Arizona head coach Brent Brennan discussed changes in the running back rotation when he met with reporters on Monday. Arizona has rotated Quincy Craig, Ismail Mahdi and Kedrick Reescano through the first four games of the 2025 season.
Mahdi leads Arizona with 71 carries and 403 rushing yards with one touchdown and tops the running backs for the Wildcats with 10 receptions for 71 yards and another score. Reescano led Arizona with 10 carries for 51 yards and a TD against Hawaii and 13 for 90 and a score against BYU on Saturday.
Reescano missed the Weber State, Kansas State and Iowa State games with an injury and had two carries for four yards in the win over Oklahoma State on October 4. In the two full games Reescano has played in 2025, he has been the leading rusher for Arizona.
Craig is third on Arizona with 28 carries, second with 207 rushing yards and a TD and also has seven receptions for 47 yards. Craig led Arizona with 125 yards on seven carries with one TD against Hawaii. Other than the Hawaii game, Craig had a season high of eight carries against Weber State and 36 yards versus BYU.
"You need multiple running backs that can really do the job...all three..have demonstrated that they can..It is important to have guys that are fresh..The amount of pounding that position takes, whether it's from carrying the football or it's in pass protection...Those guys take a lot of shots...Sometimes that's in the middle of a drive...we tell those players to tell us when you need to taken out because we don't want we don't want the player to make the selfish decision to stay in the game if he's not at his best...let's get somebody else in there and let them help us do the job."Arizona head coach Brent Brennan
Arizona is currently 79th nationally, averaging 147.17 rushing yards per game, 75th posting 4.25 yards per carry and 95th with seven TDs on the ground. The Wildcats are 11th in the Big XII in rushing YPG, 12th in YPC and 15th among 16 teams in the conference in TDs on the ground.
Mahdi is eighth in the Big XII in rushing YPG and 11th in YPC. Craig is fourth in the Big XII, averaging 7.39 YPC. Mahdi had only seven carries for 21 yards in the 33-27 double overtime loss to BYU on Saturday. Arizona ran 33 times versus BYU and quarterback Noah Fifita had 45 passing attempts.
Arizona continues to rely more on the pass, ranking 77th nationally, averaging 34.67 rushing attempts per game. The Wildcats are averaging 36.8 passing attempts per game. New offensive coordinator Seth Doege strives for a balanced offense.
With Doege as their offensive coordinator in 2024, Marshall was 31st nationally, averaging 39.15 rushing attempts per game and 18th, posting 201.69 rushing YPG. The only game Arizona exceeded the average Marshall had in 2024 was against Kansas State, with 45 carries for 234 yards in a 23-17 win on September 12.
Arizona faces three of the bottom four and three of the top six rushing defenses in the Big XII in its final six games. How many rushing attempts Arizona has in the second half of the season will likely be dependent on its opponent and how well they defend the run.