Arizona Post Training Camp Grades: Running Backs

Arizona football is officially BACK in action and the long offseason is finally coming to an end as the Wildcats have wrapped up their training camp as the team now starts to get ready for Hawaii on Aug. 30 at home at 7:30 p.m. (MST) on TNT.

After an underwhelming 2024 season under Brent Brennan where Arizona went 4-8 after starting the year in the preseason AP Poll at No. 21 and ending the year losing 7 out of its last 8 games, the WIldcats made changes to the roster and their coaching staff.

Brennan revamped his coaching staff by hiring Seth Doege as the offensive coordinator and promoting Danny Gonzales to the defensive coordinating job. Plus, he was able to bring in defensive line coach Joe Salave’a, who is regarded as one of the top recruiters in the nation and a former Wildcat as well.

“When we go through a tough season like we did a year ago, you got to find a way to fix what was broken, fix what wasn’t working and put those pieces together,” Brennan said. “And part of those pieces are how we’re going to do things in terms of how we’re going to coach, what we’re going to do schematically and the other part is who are the players that are going to play those roles.”

The energy at practice was high, loud and the pace of play was a complete 180 from the previous season and matches the mindset and mentality that the coaching staff wasn’t to bring to the 2025 season.

Last season, Arizona’s running backs room struggled to get any kind of rhythm going with the play calling of Dino Babers and the unit missing its top players in Jacory Croskey-Merritt. Now, running backs coach Alonzo Carter has revamped the room and added serious talent in the backfield.

We have broken down the top three running backs in the Wildcats 2025 backfield led by coach Carter:

Top Running Backs

Kedrick Reescano

When looking at the film on running back Kedrick Reescano from his high school days it was clear that the Ole Miss transfer was a highly talented player that just hadn’t gotten a shot up to this point in time.

In this training camp Reescano has been a monster and hitting holes with force, strength and speed that he didn’t have a season ago. His vision under Carter has grown from the previous season.

With how things are developing, this could be a massive breakout season for Reescano, which could establish himself as one of the better backs in the Big 12.

Ismail Mahdi

After transferring to Arizona from Texas State, running back Ismail Mahdi first struggled during spring practice getting adjusted to the new offensive scheme with the Wildcats and having to get all set in a new city.

After the early struggles, Mahdi has had a rock solid in camp as one of the top two options for the Wildcats. He has been able to hit open holes with speed and get to the second-level of the defense.

Plus, Mahdi has been the main kick returner on kickoffs and has been able to pick up big gains when the team goes into special teams drills.

Wesley Yarbrough

One of the top freshmen in the 2025 recruiting class was running back Wesley Yarbrough, who picked the Wildcats over other major offers while he was playing in Houston. In camp, Yarbrough has been a force with his elite size and quick agility giving him the ability to pick up big chunk plays in 11-on-11 drills.

Coach Carter enforces blocking with his running backs and lives by the mantra ‘no block, no rock,’ and Yarbrough has been blocking at a high-level against the first and second team units.

Training Camp Position Grade: A-

As of this moment, Arizona is able to go four deep at the running back position. This past offseason, Carter and the rest of the staff worked hard to revamp the room by adding speed, experience, and strength to the group through the transfer portal and recruiting class.

The staff was successful and Arizona is in good position to have a monster season in the ground game with the ability to go deep in the depth chart to keep guys fresh.

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