Arizona's High-Profile Offensive Line Addition Suffers Injury in Practice
This time of the college football calendar is exciting as teams around the country are preparing for their upcoming season, and for Arizona, it's a chance for their fans to understand how this group might look when they take the field for Week 1 later this month.
Unfortunately, camp always brings the possibility of injuries as players get back in action.
That occurred for the Wildcats with their high-profile transfer offensive lineman Michael Wooten being sidelined during practice on Wednesday.
Jason Scheer of 247Sports reported that he was on the sideline wearing a brace on his knee after suffering an apparent injury towards the end of Monday's session after linebacker Jared Small hit him in that area. Wooten was reportedly on the ground receiving medical attention after the collision occurred.
The former three-star out of high school committed to Oregon as part of the 2022 class. He redshirted his true freshman season and didn't see the field much last year, prompting him to transfer to Arizona.
While Wooten was not expected to be the starting right tackle, he was still likely to factor in throughout this campaign, potentially getting reps over the course of the season and being a viable backup option in case their star Jonah Savaiinaea was to get hurt.
There has been no indication that this is anything serious, so hopefully the redshirt sophomore is just being held out of practice as a precaution.
If Wooten has to miss an extended period of time, though, that would greatly impact the depth on the offensive line for the Wildcats heading into this upcoming year.
The good news is that this happened with their opener still being four Saturdays away, so if the testing and examinations reveal nothing is structurally wrong, then he should be back in time for Week 1.
BRAD WAKAI