Former Arizona RB Bouncing Back and Impressing in NFL Camp

"I love that kid," running backs coach Alonzo Carter said. "It's a true blessing to watch him persevere through all of it."

Despite not being eligible to play the rest of the year, Croskey-Merritt didn't let that stop him from training, practicing and watching film all season as his goal of reaching the NFL remained the same.

Croskey-Merritt worked hard enough to earn an invite to the East-West Shrine Bowl where he was named the Offensive MVP after rushing for 97 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries.

"He called me from the Hula Bowl saying he got the invite to the East-West Shrine and then he gets MVP of the East-West Shrine, just the tone and excitement that he gave me made me feel great," Carter said. "It was affirmation that everything that I said to him is all coming into play because we had a vision and we had plan and even though you're disappointed, you can do this. On the backside, you're going to be great if you master these few things and to hear him doing that and to see him doing it has been a joy to watch him. I'm excited for him."

Carter made it clear how much the loss of Croskey-Merritt impacted the Arizona offense the rest of last season.

"You take another starting running back like a (Cam) Skattebo and you take him off Arizona State's football team after Week 1, what do they have?" Carter said. "That was our starting tail back and that's an impactful football player. He might be starting in the NFL as a rookie, so let's not make it seem like he was just a guy. That was a very major impact. We never looked back, we weren't negative, we kept the kid encouraged and we just coached our guys hard. He was around the program."

Despite his loss on the field last year, Croskey-Merritt was still able to set the standard for the current Arizona running back room to what they can achieve on this team and under this coaching staff.

"Guys like Kedrick (Reescano) that sat right next to him, he was able to see that and that kind of plays dividends to when I'm telling them, 'See I know what I'm talking about,'" Carter said. "They now got the ears, so it is great to see him doing that."

It wasn't just the coaches, but also the players who saw how much work Croskey-Merritt put in behind the scenes last season. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, he remained with the team supporting them throughout the year while also putting in his own work.

"I know how hard he works," Noah Fifita said. "I know how bad he wanted this, so it's awesome to see him living out his dream. It shows the talent that he is. I feel like he is a generational talent. You kind of saw him in practice and in the game he did play, how good he really was so I'm so happy for him. It also shows his resiliency and the type of person that he is. When everything hit the fan and he couldn't play, he was still at every practice and rooting us on every game. He was right there through it all. I love that dude."

As Carter noted himself, Croskey-Merritt set the standard without playing in more than one game last season to the development the running backs can have under Carter and this entire coaching staff. The likely lead tandem of Reescano and transfer Ismail Mahdi under OC Seth Doege will look to hep take pressure off of Fifita and the Wildcats passing offense in what they hope to be a bounce back season for the team as a whole.