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Wildcat cornerback to miss Stanford game

Matt Heistand Arizona Daily Wildcat Wildcat senior cornerback Kelvin Hunter (No. 5) lines up in front of a Middle Tennessee State receiver in last weekend's game. Hunter and the rest of the UA secondary will face a stiff test from Stanford's air attack this Saturday night at 7, at Arizona Stadium.

The Stanford Cardinal, one of the most prolific passing teams in the Pacific 10 Conference last season, will take the field against the Wildcats this weekend and test a UA secondary that has been plagued by injury and forced to reach into the depth chart.

There is cause for concern.

The Cardinal offense is averaging just over 35 points a game and UA senior free safety Rafell Jones has missed the past two games with a pulled groin. Stanford quarterback Todd Husak has passed for an average of 243 yards per game this season, and UA senior cornerback Leland Gayles will watch this Saturday's game from the sidelines while nursing a shoulder injury.

"It's coming along all right, but I'm not going to be ready for Stanford," Gayles said of his injury. "We think we'll be okay though."

But his teammates will be missing him.

"He means a lot to our team and he's a senior leader," UA senior cornerback Kelvin Hunter said about Gayles. "It might hurt us and it might not."

In Gayles' place last game, sophomore cornerback Tony Banks played a significant amount of time and demonstrated that he has the talent, if not the game experience, to play in the Wildcat secondary.

"Banks played a really good game last week," Gayles said.

Despite the injuries this season and a game this weekend against a pass intensive team, members of the secondary seem unfazed.

"If we come out and play hard, we can do anything," senior cornerback Kelvin Hunter said. "We have a lot of confidence in our secondary.

"We're like a family out on the field," he added. "We keep each other going all the time."

Whether Rafell Jones will be at 100 percent or not remains a question. UA head coach Dick Tomey said in Sunday's press conference that he hopes to have Jones back in action against Stanford.

The key to performing well against Stanford despite missing Gayles is individual accountability said Banks.

"Each of us can't try to be the whole secondary," Banks said. "As long as everybody takes care of their own jobs and as long as we don't blow assignments, we'll be fine.

"It's when we try to take over somebody else's' responsibility that we get burned."

This weekend the Wildcat secondary will feature its future and depth, play at free safety a senior that hasn't played two out of the three games this year and watch perhaps its best cornerback sit on the bench.