Willie Mobley can’t quite get to UCLA’s Johnathan Franklin last season. Photo by Andrew Fielding-USA TODAY Sports

Former Arizona Wildcat defensive lineman Willie Mobley apparently has some football left.

Mobley, a senior reserve last season for the Cats, landed on New Mexico State’s signing list Wednesday as a graduate student. NMSU will have to (or already has) apply to the NCAA for a sixth season of eligibility.

Mobley missed the 2011 season at Arizona because of a torn ACL suffered in an offseason basketball pickup game, and it is believed an injury played a part in him sitting out the 2008 season as a freshman at Ohio State. The NCAA can grant a sixth season of eligibility if a student-athlete misses two seasons for circumstances out of his control.

Mobley attended Orange Coast College in Southern California in 2009, but did not play, before transferring to Arizona.

He made 27 tackles at Arizona, including 20 last season.

This season wouldn’t have been possible without the play and leadership of Matt Scott. Photo by Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

Soon after Arizona hired Rich Rodriguez, the seniors-to-be filed into his new office, one-by-one, to hear the same message.

Center Kyle Quinn remembers Rodriguez saying something like this:

“This is your team. It’s the seniors’ team. I may not have recruited you guys, and this is your last year, but I want you guys to have the best senior year possible. You’re my guys.”

This is always the worry with a coaching change — the tenuous relationship between the new coach and the old players. The guy with the long-term plan doesn’t always have use for the short-timers. The short-timers tune out the guy with the long-term plan.

“We really bought into his philosophy and his mindset,” Quinn said.

“We were eager to change,” said senior defensive lineman Chris Merrill. “We knew we had to buy in for change to be implemented.”

“It started with us,” added senior fullback/defensive end Taimi Tutogi. “We talked to the guys and said, ‘Look at this guy’s record; he’s done a lot of good things at previous schools.’ The guys followed their leaders.”

Compare that to the situation at Washington State, where first-year coach Mike Leach said last month some of his seniors have an “empty-corpse quality.”

At Arizona, the senior class has helped pulled the Wildcats up from a 4-8 record last season to a 7-4 mark this year heading into Friday night’s regular-season finale against Arizona State.

It’s not that this senior class is supremely deep or talented — there are only five seniors who have started a majority of the games, none on defense. Several seniors are merely deep reserves, but they haven’t poisoned the well while filling small roles.

“I thought it was a good group of guys, but I didn’t know if they could play or not and what their contributions would be on the field,” Rodriguez said of his first impression of the seniors.

“But I loved their attitude. I thought they had a willingness to listen and learn and to lead in the right way. Particularly if you’re a senior and you’re not playing a whole lot, you could go a couple of different ways.

“You could buy into the team concept and help us out that way, or you could kind of go the other way and be a detriment. I think our guys chose to go the right way.”

This was hardly a seamless transition. Rodriguez asked the Wildcats to learn a new scheme on offense, a new scheme on defense, to practice differently — fast-paced all the time — to condition differently and harder than ever in the offseason. What’s more, the coaching staff has a different collective personality than that of the previous staff, another factor that could lead to unease and unhappiness.

“The guys that are here are happy that they stayed. I know it’s the best decision I’ve made,” Tutogi said.

“I’m just happy that Coach RichRod is doing what he is doing. It’s been a 360 (degree) difference from last year. Guys have stepped up. Now I wish I would have redshirted my freshman year. That’s just a product of how Coach RichRod coaches and his philosophy. I like that it’s a family.

“I’m sad, but I’m happy for the younger guys, because that’s what they are going to get for the rest of their career.”

The whole feel-good vibe has been a stark contrast to Rodriguez’s first year at Michigan.

These are some of the things that have been different at Arizona: UA didn’t have a public, anguished coaching search; Rodriguez nailed his introductory press conference; he’s had the full support of the administration; he hasn’t been publicly bad-mouthed by former players; his good ol’ boy personality has played well to the masses; he inherited an experienced senior quarterback … and any grumbling has stayed behind the scenes.

The proof of the buying-in is in the win-loss record and an on-field effort that can’t be called disappointing. Much credit goes to the seniors.

“He asked a lot of us as a group,” Tutogi said.

“It’s been easy when you’ve got a group of guys like the ones you’ve got. We didn’t know what guys were going to think when Coach Rod came in because you have a lot of different opinions with a lot of different coaches. But it started with us.”

Arizona rotates captains on a weekly basis but on Wednesday named captains through the bowl game — Scott, Quinn, Biskin and junior linebacker Jake Fischer, a fourth-year player who is the leader of a defense that does not start a senior.

“A few of the guys have been not just good leaders but great leaders. I think that has really helped us in a year of transition,” Rodriguez said.

“We’ve been fortunate to make steps as a program while the seniors have been all in.”

* * *

Arizona’s 2012 senior class

*Note: WR Terrence Miller not listed because it is expected that he will get a medical hardship for this season, able to return as a fifth-year senior in 2013.

Ross Oltorik, running for a touchdown for Cincinnati Moeller High in 2007, is a passer first but said he doesn't mind taking a hit./Photo by Malinda Hartong, Cincinnati Enquirer

Ross Oltorik, a former pitcher and walk-on quarterback at Ohio State, is getting a fresh start at Arizona.

Oltorik arrived in Tucson earlier this week after getting all the paperwork cleared and will start summer classes on Monday. He’s already settled in to a living situation, rooming with junior college transfer linebackers Derek Earls and Paul Vassallo, who arrived for the spring semester.

Oltorik is looking to dedicate himself to football after suffering a rotator cuff injury before the 2010 baseball season. He said he had been scheduled to be the Saturday starting pitcher for the Buckeyes.

“A week before the season started, I tore my rotator cuff. Once that happened, I came to the conclusion that it’s time to focus on being the best quarterback I can be … and do I want to do that at Ohio State or somewhere else?

“I had a couple of meetings with Coach (Jim) Tressel — he’s a great guy, he’s been very good to me — and he said he was full on scholarships until January.”

Oltorik, who is the career passing leader at Moeller High School in Cincinnati, first heard of Arizona from ex-Ohio State defensive tackle Willie Mobley, who spent last season at Orange Coast Community College in California before signing with the Wildcats.

“Once I got hurt, he gave me a call and said, ‘You’ve got to come out here and play, this offense is perfect for you,’” Oltorik said.

Arizona coaches Mike Tuiasosopo and Frank Scelfo followed up with phone calls — Scelfo being able to relate because his son, Anthony, was a quarterback and baseball player at Tulane.

“Coach Scelfo just seems like a winner and someone I wanted to play under,” Oltorik said.

Oltorik visited the Arizona campus last month and decided to be a Wildcat — on the same conditions he had at Ohio State. He said UA told him it doesn’t expect a scholarship to open up until January.

“My dad said he was willing to pay for a semester,” Oltorik said. “I have to prove myself because I have been hurt. I will do whatever it takes to do that.”

Oltorik said he committed early to Ohio State on a baseball scholarship while in high school, and he was an invited walk-on to the football team before his freshman year of 2008.

“I went early to go to summer workouts for football, along with all the other guys. Basically, I was treated like a football scholarship guy,” he said.

In a blowout of Youngstown State in the 2008 opener, Oltorik said he was going to go into the game, but somebody realized he shouldn’t.

If he had played, his baseball scholarship would convert to a football scholarship (it’s an NCAA rule that prevents teams from skirting the 85-scholarship limit), and Ohio State was already at its limit.

Oltorik, who is 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, later hurt his shoulder and sat out football in 2009. Once he sits out this season, he will have two years of eligibility left, although he said that the NCAA told him he would qualify for an medical hardship year because the shoulder injury kept him out of two seasons.

In a best-case scenario, he would have three years to play, beginning in 2011.

Here is Arizona’s QB depth chart:

Nick Foles, Jr.
Matt Scott, Jr.
Bryson Beirne, Jr.
Andrew McDonald, So. (walk-on)
Ross Oltorik, So. (walk-on)
Cameron Allerheiligen, Fr.
(Committed recruit: Daxx Garman, Southlake Carroll High School in Texas)

Oltorik said he peeked at the depth chart to know what’s down the road (with the quarterback position apparently up for grabs after Foles leaves after the 2011 season), but he’s not too worried about that right now.

“I am definitely going to watch Nick Foles and learn from him and use my mind,” he said of this season. “Nick seems like a great leader and he seems like someone you can model yourself after.”

As for playing two sports, he said he has not talked yet to baseball coach Andy Lopez. Oltorik was 1-1 with a 9.58 ERA in 31 innings in the 2009 season, and he said he can also play the outfield. He said he would love to contribute in baseball if it doesn’t interfere with football spring practice.

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.’”

Marquis Flowers was on the cover of the Arizona edition of ESPN Rise magazine in October.

As of late Wednesday night, with all but a trickle of signees still to come across the country, Arizona’s recruiting class was ranked close to the bottom of the Pac-10.

Rivals.com ranked the Wildcats eighth in the Pac-10 and 36th in the nation. Scout.com pegged Arizona ninth in the league and 40th nationally, even below Washington State.

That’s not quite the ratings that were expected after two bowl seasons and plenty of positive momentum in the past two years, but I’m a big fan of taking the rankings as a good dose of entertainment, not gospel.

Arizona signed a total of 23 players, including Texas transfer receiver Dan Buckner (who has to sit out this season under transfer rules) and two mid-year junior college transfers.

Coach Mike Stoops doesn’t need a lot of immediate help on offense, needing mostly depth on the offensive line, which he got. Defense is a different story, with pressing concerns at defensive tackle, linebacker and safety. Stoops and his staff seemed to address that just fine.

So, no, the class rankings aren’t exactly going to send the fan message boards into a buzz, but it appears as if the impact players come at all the right spots … and, at this point, Stoops has earned a bit of trust in the kind of players he identifies and signs.

Here are five players we’re most looking forward to seeing in action right away. Call them the top five impact players:

1. S Marquis Flowers, Goodyear Millennium High School
He’s the headliner of the class, the top-rated recruit in the state, which is a rare get for the Wildcats. “Marquis Flowers is a very unique individual,” Stoops said. “A big safety who can run. A very athletic safety. One of the best I have seen all year.” At 6-3, 200, Flowers gives Arizona two young, big, athletic safeties, joining one of the top recruits from the 2009 class — Adam Hall.

2. DT Willie Mobley, Orange Coast CC
Arizona tried to recruit him out of high school, but Mobley signed at Ohio State, where he redshirted in 2008. He tried to transfer to UCLA (where the Bruins thought he was the answer to their decimated defensive tackle position), but he didn’t qualify, and his recruiting relationship with UA assistant Mike Tuiasosopo led him to Tucson. He didn’t play in junior college and has three seasons of eligibility remaining. Stoops said Mobley, combined with Saneilia Fuimaono and Kirifi Leuta-Taula, are the “best three interior defensive linemen we have recruited in some time.”

3. LB Derek Earls, North Dakota State College
Arizona has to replace all three of its starting linebackers, which meant it was critical to get immediate help. Finding a couple of talented mid-year transfers was critical and Earls (6-3, 230) fits the bill as a NJCAA first-team All-American. Stoops said he saw Earls and the other JC transfer linebacker, Paul Vassallo, work out Wednesday for the first time. “They did some things athletically that I thought we were getting from them, but it’s nice to see it with your own eyes,” Stoops said.

4. LB Paul Vassallo, Sierra College
Stoops said he didn’t know yet where Earls and Vassallo (6-3, 240) might fit into the linebacker group — inside or outside — but that will be sorted out in spring ball. “They’re big; they’re long. These guys are pretty athletic for their size and they give us a lot of different options,” Stoops said. Vassallo redshirted at Nevada for a season before transferring to junior college, where he has 14.5 sacks in 2008. He missed seven games last season because of a concussion.

5. WR Garic Wharton, Las Vegas Valley High
Arizona has dependable possession-type receivers, but is looking for a bit more pizzazz from the position, such as what Mike Thomas brought to the team in 2008. The Wildcats have moved quarterback Richard Morrison to the position and have added Wharton, whom Stoops called “probably the fastest football player in the country coming out of high school.” Wharton (5-11, 168) is a sprinting star who was an all-around skill player in high school, including returning three kicks for touchdown last season. “He has unique size to him and he is a guy who can the distance at any time,” Stoops said. “He has crazy speed.” (JC transfer Dexter Ransom is a 6-4 receiver who could make a quick impact on the outside for the Wildcats.)