Wildcats entering home stretch of spring football drills

While most of southern Arizona's sporting attention has been focused on Sean Miller's basket Cats and their run to the Elite Eight, Rich Rodriguez has been stealthily been directing his football team through spring practice in the Old Pueblo.

No news, apparently, has been good news for the football Cats -- as in not only no major injuries, but steady progress, even if Rodriguez is nowhere close to naming his third starting quarterback in three seasons from among seven candidates.

Contrary to how that might seem, it's not necessarily a bad sign. Rather than being an indication that none of the seven is distinguishing himself, Rodriguez said after Monday's session that the competition has been healthy, and the level of play raised across the board.

With basketball season done a week early, our Steve Rivera will be back out at practice later this week to fill you in on the latest developments. This Friday's scrimmage that had been scheduled for Phoenix College has been moved back to Tucson. There are five sessions still to be held, with camp concluding with the annual spring game on Saturday, April 12, at 1 p.m.

"From a meeting standpoint, the meetings are so critical right now," Rodriguez said in explaining the Phoenix cancellation. "We need that meeting time and everything we have set up here with our two full practice fields, which we won't get if we go on the road. That's all on me. Hopefully the fans will come down to the spring game."