Scott a cheap dinner date for Canidate

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior right guard Yusuf Scott (72) blocks Mark Hedeen (36) of Washington State while quarterback Keith Smith (12) throws a pass during Arizona's 41-7 victory Nov. 7. Scott and the rest of the offensive line have been integral in the 434.6 yards per game the offense has averaged this season.

If Scott opened up the holes Canidate needed to get big yardage, Canidate would buy him dinner once a week.

This past week Scott and the offensive line helped Canidate run for 174 yards.

"Yeah, he does owe me a dinner," Scott said on Tuesday. "We do it for every game. Anybody seen him around here yet?"

For the 5-11, 199-pound running back, buying the 6-3, 337-pound Scott enough to eat isn't exactly cheap.

"Last week we went to this place with 10 cent (chicken) wings," Scott said. "He ate 25 of them. That was weak. So I ate 40, and boy, were they good."

Scott said that when Canidate receives his athletic check, "he should keep about two or three dollars on the side for me."

Scott's team-leading 86 pancake blocks have helped Canidate break out for 354 yards in his last two games with three long touchdown runs. Canidate is now a Doak Walker Award nominee for the best running back in college football.

He leads the Pacific 10 Conference with an average of 94.2 yards per game rushing, and is second in the conference with 848 net yards gained.

But even though Scott can wolf down quite a bit when Canidate takes him out, he said he is not breaking the running back's bank account.

"I'm a good date. I'm cheap," Scott said. "But I am a hungry man."

Next up on the menu for Scott is California's defensive line, considered one of the best in the conference.

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Sophomore defensive end Mike Robertson is likely to sit out the California game, his second straight, with a shoulder injury.

Head coach Dick Tomey called it "a nerve problem, a bruise that's got to regenerate."

Until the swelling goes down, Robertson will have to stay on the sidelines with his arm in a sling. Still, the injury was not as bad as first feared, when it was thought to be a rotator cuff tear that would have required surgery.

"It's killing him to be on the sidelines," Tomey said of Robertson.

Last week sophomore defensive end Idris Haroon stepped up in Robertson's place, recording a game-high 2.5 sacks against Washington State and helping Arizona limit the Cougars to only a single touchdown.

Tomey said he currently doesn't expect Robertson back until around the time Arizona will be playing in a bowl game. Which bowl game that is will be determined over the next three weeks.

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Two years ago, Arizona and California were the first two teams to show just how potentially wild the NCAA's new overtime rules could be, playing four overtimes before Cal hung on for a 56-55 win.

That game helped create what Tomey calls "the Cal rule," which dictates that teams now have to try for two-point conversions after every touchdown scored from the third overtime onward.

Tomey was part of the rules committee that helped establish the Cal rule, something he said was only good for college football.

"The strongest feeling I had was that coaches would keep playing and not take a chance to win," he said. "We said let's legislate that someone wins it. At Cal we only had two defensive linemen left by the fourth overtime. College football players can't take playing for that long."

Tomey said that now many coaches, provided they have the ball second, are going for two points at the end of the second overtime, rather than risk going to a third.

"I think it's much better than the pros," Tomey said. "We can guarantee some excitement, and it's what television wants, anyway."

Chris Jackson can be reached via e-mail at Chris.Jackson@wildcat.arizona.edu.