With eligibility in question, RB Jacory Croskey-Merritt's status unknown for Kansas State game

Arizona senior running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt’s status remains questionable for the 20th-ranked Wildcats’ matchup with No. 14 Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas.

After rushing for 106 yards and a touchdown against New Mexico — his former team — in his Arizona debut, Croskey-Merritt missed Saturday’s 22-10 win over Northern Arizona after there was “a concern raised about his eligibility” in the days leading up to the UA’s second game of the season.

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan said after the game, “We’re just being overcautious with that and we made that determination (to sit Croskey-Merritt on Friday).”

With Croskey-Merritt out, senior running back Quali Conley, who had 166 all-purpose yards, and Ole Miss transfer Kedrick Reescano shouldered most of the rushing duties against NAU. Reescano scored his first collegiate touchdown with a 56-yard run in the fourth quarter. Conley has 27 rushes for 202 yards and three touchdowns along with eight receptions for 67 yards in two games. Junior Rayshon Luke, who was expected to have a larger role this season, has five total touches this season. 

The concerns for Croskey-Merritt’s eligibility as a college football player first arose in the spring after he committed to Arizona following one season at New Mexico, where he rushed for 1,190 yards — which ranked 23rd in college football — and 17 touchdowns. Before his time at New Mexico, Croskey-Merritt played in 31 games over four seasons at Alabama State and rushed for 1,164 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Croskey-Merritt’s first collegiate season at Alabama State was in 2019. Arizona currently doesn’t have any players from its 2019 recruiting class on the roster. That ’19 class included offensive lineman Jordan Morgan, running back Michael Wiley and punter Kyle Ostendorp, who all ran out of eligibility last season. On the other side, with the pandemic-influenced season and redshirt seasons, some players like ninth-year Miami tight end Cam McCormick and seventh-year Utah quarterback Cameron Rising, eligibility in collegiate sports is in a murky era.

Croskey-Merritt told the Star in June, “there were a lot of confusing things going on,” when asked about his eligibility being in question.

“I can’t really say what was happening, but there were a lot of people talking that I didn’t know about. It was a lot of stuff,” he said then. “I don’t really want to get into the details, but people blow things up that shouldn’t have been blown up. A lot of people and schools were talking to each other.”

With plans to finish the spring semester at New Mexico, Croskey-Merritt didn’t join Arizona in the spring and briefly flipped his commitment from Arizona to Ole Miss, before re-committing to the UA.

“Not being able to enroll early, it left him out there for people to poke at him and sway him either way,” said UA running backs coach Alonzo Carter in July. “We still recruited him and told him our arms are wide open. ‘We want you here.’ I think our relationship grew from that. ... We just showed him love. It wasn’t transactional, it was all about the love, and he felt that. ... We’re glad he’s here. We don’t even talk about the decision, because I want him to focus on, ‘Now that you’re here, let’s move forward.’”

Leading up to the season, Croskey-Merritt was recently added to the wildly popular EA Sports College Football 25 video game, where he is tied with Conley as Arizona’s highest-rated running back with an 84 player rating.

“Hopefully by the next update, I can influence (College Football 25) to up it to a better rating. ... I’m just happy to be in the game,” he said.

Croskey-Merritt’s availability for Friday is “where it was when I talked to you guys Saturday night,” Brennan said.

“We’re still trying to find out exactly what went on,” Brennan said. “It was raised by our compliance (office) and we’re going through it.”

Third-down failures ‘really frustrating’

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Brennan was stunned to hear about Arizona’s inability to convert a third down against NAU. The Wildcats went 0 for 10, the first time Arizona didn’t convert a third-down play since the loss to Washington State in 2003.

Brennan cited a “couple missed throws, missed opportunities” on third down against the Lumberjacks. Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita was sacked three times on third-down plays on Saturday.

“That part of it was really frustrating,” Brennan said. “Sometimes when you’re in those situations, you kind of try to press. We just gotta relax and let the game come to us and execute the details of our assignment and we’ll have higher level of execution.”

Wildcats unveil red ‘Cats’ helmets

For the first time in four years, the Arizona Wildcats will wear red helmets.

Arizona unveiled its red helmets — with a twist — on Monday for its matchup with Kansas State on Friday night.

Arizona’s metallic-red helmets feature a “Cats” script decal in white font — the same logo that’s currently on the hip of the team’s game pants — and a white face mask. The UA will also wear white jerseys and red pants for its unofficial introduction to the Big 12. Since the home-and-home series was scheduled in 2016, Friday will be a nonconference contest.

Arizona announced the addition of the white “Cats” helmets in July during Big 12 Media Days. The last time Arizona wore red helmets was against UCLA during the pandemic-influenced season in 2020.

Arizona’s new alternate helmets are the first ones without some form of the “Block A” since its cursive “UA” look in the mid-1970s, when Arizona was a part of the Western Athletic Conference.

Red helmets were first added to Arizona’s uniform rotation in 2013 under former head coach Rich Rodriguez and have been updated throughout the years to a chrome, matte and “candy” look. All of the previous red helmets had a “Block A” decal.

Extra points

• Brennan, on punter Jordan Forbes, who averaged 44 yards per punt and had three land inside the 20-yard line, possibly taking over for starter Michael Salgado-Medina: “That’s going to be something that’s going to continue to play out over time as we watch it. I don’t know if that decision has been made yet. We’re going to see how practice goes.”
• The Fox broadcasters for the Arizona-Kansas State game are Tim Brando (play-by-play), Devin Gardner (analyst) and Josh Sims (sideline).