FORT HUACHUCA - After 18 hours of football practice, much of it with the temperature near 100 and some of it peppered with game-day-type violence, the UA's ranks inevitably began to thin.
Sometimes you wonder if Mike Stoops will have enough healthy players to send to Toledo on Sept. 3.
At one time Friday morning, seven Arizona Wildcats were receiving medical treatment under a sun-blocking canvas. Others, like fullback Taimi Tutogi, safety Marquis Flowers and guard Vaughn Dotsy were injured before Stoops moved his training camp to the base of the Huachuca Mountains.
And yet through nine days and 18 hours, much of it in the middle of significant mayhem, Colin Baxter didn't miss a snap.
"I don't know if I'll ever get another Colin Baxter," said UA co-offensive coordinator Bill Bedenbaugh. "Guys like him - so tough, so smart, a leader who has earned the respect of his teammates - don't come around a lot. Did you know that he hasn't missed a practice in four years? I don't think I've ever seen that before."
People are also reading…
Colin Baxter has started 37 consecutive games for Arizona, the last 22 of them at center. The Wildcats have snapped 2,681 plays in that span and although no one has kept the exact figures, it's likely Baxter has played in 2,600 of them.
Old Reliable.
You cannot miss Colin Baxter, No. 64, if you stand on the sideline at a UA football practice. Sometimes you hear him before you can see him. He's 6 feet 4 inches and 295 pounds, and he is afraid of no one. He's got a mean streak, which is a good thing in football.
Baxter is probably the best football player on campus and one of the three or four leading centers in Arizona history.
Who's better? There's Tom Greenfield, Class of '39, Joe Tofflemire, Class of '89, and maybe Paul Hatcher, Class of '57. Then there's Colin Baxter. By December, he could become a consensus All-American.
The Ironman will not engage in such chatter. He does not bite when asked if the offensive line, a fraternity unto itself, is "his team."
"They're not my guys, they're 'our guys,'" he says. "We share the leadership. That's the only way it works."
He denies that his fifth UA training camp and the requisite day-to-day labor is monotonous or even altogether unnecessary.
"I've got to work harder now than I ever have," he says. "I've got to improve on everything every day. I've got as much room for improvement as everyone else."
The UA's offensive line, like those in most college football precincts, is always a work in progress. It's always a fluid situation with seven or eight players attempting to remain healthy and effective. When you've got two Big Game players such as Baxter and senior left tackle Adam Grant, you've got a chance to win on most Saturdays.
"Colin's attitude is that 'you never arrive, you can always improve,'" says Bedenbaugh. "Our young linemen see that, and it motivates them. If he's working that hard, a guy who has started 37 straight games, they understand it's the only way to get it done right."
Baxter is pictured front and center in the UA's new marketing campaign "Game On." He is one of nine Wildcats in the photo montage and probably the only center in college football so featured. How unpredictable is that? Baxter arrived at Arizona in the summer of 2006 as anything but a featured recruit.
He was overlooked by USC coach Pete Carroll even though he played on the same high school football team as Carroll's son, Nate, at Peninsula High School. In a bit of irony, Carroll chose to recruit Salpointe Catholic's Kris O'Dowd. Now Baxter and O'Dowd are possibly the top two centers in college football.
After being selected his section's prep Player of the Year, Baxter posed for a photograph in the front seat of his car, a treasured 1964 Ford Galaxie. Nate Carroll told reporters that Baxter's car "gives him personality; it's loud, and you can see it coming."
It is a fitting image for Baxter and this UA football team. It isn't going to be sleek and glamorous, but it'll get you where you need to go.
Contact Greg Hansen at 573-4362 or ghansen@azstarnet.com
