Arizona football: Carter Wood prepared to battle for Wildcats' starting center spot

Who will be snapping the ball to Anu?

For years now, Arizona Wildcats fans are used to having a QB controversy heading into fall camp.

Well, in 2015, with Fall Camp on our doorsteps, Anu Solomon is the clearcut starting quarterback. So what do we do now?

We watch a battle for the other guy who touches the ball every single play...the center.

Last season, after Steven Gurrola was ejected from the Pac-12 Championship Game for punching an Oregon Duck, the now-fifth year senior Carter Wood stepped in and played the second half of that game, as well as the first half of the Fiesta Bowl.

Wood is most famous for puking all over a football and then going ahead and snapping it, but he feels that game experience will help him in this fall's position battle.

"I think it was very important," Wood told me about starting the Fiesta Bowl. "I think any time you can play it's a great experience, so to get that definitely helped me a lot and it helped me just get ready what could be for this year and what to expect on the field."

Wood has also bulked up over the summer to make himself more physically able to be a starting center in the Pac-12.

"I was able to put on about 20-25 pounds this summer," he continued. "I had a pretty good summer. I was pretty banged up, and now I'm finally healthy and able to put some good weight on. I'm about 280 (now). I was about 280 back in high school, and I got here and got banged up so I lost a little bit of weight but I worked hard over the summer and got some good weight back."

There's one obvious thing that whoever wins the starting center job is going to have to show to the coaches, and that's the ability to consistently snap the football and get it into Anu's hands. And learning how to do that has taken a ton of reps for Wood.

"After a workout, you just grab a buddy in the locker room and say 'Hey, come catch a couple snaps for me'," Wood explained. "Or when receivers and quarterbacks are doing seven-on-seven you go out there and snap for that. Just whenever you can really, grab a ball and work on it. You can never get too many. Do fifty, sixty, seventy snaps. If it's a bad day maybe a hundred. Just until it's right and it feels good."

One thing that most people noticed after spring practices was David Catalano doing just that with the coaching staff. He would stay on the field after practice and just send off snap after snap after snap. It's going to be interesting between a ton of guys to see who can actually lock down that center spot.

So what will define that guy who becomes the starting center?

"Just show that you can get the job done, make sure the coaches can trust you in a game, and have the trust of the other four guys on the line with you. Just let them know you can do it."

from Arizona Desert Swarm - All Posts http://ift.tt/1Iom0s0
via IFTTT