. That’s the “perfect world” plan in which Foles stays healthy. Foles’ backup this season would be senior Bryson Beirne, who also has switched his number, going from No. 17 to No. 7.

(Never fear … Foles is still No. 8.)

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Tom Savage won nine games as a true freshman starter at Rutgers in 2009.
Photo by Charles LeClaire-USPRESSWIRE

I’m not inclined to look up every team — at least right now, maybe in the summer — but Arizona is potentially set up as well at quarterback as any team in the country.

Put it this way: Which other team has proven winners stretched out over the next three seasons?

Other teams might have bigger stars and more five-star recruits waiting in the wings, but the Wildcats’ possibility of having Nick Foles in 2011, followed by Matt Scott and Tom Savage in 2012, and then Savage in 2013 would be a comforting feeling for any program — especially for one whose star-crossed quarterback history coincides with its Rose Bowl-less past.

Savage’s decision last week to transfer from Rutgers to Arizona gives the Wildcats the kind of long-range plan at quarterback they haven’t had since 1997, when Keith Smith was a sophomore and Ortege Jenkins was a freshman.

While those two had to co-exist for a couple of seasons — spectacularly so in 1998 when the Cats went 12-1 — Arizona seems to have a cleaner succession plan this time around.

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Tom Savage's size and skill-set are similar to those of Nick Foles, according to UA coaches.
Photo by Jim O'Connor-US PRESSWIRE

One of the things that sold the Arizona Wildcats coaching staff on Rutgers transfer quarterback Tom Savage was an endorsement from his former coach, Greg Schiano.

That might come as a surprise because Schiano made headlines when he granted Savage only a partial release from his scholarship, originally barring the quarterback from contacting certain schools, including Florida and Miami.

Schiano later lifted the restrictions after further discussions with Savage, telling the Newark Star-Ledger that “the quality young man that he is” played a role in changing his mind.

“I talked to Coach Schiano at Rutgers, and he had nothing but great things to say about him,” Arizona quarterbacks coach Frank Scelfo said after the university announced Thursday that Savage had signed a financial aid agreement with UA.

“That speaks volumes when the coach speaks good things about you.”

That gave the Arizona coaches an insight to Savage’s character. What Scelfo sees on film is a 6-5 quarterback who is similar to Wildcats senior Nick Foles, a former transfer from Michigan State.

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Will Matt Scott be doing things like this in 2011?
Photo by Kelvin Kuo-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops would like to redshirt senior quarterback Matt Scott in 2011. That works for Scott, who says he would like to sit out next season and become the starter in 2012.

It’s just not that easy.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said quarterbacks coach Frank Scelfo. “If I had the crystal ball, I could answer the question for you.”

Blair Willis of the Arizona sports information office said he got a couple of questions from media the other night, asking if he could confirm that Scott will redshirt in 2011. Yeah, well, it’s kind of impossible to say. Check back at the end of next season.

Arizona and Scott can try for a redshirt, but Scott can’t prepare that way. It’s just a plan — a tentative plan that could blow up at any time along the way if returning starter Nick Foles suffers a long-term injury.

Put it this way: Scott isn’t going to just sit around and work on the scout team.

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Matt Scott (right) could be separated from fellow senior-to-be Nick Foles by redshirting in 2011.
Photo by Chris Morrison, US-PRESSWIRE

In January, when Arizona Wildcats football coach Mike Stoops held his press conference to wrap up the season, I asked him about the possibility of redshirting quarterback Matt Scott.

That would allow Scott to take over as the senior starter in 2012 after incumbent Nick Foles finishes his eligibility in 2011.

“I think you look at it and you talk to Matt, but you hate not to compete,” Stoops said at the time. “We’ll talk about that.”

Tucson sports talk show host Jody Oehler asked Stoops the follow-up question Thursday.

And Stoops’ answer was: Let’s try for that redshirt.

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Matt Scott hands off to Keola Antolin in the UCLA game.
Photo by Kelvin Kuo-US PRESSWIRE

For most of Arizona football’s existence in the Pac-10, one of the Wildcats’ problems has been a lack of talent and depth at the quarterback position.

So, having two talented senior quarterbacks — Nick Foles and Matt Scott — is not the worst scenario for coach Mike Stoops to have. But the timing is unfortunate. It would be nice to spread their abilities and experience over a longer period of time.

Foles redshirted after his transfer from Michigan State, so that’s not an option. Scott, however, does have a redshirt year available.

Would Stoops consider trying to sit down Scott for 2011? Then, Scott could start in 2012 while the coaches continue to develop Daxx Garman, who graduated from Southlake (Texas) Carroll High School and will begin classes at Arizona on Thursday.

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Arizona coach Mike Stoops figures to have some options at quarterback against Oregon. Photo by Chris Morrison, US-PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats football coach Mike Stoops approached the gathering of local media after Monday’s closed practice and had a message.

“OK, guys, we’re going to play the quarterback who gives us the best chance to win. OK?”

At first, I thought it was Stoops making a little joke, perhaps mocking a typical question that coaches never answer.

But he had a little edge in his voice. And this wasn’t a rare case when he was joking with the media.

I can’t remember what he said after that — perhaps something along the lines of “and let’s leave it at that” — with the upshot being that he seemed prematurely exasperated we were going to be pestering quarterbacks Nick Foles and Matt Scott about upcoming playing time or strategy … or something.

The bottom line is that Stoops put the quarterbacks off limits to the media this week in advance of Friday’s game at top-ranked Oregon.

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Matt Scott suffered a wrist injury against UCLA on Oct. 30. Photo by Kelvin Kuo, US-PRESSWIRE

Arizona quarterback Matt Scott doesn’t figure to be available again this week against USC because of a wrist injury, coach Mike Stoops said at his weekly Monday news conference.

“Matt will be out, it looks like, this week. His long-term prognosis, I don’t know what that is past this week,” Stoops said.

Scott injured his right wrist late in the UCLA game on Oct. 30, but didn’t tell the coaches at the time. He stayed in the game, but missed some throws in the fourth quarter, and Stoops said the coaches figured something was wrong.

Scott nicely filled in for Nick Foles for two games, while Foles was out with a dislocated kneecap. Scott passed well and added a running element to the position that Foles lacks.

Foles returned last week at Stanford. The backup again will be Bryson Beirne.

“Nick came out in good shape, so that’s a positive,” Stoops said.

In other injury news, Stoops said receiver Juron Criner, nursing an ankle injury that kept him out late against Stanford, won’t practice much this week but could be ready to play Saturday.

Running back Nic Grigsby was able to handle only one carry at Stanford before deciding the ankle he sprained a week earlier at UCLA wasn’t good enough to play.