Arizona football: Wildcats RB Ka'Deem Carey leads nation in rushing yards per game

Even after missing the season-opener against NAU due to suspension, Arizona Wildcats RB Ka'Deem Carey is still 11th in the nation in rushing with his 805 yards through 5 games.  That average of 161 yards per game puts him at the top of the leaderboard among all running backs though.

*numbers in () are national rank

As you can see, Ka'Deem has a pretty sizable lead over the second place guy, Western Kentucky's Antonio Andrews.  Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon, Toledo's David Fluellen and Andre Williams from Boston College round out the top five.  Washington's Bishop Sankey is the only other Pac-12 running back in the top ten nationally.

Carey's also catching a decent amount of balls out of the backfield, which has helped him rank fourth in the nation to this point in all-purpose yards per game.  It should be noted that out of players that don't consistently return kicks, Ka'Deem ranks first nationally.

Next, here's a look at how consistent Carey has been from game-to-game since he went for 366 yards against Colorado last year.

One stat I found surprising when I was going through this was how high B.J. Denker ranks in points responsible for per game.  Denker's 8 rushing TDs help this stat a lot for him, but I think it shows just how versatile of a weapon he has been at quarterback for Arizona this year.

Other team stats

Arizona ranks in the top ten nationally in the following categories:

• Kickoff return defense (4th, 16.55 yards per return)
• Passes intercepted (T-2nd with Oregon, 2) - New Mexico has only had one pass picked off this year
• Tackles for loss allowed (2nd, 3.5 per game) - Stanford is No. 1 at 3 per game
• Turnovers lost (4th - 6 total turnovers)

Total team rankings:

• Total offense: 54th (431.2 YPG)
• Total defense: 41st (369.2 YPG)
• Scoring offense: 37th (35.0 PPG)
• Scoring defense: 21st (19.8 PPG)

Not too shabby for a so-called "rebuilding year"