Ryan Finley reports that Arizona Wildcats safety Adam Hall is no longer with the team, according to coach Rich Rodriguez. Hall, a senior, hasn't been involved with team activities in about a month, Rodriguez told Finley.
Per the Arizona Daily Star:
"Maybe he's doing rehab or something like that, but I haven't seen him as part of our daily program," Rodriguez said. "It's been about a month. I've been working with the guys who have been here every day."
Now, it's a question of what Hall is doing.
The star out of Tucson's Palo Verde High School could use a redshirt year to play one more season of college football, but it appears that it's unlikely to happen in Tucson.
Hall tore his ACL in the 2011 spring game, but he returned to the field for one game against Oregon State last year, Mike Stoops' coaching finale for the Wildcats. Then, Hall recorded nine tackles and appeared to be back as the only good thing about the Wildcats' defense, but he was shut down for the rest of the year once Arizona returned to Tucson.
Hall was back at it this spring, but he tore the same ACL.
Now, it appears he might be questioning his football career.
And that's a shame. Working for the Arizona Daily Star as a freelance stringer, I got the lucky assignment of covering Palo Verde's first playoff game in Hall's senior year against Buckeye. While he was a man among boys sizewise and also playing in a weak high school division, he was impressive nonetheless.
Hall was known to get touchdowns by way of punt returns, kick returns, receiving and running the football -- sometimes all in one game.
But on defense? That's where he looked like a future Adrian Wilson. Twice in that game, Hall laid hits on Buckeye players so loud that they would've rung up to the press box at an NFL stadium. Both times, the poor kids didn't move after the tackles -- not that they were seriously injured but simply in shock considering the violence of the hits. They'd eventually return.
Hall brought that same mentality to the Wildcats.
The Parade All-American out of high school had 73 total tackles and two interceptions in 2009 and 2010, his two years of healthy play. Those years, he was speedy and physical. able to play in the box but also capable of dropping back into coverage.
Now, it's a sad case of what could have been for Hall at Arizona. ACL injuries plucked his potential away, and it's probably harder on a player who played with a mean streak that sometimes crossed the line. Like Wilson, the Pro-Bowl Cardinals safety known for amassing fines, Hall was often in the grey area of safe hits versus dangerous one.
One hit, on Oregon State's James Rodgers, wasn't called for being late appeared as such against Oregon State in 2010. If you remember, Rodgers had already caught a touchdown pass before, in the back of the end zone, Hall hit him and tore Rodgers' ACL.
Coincidentally, Hall's last game as a Wildcat came a year later while recovering from his own ACL tear. And coincidentally and painfully, Hall's second ACL tear hit him a year after the first one.