Arizona football: Jerrard Randall, wide receiver?

It could happen sooner than you think

This always happens, right? A fanbase gets a quick fix of something new on their football team, and all of the sudden, there's clamoring for that guy to play all the time.

After Saturday's game against Nevada, that's definitely the case with Arizona Wildcats quarterback Jerrard Randall.

Randall played essentially the entire fourth quarter, completed his only pass attempt, and ran 57 yards for a long touchdown, where he showed off his gazelle-like speed.

The one thing standing in the way of Randall seeing the field more is a guy I like to call Anu Solomon, and barring injury, Solomon's not going anywhere.

But when you have the athleticism of Randall, the coaches are ultimately going to try whatever it takes to get that guy on the field. And the Arizona staff may be ready to bust out some interesting new packages very soon.

"We're going to try and get him going more," Rich Rodriguez said on Monday. "He's the quarterback, so obviously he knows the offense, and he should be able to play receiver. Jerrard knows quite a bit of it, and he can do all the pass plays too."

"Our biggest challenge with Jerrard is he'll try to make you miss on a quarterback sneak," coach joked. "In fact, we set two cones up in practice that went north and south, and we were trying to get him to learn to run north and south. He's got some moves, but he wanted to move when he didn't have to."

I was skeptical about Rodriguez telling the truth on Randall playing receiver, but the backup quarterback certainly confirmed that he's done it in practice.

Talked to #ArizonaWildcats backup QB Jerrard Randall today. Says he’s playing WR and RB in prax. Speed plays in college fb.

— Ryan Finley (@ryan_finley) September 16, 2015

But Randall obviously knows the reality of how deep Arizona's receiving corps is.

Randall had interesting perspective on whether WR is a faster way to get on the field. Said he’s one of 2 QBs, but one of a BUNCH of WRs.

— Ryan Finley (@ryan_finley) September 16, 2015

We as a group discussed how Randall could fit in earlier this week, and I think everyone can agree that his speed is something that this team could use moving forward. You just can't put him in at quarterback, because then you're taking snaps away from Solomon, who is clearly the better choice, and knows the offense better.

But if we can get Randall out there as a running back or wide receiver, that could add a speed threat that the Wildcats don't truly have right now. We've already seen Rodriguez discover a fix for the redzone offense with Jamardre Cobb, now maybe we'll get an electric playmaker fix with Randall.

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