“Shh, don’t tell anybody.”
That was the first thing running backs coach Scottie Graham had to say after watching true freshman Adam Mohammed play in high school.
The 6-foot, 205-pound running back has been one of the biggest standouts among the early enrollees from coach Jedd Fisch’s 2024 class thanks to his impressive physical stature, speed, and ability as a pass catcher.
“Baby,” Graham said after Wednesday’s practice. “205 [pounds]. When he gets to 220, it’s going to be lunch money. You know what that means? Remember back in high school? ‘Give me your lunch money.’ ‘No!’ ‘Yes, give me your lunch money.’”
The coaching staff has high hopes for the 17-year-old from Apollo High School in Glendale, Arizona, who only needed one game to sell Graham on his abilities.
“I went to a game where he threw for 200 yards, ran for 100 yards, picked off a pass for 60 yards, and I was like, ‘I want him,'” Graham said. “He’s not going to be a liability, he works so hard and he’s so passionate about what he does.”
Adam Mohammed is not built like a true freshman.
Very physical runner out of the backfield and he got on the field for a significant amount of time in today’s scrimmage.
Jedd Fisch also said the RB has stood out over the first half of this spring. pic.twitter.com/STqt4pTG8C
— Nick Lemkau (@nicklemkaucfb) April 20, 2024
Coming out of high school, Mohammed held only 8 offers when he signed with Arizona, before opting out of his national letter of intent to follow Fisch’s coaching staff to Seattle. Graham said that offers from California and Boston College came in before his and that he held out as long as he could before offering the nation’s No. 132 ranked running back a scholarship.
“I was trying to hide out as much as I could and wait as long as I could to offer him,” he said. “People read into that and the minute you offer somebody other teams are going to swoop in and say ‘Ok, I’m gonna offer him now.’ But I always had a great relationship with him and he knew that, so I offered him late.”
Fisch has no reservations about playing freshmen and it appears Mohammed, who has taken some snaps with the first team during spring practice, could be next in line to assume a significant role during his first year on campus.
“It takes a lot to play in our system, you’ve got to catch, you’ve got to block, you’ve got to do a lot of different stuff, you can’t just drop step,” Graham said. “There are so many different steps it takes to play in our offense, you’ve got to play receiver sometimes. Adam can catch the ball like a receiver, he’s lengthy, it’s incredible.”
Behind Jonah Coleman and Cameron Davis, Graham is looking for someone to step up as the third option at the position and Mohammed has done everything in his power to claim that spot so far during spring camp.