While many college football programs treat injuries like some sort of Soviet state secret, Arizona is one of the few schools that actually sends out an NFL-style list of player injuries prior to their game each week.
Normally there isn’t much surprising news from the list that we don’t already know about but that was not the case when the Wildcats listed starting tailback Nick Wilson as questionable with an ankle injury for the team’s game against Houston at home on Saturday night.
The senior recorded eight carries for 87 yards and a touchdown in limited work during Arizona’s season opener but did not appear injured during the contest, giving way to backups fairly early as the team routed Northern Arizona 62-24 in Week 1. It’s still possible he bounces back from whatever injury he has in time to play against the Cougars, but Wilson’s rough history of staying healthy likely will cause coaches and fans to hold their breath.
While having a game-breaker like Wilson out could be rough, it at least hits at one of the very few positions where Arizona has some depth. J.J. Taylor is very talented and the team got solid numbers from backups Zach Green and Nathan Tilford in last week’s game. Perhaps the bigger issue for the Wildcats’ running game going forward is that they have to play All-World defensive tackle Ed Oliver on Saturday but Rich Rodriguez is likely taking things one problem at a time.
