Arizona's first couple days of practice are in the books. The Wildcats will have their first full week of fall practice starting Monday and at that time the expectation is head coach Kevin Sumlin will return after his positive coronavirus test last week. Saturday, however, the rest of the coaching staff led by offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads and special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer led the team during is second day of work.

The Wildcats are making up for some lost time since they were only able to get on the field for four practices ahead of the college sports shutdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

That was one of the topics that came from Saturday's post-practice media session with Mazzone and veteran offensive lineman Josh McCauley.

Arizona's practices so far have not been lengthy and that has been by design. Sumlin has been cautious with his team when it comes to working to prevent injuries, so his plan has been to work quickly and efficiently in the early stages of fall practice. It has led to shorter practices, but that does not mean the Wildcats are missing out on anything.

Because of the extended amount of time the staff has had to work with the players over the last few months the team can hit the ground running leading to quicker practices and more being accomplished each day in a shorter amount of time.

Mazzone doesn't mind the quick practices.

"We've actually got to spend more time with our kids in actual meeting time, so classroom time basically, and so I kinda like it," he said after Saturday's practice. "I'm getting a little old, too, so I don't have to be out there as long. It's been fun.

"Any 18, 19-year-old kid their attention span is just so much. So, we can get out there, get our work done and the kids are really staying focused. So, it's been fun."

Arizona's spring practices lasted a week, so the coaching staff never quite had an opportunity to generate any competition. They also didn't get a great opportunity to do very much evaluating. Now that the team is back on the field the first week of practice will be used to make up for that lost time.

The coaching staff wants to have a good handle on its depth chart and rotation at all positions by the middle of the month, but for now the group is doing what it can to evaluate the players from returners to newcomers as the staff looks for its best options to put on the field once Nov. 7 arrives.

One position in particular that will feature quite a bit of competition is the wide receiver spot. Sumlin has already mentioned previously that finding the rotation of players at those positions will be one of the tasks his staff has on its hands this fall and Mazzone continues to watch that situation closely.

"I cannot question at all their want-to and their hard work right now, because they've come out and had two great days," the third-year UA offensive coordinator said. "The down side of all this was that spring ball is usually your evaluation time, so you get to make some decisions on some players. 'Hey, where do we fit him into the offense and what can we do with this guy and what's his strengths?' We didn't have that.

"So, right now for about a week or so we're kind of going through that process, and I think any good football team has competition. You've got guys that are pushing each other. It's not like, 'OK, we've got three receivers and the rest of the guys can't play.' That's not a good situation. I think we're in a great situation now because we've developed some depth. We got some guys pushing each other. ... They understand when they go out there they need to perform or they could lose their job. So, it's been a really good healthy competition."