Arizona football: Terris Jones-Grigsby makes most out of first career start

With the Arizona Wildcats looking to fill the void left by Ka'Deem Carey leaving for the NFL Draft after his junior season, there were a lot of names on the list of guys that were looking to be that replacement.

In Game One, Terris Jones-Grigsby made the most out of his opportunity to be the next guy in line. He picked up 124 yards on 13 carries.

Jones-Grigsby is a fifth-year senior, but had never taken a handoff in his Arizona career before starting Friday night's game vs. UNLV.

"I'm a veteran year-wise," the running back said. "But that was pretty much my rookie start and it was really a blessing."

"I couldn't even get sleep last night thinking about it."

With the new threat of a deep passing game with Anu Solomon at quarterback, and so many receivers (ten different Wildcats caught at least one pass), there are new opportunities to take advantage of the defense with the running game.

"Once you have a strong throwing game, that opens up the run," Jones-Grigsby continued. "I wouldn't have done anything without them."

The last time he had carried a ball in a game was "December of 2010, my senior year in high school." I think it was actually 2009.

"It was really just a long time. My legs are still shaking. I had a couple runs that I could have busted, but my legs felt like a thousand pounds. But I just want to thank the linemen for the holes."

Just over six minutes into the second half, the senior finally got to experience the thrill of scoring a touchdown in a college game.

Terris wasn't the only running back to find success on the night though. Nick Wilson put up 104 yards thanks to an 85-yard TD run late in the third quarter. Jared Baker also looked decent when he got carries late in the game, and Adonis Smith was used a few times early as a replacement for Jones-Grigsby.

"Going back to Ka'Deem, he was kind of a one man band," explained Jones-Grigsby. "We knew going into the season it was going to be a committee-type thing, so I thought that was actually pretty good, bringing in guys with fresh legs."

The passing game gave fans a ton of reasons to be excited for the rest of the season, but don't forget about that rushing game. They did get 353 yards on the ground