Less than a week into fall football camp it is hard to tell a lot about the team, but stories and themes are starting to emerge.

So far Nick Foles has been sharp and it is obvious that Matt Scott is attempting to redshirt this season, allowing him to battle for the starting job as a fifth year starter in 2012. Bryson Beirne has been getting the bulk of the snaps with the second team, while Scott, the back-up in 2010, works with the scout team.

Keola Antolin and Daniel Jenkins are holding down the top two spots at running back and the real competition seems to be for the third running back job. Sophomore Kylan Butler has the edge early in camp, but walk-on Terris Jones and true freshman Ka’Deem Carey are getting their opportunities.

Heading into fall camp we knew the Arizona receiving corps was deep, but this appears top be the deepest the unit has ever been. Juron Criner is back with the team after attending to some personal matters over the summer. He does not appear 100% in shape, but is still making plays. Once he improves his conditioning, watch out.

Newcomer Dan Buckner, the Texas transfer, appears as good as advertised, while Tyler Slavin has made play after play.

Terrence Miller has been a go-to guy during 2:00 drills and he gives the Cats yet another big target.

All eyes are on the offensive line and so far, so good. The starting five of Mickey Baucus, Fabbians Ebelle, Chris Putton, Trace Biskin and Kyle Quinn have been solid and early on have fended off challenges from second teamers.

The biggest news among the line is the addition of Jack Baucus, who moves from tight end to tackle.

Another position of interest has been the defensive ends who have to replace three players drafted by the NFL. So far Muhammed Usman and C.J. Parish have been very good and true freshmen Reggie Gilbert and Dame Ndiaye have shown that the future at the position seems very bright.

Junior college transfer David Lopez will start alongside Paul Vassallo and Derek Earls when the Cats go with their 4-3 base defense, but all indications are that the Wildcats will spend a lot of time in their nickel and dime packages.

So far the defensive backs have also played well. Shaq Richardson and Jonathan McKnight are in a real battle to start opposite of senior Trevin Wasde and Derrick Rainey is also showing well at corner.

There is less competition at safety where Rob Golden and Marquis Flowers have their jobs all but sewn up.

Alex Zendejas and Jaime Salazar are in a duel for the place kicking job. Many assumed that after last year’s disasterous finish that Zendejas would be out of a job, but he worked hard over the summer and the job probably won’t be decided early in camp.

So far the Wildcats have remained relatively injury free, which is especially good news after all of the injuries during spring ball. Two of those injured players, linebacker Jake Fischer and safety Adam Hall, appear to be ahead of schedule and may have a tough decision to make about whether to play this year or use a redshirt.

The Wildcat offense looked great on Saturday, but the defense had their issues, surrendering well over 400 yards in just 60 plays. To make matters worse, starting linebacker Jake Fischer went down with a leg injury.

Stoops discussed the final spring scrimmage, as well as the spring as a whole, after the scrimmage was over.

The Arizona offense was on display during the Spring Scrimmage. Well, sort of. Despite not showing a lot of special wrinkles, the offense scored four touchdowns and added a long field goal. A modified scoring system was used to boost “scoring” but the offense did not need it as they passed for over 380 yards.

The offense actually scored of five straight possessions, starting off with a 50-yard field goal from Alex Zendejas.

It was a solid day from the much-maligned kicker. Instead of regular extra points, the team went with field goals of varying length. Zendejas made four of five kicks. His lone miss was from 40. John Bonnano attempted the first field goal on the first possession and missed badly from 46 yards out.

Nick Foles led the offense to the first field goal, then turned over the keys to Bryson Beirne and the senior responded. Beirne seven straight passes then found Richard Morrison in the seam for a 26-yard score.

UA Media Relations officially had Beirne at 8-9 for 115 yards and two scores, although I had him closer to 130 yards with two more completions. Either way it was a good showing for the senior who is attempting to be Foles’ back-up as the team attempts to redshirt Matt Scott.

Morrison got it done on the next possession as well. This time it was Foles finding Morrison over the middle. The former back-up quarterback faked like he was going outside, then cut back inside and cruised for a 22-yard score.

For the day Morrison had four catches for 63 yards.

“He’s a playmaker and he’s another skill guy for us that can move when he catches the football,” Mike Stoops said. “He’s very elusive and he’s a good inside receiver.”

Not to feel left out, Scott led the team to their third straight touchdown on the next possession. He decided to let his arm do most of the work and fired a perfect bomb to Dan Buckner, who hauled in the pass for a 37-yard score.

Beirne got it done on his final work of the day. First he connected with Terrence Miller over the middle. Miller caught the ball about eight yards passed the line of scrimmage, then cut outside and picked up 20 more yards.

On the next play Beirne hit Tyler Slavin on a slant and the redshirt freshman scooted 32 yards for the touchdown.

The scoring streak ended when true freshman Daxx Garman came in the game. Garman was not as sharp as the three seniors. His first pass was complete to Slavin, but he actually lost two yards. He tried to go deep on third and long, but just missed his man.

Although it was the first drive to stall in the offense’s half of the field, all was not lost. JC transfer punter Kyle Dugandzic blasted a punt that officially went 72-yards, but actually went further as it sailed into the endzone.

Foles was 11-16 for 133, while Scott was 11-14 for 134. Garman was just 1-2.

The defense struggled, but did force a fumble and had two sacks and five pass break ups.

“Defensively, we weren’t very good today but we were good all spring,” Stoops said. “We didn’t play well today but I feel good about that group.”

And just like that the Wildcats addressed one of their biggest recruiting needs. The Wildcats had some gaps in their linebacking corps, which led to some unbalanced classes. With the commitment of Dallas’ Rob Hankins, more of those gaps are erased.

Hankins becomes the third linebacker commit in the 2011 recruiting class for the Wildcats, joining Hank Hobson and Jabral Johnson.

When the three get on campus next summer, the Wildcats’ linebacker breakdown by class will look like this.

Seniors: Derek Earls,  Paul Vassallo

Juniors: Jake Fischer, R.J. Young (used redshirt)

Sophomores: Cordarious Golston (used redshirt); Trevor Erno (used redshirt)

Redshirt Freshmen: Kyle Benson  (expected to redshirt due to knee injury)

True Freshmen: Hank Hobson,  Jabral Johnson,  Rob Hankins

This will give the Cats a balance, with at least two players in each class. This year the Wildcats will have three new starters, and do not have a non-JUCO upperclassman on the roster. The Cats do not have a backer on the roster with a start under his belt, and just two who logged any meaningful time last year.

Ideally, you’d expect the Cats to try to redshirt at least two of the newcomers, in an effort to further spread out the talent among the four classes.

The Cats find themselves in this position due to three factors, the reliance of junior college linebackers, players changing positions and players leaving the program. The Wildcats currently have three defensive ends who began their careers as linebackers in Brooks Reed, D’Aundre Reed and Apai Tuihalamaka. Add to that Zander Fabri’s departure and a few other recruits de-committing and you have the unbalance in the classes the Cats’ have faced the past few seasons.

Hankins does more than just give the Cats depth, he gives them a very well regarded recruit. He is a four-star player and ESPN.com’s #9 ILB nationally. He’s one of the “great instinct” guys that Tim Kish has done so well with, but has legit athleticism and good enough size and could be a guy who comes in and challenges for playing time.

His commitment mean the Cats have really solidified their linebacking and running back units. Although they might still add another player if an elite talent wanted to come on board, with three backers and two runners, the Cats are in very good shape at both positions.

With the commitment of Ka’Deem Carey on Friday, the Wildcats have essentially put a wall up around Tucson to keep recruits home. The past three years the Wildcats have offered six local players and five have chosen to stay.

Ka'Deem Carey (WildcatSportsReport.com)

Only Sabino’s Keanu Nelson chose to play elsewhere and he could hardly be faulted for choosing a Stanford education. The other five, Adam Hall, Jake Fischer, Josh Robbins, Carey and Jacob Arzouman, all stayed home.

By my count, Stoops has offered 15 local players and 11 have decided to become Wildcats. Of the four he has lost out on, one was already committed to Notre Dame when Stoops got the job and one never played a down of D-I college football.

To be fair, the Wildcats would have offered Cienega’s Zach Davila, but the offensive lineman committed to Utah before the Cats could extend an offer.

While keeping local talent home is nice, it is hardly enough to build a program. Of the 11 players who stayed home, only one, Brooks Reed, has played at an All-Conference level. Two, Daniel Borg and Glyndon Bolasky, had their careers cut short. Only Reed, Borg and Brandon Lopez were starters, although both Hall and Fischer have a chance to start this year.

It must also be noted, that the best player of the bunch, Salpointe’s Kris O’Dowd, chose USC, although the Trojans offered Hall and might still get involved with Carey if his grades are good enough.

Another good piece of news is that the Wildcats have not lost a local player to ASU under Stoops. The Sun Devils have just one scholarship player from Tucson, Santa Rita receiver J.J. Holiday, and the Cats never offered him a scholarship.

While all of this is great, the fact is, Stoops has to recruit more than the Tucson Area. Keeping the top local players home is big, but not as big as getting top talent out of Phoenix, Los Angeles, Houston and Dallas.

I wish I had some big news stemming from Wildcat football spring practice, but I don’t…and that’s a good thing. The fact is a lack of drama and splashy headlines means that there is a lot of stability within the program.

While there are still a number of jobs being competed for, most won’t be settled until the fall. The good news is that there are competent bodies at every spot and there do not seem to be many glaring weaknesses.

It has taken quite some time, but Mike Stoops has brought stability and talent to the program. With the possible exception of the linebackers, there are experienced, capable players at every open spot.

Although there are four new co-coordinators, three of them were on the staff a year ago, so the transition has been very smooth. The players have been very positive about the new roles of the coaches.

There is also a new quarterbacks coach, the first dedicated quarterback coach of the Stoops era. Both Mike Canales and Sonny Dykes were offensive coordinators as well as the quarterbacks coaches. Frank Scelfo enters the picture and made no bones about having to make some tweaks to his passers’ mechanics.

The linebacking spot is an interesting one, in that only Jake Fischer and RJ Young saw any meaningful time last year, and even that was mostly in mop-up situations. The Cats are still sifting through the linebackers, which include three junior college players and three very young players.

The stability means that the Cats can do some experimenting. They have moved some players around in the defensive backfield, including trying safety Robert Golden at cornerback, the position he originally occupied when he was a freshman.

Some of the biggest news is about the two transfer wide receivers. Texas transfer Dan Buckner passes the eyeball test, while former West Virginia receiver Gino Crump has been a pleasant surprise.

It may not be a great spring for those of us in the media looking for stories, but it may just be a great spring for the Wildcat football program.