Arizona football roundtable: What should Nick Wilson do?

After many injuries, should Arizona’s starting running back keep going or think of his long-term health?

As a true freshman, Nick Wilson dazzled as the Arizona Wildcats running back, putting up 1,375 yards on just 236 carries, tacking on 16 touchdowns for good measure.

But in his last 14 games, Wilson has made it out healthy twice. He’s literally been injured from head to toe over this stretch, and when he does play, it’s just a matter of time before he exits due to re-aggravating a pre-existing injury, or suffering a new one.

After the USC game, I called for Wilson to be saved from himself. This was before Rich Rodriguez announced that the running back suffered yet another injury. So do we feel it’s time for Wilson to keep his long-term health in mind and medically retire? Here’s how the rest of our staff feels:

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Gabe Encinas: Yeah. You have to feel bad for guys who are forced to medically retire or make you think about medically retiring simply for the future of their health. Wilson is extremely talented but just hasn’t been healthy since non-conference of his freshman year. He continues to come back from injuries and ends up with another injury.

It just sucks when you have guys live out their dreams of playing college football and having to end that. Pierre Cormier couldn’t last very long. Sharif Williams tried to battle through his knee injury for one season, Marquis Ware just couldn’t overcome his shoulder injury, Nick Wilson seems next and Anu Solomon could be one more concussion away from walking away from football.

Talented guys, but at some point you just have to look out for your future health and make sure that you graduate with a degree that can advance your professional career and are able to make use of it after taking numerous shots to your legs and head over the time of their football careers.

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Ronnie Stoffle: Unfortunately I believe he needs to start seriously considering it. There will be plenty of pushback by Wilson when discussing this, but he needs to do what's right for his long-term health. He will still have plenty of opportunities as a coach if he decides his heart is still with football.

The decision to retire may call his toughness into question by some, but I think that would be unfair and untrue. Nick Wilson has made to the highest level of college football, which requires an extremely high level of toughness. I think his relentless approach with rehabbing and furthering his career is a testament to his toughness.

Every dedicated player reaches a point where their bodies can no longer handle the physicality of the game. We just saw it last year from one of the best NFL quarterbacks to ever play the game in Peyton Manning. Some players are blessed with long careers at the next level and some are cursed with nagging injuries that prematurely end careers. Wilson’s category appears to be the latter.

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Drake Horner: It really just seems to me like a very large amount of nagging injuries, not necessarily serious ones that are career-ending. The injuries have never been serious enough to be out for the season. I want him to keep playing because he’s just had some real bad luck, and when he is healthy, he is a really good back as we’ve all seen. I saw him come out of the game at USC and he was not happy, the dude just can’t catch a break. He may not be capable of taking a Ka’Deem Carey-sized load of carries anymore, but I think it’s still a bit premature to say he should retire.

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Ryan Kelapire: It does seem like he should consider it, but I also think it’s unfair for us to try to decipher, since we’re not doctors nor do we know exactly what Wilson’s injuries are.

At the same time, if it’s going to be a scenario where Wilson can’t play more than a few plays without having to exit, then yeah, it’s probably time to hang ‘em up. Even if Wilson were healthy, I don’t think he’s an NFL-caliber player anyway, so he might as well look out for his long-term health.

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