Arizona Football: Ka'Deem Carey puts all the drama of the offseason behind him

12 seconds.  That's all it took to put six months of drama behind him.  58 yards in 12 seconds.

After being suspended for the season opener against Northern Arizona due to team policy, and not starting against UNLV because senior running back Daniel Jenkins "earned it" against NAU, Ka'Deem Carey entered the game in the second quarter for his first action on the field since last year's New Mexico Bowl.

"Just stepping out on the field I forget that even happened.  We're just out there to play ball. Just black and out and literally I just play."

He was amped up, and apparently predicted the 58 yard TD run on his first carry.

"Sure did," said Carey.  "I looked at the linemen and said 'It's time', and they understood and we're going to go down there and get this touchdown on the first play."

"It was a good guess, lucky guess.  So yeah, it was pretty funny."

That run was the first time in a long time that Carey had seen any real football action since December 2012.

"I felt great," he continued.  "I didn't even get hit in spring ball so we might have to go the bowl game.  Kind of got nervous, that was the first time me actually getting nervous getting back on the field."

"The line did a good job of opening holes, I was hardly getting touched out there.  Came out really healthy and I feel like it's going to be a good year because of that."

Obviously, Carey being back on the field is a welcome sight for fans and players alike.  From here on out, expect to see Carey and Jenkins lined up in the backfield together.  Ka'Deem's excited to have his guy DJ back with him.

"That's my boy right there.  We call it thunder and lightning.  He's lightning, I'm thunder.  I come with the boom, he comes with the speed.  Me and him are going to be a good combination this year.  That's what we always wanted.  I love the way we have it working out."

Carey's leadership on the field will also help move this offensive unit forward.  With the amount of inexperience at the skill positions, a vocal guy like him may be exactly what this team needs as it heads towards conference play.

"I'm really vocal.  I feel like the guys love it too.  They just like 'ok'.  It boosts the line up, gets the wide receivers ready.  They just love it, me and DJ say 'Let's go pound it'.  They love to hear that word pound so they just go out there and try to be big boys."

Before the UNLV game, Rebels DE Jordan Sparkman said some things to the Las Vegas media about going out and dominating Carey.  Carey's god-dad and mom found it.

"They were just like look, look, look.  And I just laughed it off.  They're going to come after me, come after this team.  I just dust it off, forget about it and play football.  Play my game and play Arizona's ball and that's what just happens."

"They look for something like that, where they can just take off the head honcho.  They're just going to look to be doing big things against us."

Having two running backs like Carey and Jenkins available for every play is going to be huge for this offense this year given the lack of experience throughout the passing game.  Can "Thunder and Lightning" lead the Cats to big things in the PAC-12?