LOS ANGELES — Just when Arizona possibly found a rhythm incorporating wide receiver Jamarye Joiner at "Wildcat" quarterback, the redshirt sophomore suffered a knee injury in the UA's 41-34 loss to USC Saturday at the L.A. Coliseum.
Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch said after the game that he doesn't know "the exact diagnosis, but (Joiner) couldn't continue on with the knee injury." Fisch also added that Joiner's injury doesn't appear to be season-ending, but remains unsure.
Joiner was spotted limping out of the Arizona locker room Saturday night with a sleeve over his right leg. The latest setback is Joiner's third leg injury since joining the Wildcats; he also had a Jones fracture in his foot that sidelined him for several months, twice.
Against the Trojans on Saturday, Joiner completed 2 of 5 passes for 75 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown pass to Tayvian Cunningham, which was the longest play for the Wildcats since the season-opening loss to USC in 2020.
With season-ending injuries to quarterbacks Jordan McCloud (knee) and Gunner Cruz (thumb), Joiner, who was recruited to Arizona by former head coach Rich Rodriguez to play quarterback, was sprinkled into the offense for special packages over the last few weeks.
"I love Jamarye," Fisch said. "He was a wide receiver, who was hurt in the spring game and had his second surgery and missed all of the summer and most of training camp, and has just been thrown into the fire of 'Hey, you're now a quarterback. Hey, now you're a running back, now you're a receiver.
'We're going to go from you at quarterback to you at receiver in the same down.' ... He's just embraced it, and I made a point today: Jamarye is just one of those players where the more you give him, the better he is. The less you give him, the more he tunes it out a bit. Now he's locked in."
Added Fisch: "I'm really happy with the way Jamarye has been playing. Hopefully he can get back here and continue to help us."
