Arizona Wildcats center Nathan Eldridge is late every day, and his coaches are perfectly OK with that.
They wouldn’t be if Eldridge were late arriving to practice. Instead, he’s one of the last to leave, spending extra time to work on snaps, pass sets and all the finer points of one of football’s most challenging positions.
“Those individual things, guys have to kind of develop on their own,” UA offensive line coach Jim Michalczik said. “You look at the great ones, the Jerry Rices, you always hear stories of how they stayed after practice. Even some of the great linemen, you hear those same things about working on their craft.
“You’re kind of like an artist. A great violinist, when the symphony is done, is going to go work on little things on their own. He’s kind of bought into that. It’s good to see the maturity to buy into that.”
Eldridge is a redshirt freshman from Anthem. He wasn’t supposed to be Arizona’s starting center this season. Then something unexpected and horrible happened, and the plan changed.
Zach Hemmila, the Wildcats’ projected starting center, died in his sleep a few days into training camp. It was later learned that he died from a toxic mix of prescription medications.
Eldridge’s eyes reddened, and his throat clenched when the subject turned to Hemmila on Tuesday. But Eldridge knows he has a job to do. It was the case then, and it remains so now.
“It was rough — really rough at first,” Eldridge said. “We’re all just kind of sticking together and making sure everyone’s good as an offensive line. It was kind of like a next-man-up deal. We still had football to play. Someone had to take the role.”
The coaches chose Eldridge, despite his lack of experience. They appear to have chosen wisely.
Eldridge has started every game and has been a bright spot in an otherwise dismal season for 2-6 Arizona, which has lost five straight heading into Saturday’s game at Washington State. He looks like a long-term solution at a position that has seen a lot of turnover under Rich Rodriguez.
“He’s going to have a great career,” Rodriguez said. “It’s important to him, and he’s a tough guy. He’ll battle with anybody.”
Michalczik said: “He’s grown up immensely this year, and he’s been forced to grow up. I think he’s responded well to the challenge. He’s just got to keep improving.”
Eldridge knows it, and that’s why he stays after practice every day. A lot goes into playing center, a position Eldridge hadn’t played before arriving at the UA.
The center is responsible for identifying the defensive front and relaying the proper adjustments to the rest of the line. Next, he has to hike the ball accurately to the quarterback — almost exclusively out of the shotgun in Arizona’s offensive system. Then, almost immediately after the snap, he must engage with another 300-pound man.
“Quarterback is the toughest position on the field,” Michalczik said. “Second would be center.”
Eldridge works on everything and puts particular emphasis on his snapping and blocking techniques. During Arizona’s bye, he changed the way he grips the ball and altered the angle of his wrist. He constantly focuses on keeping his butt down to achieve proper leverage.
“You’ve just got to want it,” he said. “You’ve got to come every day bringing it. Someone else could take that spot.”
For the foreseeable future, center belongs to the man who stays late — but whose time came early.
Dawkins doing work
Quarterback Brandon Dawkins said Stanford didn’t throw any unexpected looks at the Arizona offense Saturday. He chalked up his poor performance — 5 of 15 passing for 116 yards with one touchdown and one interception — to a lack of execution.
“On my end especially,” Dawkins said.
Dawkins seemed hesitant at times to give his receivers a chance, instead electing to run or throw the ball away.
“Every week I’ve been trying to improve on that,” he said. “It just takes time and repetition. We’ve been working on it all week. We’re working on it every day. Execution comes with time, effort and work.”
Rodriguez believes Dawkins and Anu Solomon — who went 0 of 3 against the Cardinal off the bench — will perform better with another week’s worth of reps. Both have missed practice time this season because of injuries.
“As they practice more, their efficiency and execution will get better,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of it is the timing. Just the timing and the accuracy on your throws. Accuracy and timing is way more important than arm strength. That’s the one thing that I think sometimes you miss when you’re out of practice a few weeks.”
Extra points
- After the Stanford game, Rodriguez expressed concern about the players caring as much as they should amid a difficult season. That wasn’t an issue at practice. “It was really good,” Rodriguez said. “Good energy.”
- Rodriguez and the staff were impressed with how receiver-turned-tailback Samajie Grant got better at the little things — such as pressing blocks and pass protection — as the Stanford game went on. Grant made his first career start at tailback in that game.
- Rodriguez said defensive lineman Finton Connolly has been a pleasant surprise. The redshirt freshman didn’t dress to start the season. Now he’s part of the regular rotation.
- Rodriguez praised middle linebacker Jake Matthews for his passion, smarts and competitiveness. He could have an expanded role this week with Michael Barton (knee) possibly out and Cody Ippolito (knee) definitely out.
