If each football season is a journey, then spring drills mark a time for baby steps, complete with tottering and face-plants into the floor.
When it’s the first year installing new offensive and defensive systems, well, the learning curve is considerably steeper.
Consider Arizona Wildcats coach Rich Rodriguez’s previous stops.
“At Glenville (State), there were 25 guys on the team. I was bigger than all of them,” Rodriguez said. “At Tulane, if there was an NCAA record for sacks allowed in the spring game — and (former NFL starter) Shaun King was our quarterback — we would have set it. Clemson wasn’t real pretty. West Virginia was ugly. Michigan was ugly.
“If it gets too pretty this spring, then we have more problems on defense than I ever imagined.”
The Arizona Wildcats will open the Rodriguez era today with new schemes to learn and routines to master — and the bar set understandably low.
Get five questions to consider as the Cats learn to crawl in Monday's Star Sports Extra.
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