He’s Catching On Fast

One Cal State Northridge coach says the kid will be an impact receiver. The quarterback says he might well become the best the school has ever seen at his position.

Aaron Arnold, only a sophomore, already is showered by superlatives.

And why not? He is a graceful athlete with sure hands and sound football sense.

Yet Arnold takes compliments in the same stride that could carry him where no other Northridge receiver has gone.

“I’ve got a lot to learn,” he said.

That’s undoubtedly true, but his schooling is progressing smoothly.

A converted option quarterback, Arnold is one of Northridge’s two fastest receivers and main hopes for a blockbuster season, perhaps the most prolific ever for the school.

He showed some of his skills by catching six passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns in Northridge’s 63-23 victory at Boise State last week.

One of the scores came on a 59-yard pass play from Aaron Flowers after Arnold cut across the field from the left side on a slant route and streaked uncontested into the end zone.

His totals against Boise were three receptions and 33 yards short of his production last season, and equaled his touchdown total. Those modest numbers, achieved in limited playing time, should be little more than a footnote by the end of the season.

Arnold, 6 feet 1 and 170 pounds, should excel in Coach Jim Fenwick’s run-and-shoot offense that riddled Boise for 643 yards and that tries its hand tonight against Hawaii in a nonconference game at Aloha Stadium.

“He’s absorbed quite a lot and retains quite a lot,” Fenwick said. “You teach him something and he retains it and keeps getting better and better. He’s so consistent for his age.”

And, Fenwick could add, for someone who had not played the position until last year.

Arnold was an All-Mid Valley League quarterback at Monroe High in 1993 and 1995, rushing out of the team’s option attack for 721 yards and 13 touchdowns and passing for 2,092 yards and 18 touchdowns his senior year.

He played cornerback in his junior season because he contemplated transferring to another school but later changed his mind. By then, Monroe coaches had settled on Quincy Brooks as quarterback.

Arnold wishes the coaches had switched him to wide receiver instead of to defense.

“I always liked [receiver Kenyatta Burris’] role better than mine,” Arnold said. “I would throw him the ball and see him make all those moves.”

At first, it didn’t seem like Arnold would get that chance in college, either. Former Matador Coach Dave Baldwin recruited Arnold as a defensive back but later said he could try out for receiver. Baldwin didn’t have to offer twice.

Although the Matadors were well-stocked with receivers, Arnold watched and learned from starters David Romines, Cameron Perry and Jerome Henry, picking their brains all the while.

When Romines, Northridge’s career leader with 138 receptions, was injured and could not play in his final college game in November against Eastern Washington, Arnold replaced him and caught six passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns in a 49-27 victory.

“It kind of came to me naturally, like this is where I’m supposed to play,” Arnold said. “When I tell players even here that I was a quarterback, they don’t believe me.”

He’s already made believers of his teammates.

Flowers, the Matadors’ record-setting senior quarterback, expects Arnold to join him in the school’s football annals.

“Aaron Arnold proved [at Boise] that he will probably be the best receiver this school has ever had,” Flowers said.

Arnold is more focused on the present than the future.

“I see a bright year this year,” he said.

Matador Notes

Senior free safety Vito Clemente, a transfer from UCLA, suffered a strained medial collateral ligament in his right knee in the Boise game but will try to play against Hawaii. . . . The Rainbows have a real Valley-region connection: senior tailback Quincy Jacobs (Thousand Oaks High), strong safety Chris Shinnick (El Camino Real, Valley College) and kicker Chad Shrout (Antelope Valley High), plus coaches Guy Benjamin (quarterbacks), who played quarterback at Monroe; Doug Semones (defensive line), who played defensive back at Cal Lutheran and graduate assistant Troy Thomas, who played safety at Crespi High, Moorpark College and Northridge.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Northridge (1-0) at Hawaii (1-0)

When: Tonight at 10 (PDT)

Where: Aloha Stadium

Fast facts: Second meeting between the schools. Northridge lost at Hawaii, 28-3, in 1973. Quincy Jacobs, from Thousand Oaks High, is Hawaii’s starting tailback.