Arizona football: Zach Green trying to channel his inner Jerome Bettis

The Wildcats have a new bruiser running back they’ll be using for the rest of the year

With all the injuries at running back and quarterback, the Arizona Wildcats are having to use guys in crucial spots that haven’t been in that position before.

While Khalil Tate is going to steal headlines at quarterback, redshirt junior Zach Green is ready to leave his mark — literally and figuratively — on opposing defenses.

“The running back situation’s very unfortunate with what we’re going through right now with all the injuries and the events that have happened,” Green told me this week. “But whatever Coach Rod wants to do, whatever position he wants to put me in, I’m all for it, and I’m gonna run my heart out every time I get the chance.”

At the start of the season, Green was basically the fourth-string running back. But now that Nick Wilson has a recurring ankle injury, J.J. Taylor has a broken ankle, and Orlando Bradford has been dismissed from the team, Green is now basically a co-starter with wide receivers Tyrell Johnson and Samajie Grant.

“I’m all for it,” Green said of having wide receivers come over to his position. “I know they’re running backs in high school, and they’re both great players, and if they’re there to complement me or if I’m there to complement them, then that’s what we need to do.”

The thing that’s always come up as to why Green hasn’t moved up the depth chart in his first few years has been his conditioning. But that appears to be less of an issue now.

“He’s in better shape,” Rich Rodriguez said on Tuesday. “He obviously understands the offense. He’s a mature guy, and he can run well. He’s a guy whose role needed to increase anyway because he’s a physical presence, and as he gets in better shape, he’ll play even more.”

“I’ve definitely been working,” Green added. “The strength coaches have been having me pushing sleds all spring, all summer, just to get used to running with my body weight. Now I’m used to it and I’m making five, six yards a carry. I don’t really feel any opposition with the defensive line or anything. I just get back up and I’m ready for the next play.”

Green’s physical style of running is no accident, and by no means a new thing in his life. At 5-foot-10 and 227 pounds, he should be running more up the middle. And his idol is the reason he enjoys doing so.

“I love Jerome Bettis,” Green said. “I love the way he ran.”

“You just punish the defense, and that’s why my dad and all my coaches from a young age have told me to do. They’re just like you’re not going to make any yards juking to the outside, running east and west. You’re gonna make yards going north and south. So that’s what I live and die by.”

With his game experience, now Green will be able to learn from watching himself in games as opposed to watching others.

“It’s a difference of just going from ‘Oh, this is what you’re doing in practice’ to ‘Oh, this is an actual game and this is what you need to work on’,” explained Green. “I feel like you get better as the game progresses if you’re in there more.”

“For me, I feel like the first series you’re in, you kind of get winded,” Green continued. “And the next series, you kind of get the feeling of what to do, and you get kind of a rhythm.”

It appears he’ll have plenty of series to get a feel of what he’s doing moving forward. With the injuries stacking up plus Tyrell Johnson’s ball security issues, we may see a lot of Zach Green in the immediate future. And maybe he’ll start reminding people of The Bus.

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