Sometimes, Arizona Wildcats coach Rich Rodriguez was saying the other day, football is like baseball.
“You’ve got to be strong up the middle,” Rodriguez said.
He then rattled off the pertinent positions: center, quarterback, running back, nose guard, middle linebacker (duh) and safety.
The Wildcats must replace about half of their starters at those spots in 2016.
Arizona’s key personnel losses include center Cayman Bundage, middle linebacker Scooby Wright, free safety Jamar Allah and “Spur” safety Will Parks. The Wildcats also lose the listed backups to Wright and Parks: Sir Thomas Jackson and Anthony Lopez.
Center is a particular area of interest because it’s extremely important and it’s not entirely clear who will make the first snap when spring practice begins Feb. 5.
The first names Rodriguez mentioned were Zach Hemmila, who will be a redshirt senior in 2016, and Nathan Eldridge, who will be a redshirt freshman. Hemmila started six games this season at left guard. He was second on the depth chart for the New Mexico Bowl. Levi Walton, who will be a redshirt sophomore, was third.
Rodriguez said “seven or eight” players could get a look at center at some point. I wasn’t sure if he was kidding, because that’s seems like way too big a number. I do know that Rodriguez was more worried about the position last August, when projected starter Carter Wood suffered a career-ending foot injury and Bundage, a career guard, had to take over the offensive line’s most challenging position.
“Cayman had never snapped before,” Rodriguez said. “Even though we had a couple bad snaps here and there, he came through for us big time.”
Rodriguez said center “without question” presents the greatest degree of difficulty among the five O-line positions. Besides having to make a shotgun snap on virtually every play, the center has to make critical line calls based on the defense’s alignment.
But Rodriguez also said Arizona has “the simplest offensive line system in the country.”
“It’s not chess,” he said. “It’s checkers. We don’t have to think eight moves ahead.”
After hearing that, I had to ask: How does Rodriguez operate on the sideline? Is he playing checkers or chess?
“All checkers,” he said, laughing. “Just one or two moves ahead.”
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We don't do a "Tweet of the Day" here, but if we did, we'd pick this one from Blair Willis, who's the head of media relations for UA football:
Closing out 2015-16 season at #NationalChampionship. Will be back here with @ArizonaFBall in 236 days. #BearDown pic.twitter.com/2DuiehmXMS
— Blair Willis (@BlairWillisUA) January 11, 2016 
