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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;LOS ANGELES -- Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez developed the zone read concept in 1990 while running the program at tiny Glenville (W.Va.) State. Now, as the zone read nears its 25th birthday and enjoys an exalted place in football\u2019s strategic pantheon, Rodriguez has accepted that his wrinkle has become the status quo.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CAt Glenville State in 1990, there were 500 people in the stands and I\u2019m related to 490 of them, and that\u2019s before social media,\u201D Rodriguez said on Wednesday at Pac-12 media days. \u201CSo, for seven years we loved it. I don\u2019t know if anybody else is doing it, but then we went to Tulane and games came on TV and now every other school and high school, college and even [teams] in the NFL are running some version of it, but that\u2019s a good thing because we can learn from it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CBut the uniqueness of it has worn out.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nearly every offense now has at least a package of plays that require the quarterback to read an unblocked defensive end while deciding whether to keep the ball or allow the tailback to take it. In fact, most major-college teams base their run game off the concept, and more -- hi, Florida -- come into the fold each year. During his time at West Virginia, Rodriguez\u2019s teams stunned opponents with their hurry-up pace and their ability to force defenses to guard the width of the field while still trying to stop a power-running game. Even at Michigan, where almost everything went wrong, Rodriguez\u2019s offense averaged 5.6 yards a carry and 6.8 yards a play in the final season of his tenure. Yet even then, RichRod\u2019s offense still felt like a change-up. It forced defenses to alter their mindsets between games against offenses that still preferred two backs and the pro set.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now? It\u2019s the norm, whether it\u2019s a run-heavy scheme such as the one Rodriguez uses at Arizona or Mark Helfrich uses at Oregon or a pass-happy scheme such as the ones favored by Mike Leach at Washington State or Sonny Dykes at Cal. If anything, Stanford, with its legions of tight ends and extra offensive linemen, is currently the oddball that forces defenses out of their practice groove.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So, what is Rodriguez to do in a league that keeps getting better and understands intimately how his offense works? He has to tweak it. Fortunately for him, his personnel leaves him no choice. Gone is running back Ka\u2019Deem Carey, who was willing to shoulder the load for as many as 48 carries in a game (in last year\u2019s 42-16 win over Oregon). Gone is quarterback B.J. Denker, whose legs forced defenses to stay honest instead of loading up to smother Carey.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With less than two weeks before the start of preseason camp, Rodriguez has no idea who will start at quarterback for the Wildcats. It might be USC transfer Jesse Scroggins, Texas transfer Connor Brewer, LSU-transfer-by-way-of-juco Jerrard Randall or Rodriguez recruit Anu Solomon. \u201CEveryone's going to ask about the quarterback,\u201D Rodriguez said. \u201CI could be coy and tell you I don\u2019t know -- but I really do know. The truth is I really don't know. We\u2019ll figure that out.\u201D&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rodriguez does know he has a loaded receiving corps. Austin Hill racked up 1,364 receiving yards and averaged 16.8 yards a catch in 2012, but a torn ACL suffered during spring practice wiped out his \u201813 campaign. Hill is back and healthy. In Hill\u2019s absence last year, Trey Griffey, Nate Phillips and Samajie Grant all developed into reliable targets. Meanwhile, Notre Dame transfer DaVonte' Neal and Texas transfer Cayleb Jones are eligible to play after sitting out last fall.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThe receiving crew last year, with Austin getting hurt and playing all those freshmen, we were really nervous about that,\u201D Rodriguez said. \u2018We like to play at least seven or eight [receivers] in every game. And we thought, oh my gosh, those true freshmen with Nate Phillips, Samajie Grant, and Trey Griffey really played pretty well. Now those guys are back a year older with some other guys that sat out and we\u2019re going to be so much deeper there that we\u2019ll be able to play seven or eight easily and not worry about the quality of play.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The personnel suggests a move toward a more pass-heavy offense. Arizona ran 62.8 percent of the time last year, and with good reason: Carey was the ultimate workhorse, averaging 5.4 yards a carry despite carrying 349 times. But now Carey is gone. Jared Baker, Terris Jones-Grigsby and a bunch of freshmen will have to pick up the slack. \u201CWell, we won't have one guy that can carry the ball as much as Ka'Deem did, 30 or 35, or in the Oregon game, 48 times,\u201D Rodriguez said. \u201CWe just don't have that one guy in our program right now that can do what Ka'Deem did. But that being said, there is some talent that can do it. And there are three or four, maybe even five different guys carrying the ball as opposed to what Ka'Deem did last year.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Arizona will also have to change a mindset that tends to befall teams that haven\u2019t had much success. In 2012 and \u201813, the Wildcats followed important wins with embarrassing losses. In \u201812, they shocked USC and followed it with a 56-point loss to UCLA. In \u201813, they whipped Oregon and then got thrashed, 58-21, by Arizona State for the Territorial Cup. \u201CWe\u2019d just live off the win, and we\u2019d feel we were owed something because of that win,\u201D Hill said. \u201CWe\u2019re the underdog going into most games. We\u2019re not considered the powerhouse team. We need to realize that.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hill believes Arizona players should understand better now. \u201CI think it comes with experience,\u201D he said.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, the rest of the Pac-12 South seems to be getting better at roughly the same rate as the Wildcats. Arizona State has a lot to replace on defense, but the offense should score plenty. USC should be improved in Steve Sarkisian\u2019s first year. UCLA appears loaded. From the North, the Wildcats miss Stanford in the regular season, but they do visit Oregon on Oct. 2. Add the rise in quality to the fact that the Pac-12 is currently the only Power Five league that plays nine conference games and a championship, and the path to the playoff is a slog. \u201CHell no, I don\u2019t like it,\u201D Rodriguez cracked. \u201CI wish everybody wasn\u2019t worth a damn.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rodriguez knows that for his team to shock the league and play its way into championship range, it will have to improve faster than those other programs. \u201CThere are a bunch of good coaches and good players in our league,\u201D Rodriguez said. \u201CHow do you make that leap over someone else? You\u2019ve just got to get the right players and do a good job as a staff. I think we\u2019re there.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rodriguez has had two full recruiting cycles to stock his team with players who fit his style. Arizona\u2019s new football facility was finished last year, and it finally puts the Wildcats on par with their league rivals in that respect. Well, except for maybe one. \u201CEverybody\u2019s got new stuff,\u201D Rodriguez said. \u201COregon changes it out like Porta-Potties.&amp;nbsp;Like every four or five years they say, \u2018We need a new one.' [Here, Rodriguez makes some sort of &lt;em&gt;Star Wars&lt;/em&gt; Death Star crane sound.] And they go do it. But it\u2019s a challenge to stay up with it.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That\u2019s one of the most interesting aspects of the influx of coaching talent into the Pac-12 recently. Everyone can\u2019t win, so some pretty good coaches will have to prove their worth in the next few years. \u201CThe Pac-12 is probably better than it\u2019s ever been and it\u2019s not going backward,\u201D Rodriguez said. \u201CIt\u2019s forcing all of us as coaches to keep making sure that we\u2019re pressing the envelope to keep our program up.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rodriguez, the maverick who -- over time -- became the guy who invented the status quo, must keep evolving.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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