By Anthony Gimino
FOXSportsArizona.com
TUCSON -- Arizona junior running back Keola Antolin is the midst of the best three-game stretch of career.
He rushed for 70 yards and a touchdown against Oregon State on Oct. 9. He followed with 92 yards and two touchdowns vs. Washington State. He had 114 yards and two scores last week against Washington, including a 78-yard run in which he stutter-stepped past a safety and out-raced the Huskies to paydirt.
Antolin has been known more his power than his breakaway ability.
"I was moving pretty fast," he said of his touchdown run. "People say, 'Man, you're pretty fast.' I say, 'Yeah, I am.' "
In any case, that's a total of 43 carries for 276 yards and five touchdowns in the past three games.
In the previous four games, Antolin had 17 rushes for 56 yards.
"I put in a lot of hard work in practice," Antolin said. "You play how you practice."
He's also been healthy to be able to practice well, which was rarely the case last season, when Antolin and starting tailback Nic Grigsby took turns on the injured list.
"That was one of my goals at the beginning of the season -- to stay healthy through the season," Antolin said.
Antolin has been taking some carries away from Grigsby, but Arizona also is using more formations where they are in the backfield at the same time. Such was the case when Antolin broke off his long touchdown run last week, with the help of a key block from Grigsby.
"I just ran through that hole and was like, 'Good job, Nic,' " Antolin said.
The other part of the running equation is that coach Mike Stoops singled out the offensive line last week as a group that needed to play better. The running game has been lagging much of the season, but, with the help of more athletic quarterback Matt Scott filling in for Nick Foles, Arizona ran for a season-high 234 yards against Washington.
"He basically told us what we already knew -- that we weren't playing to our potential and playing well enough," said center Colin Baxter.
"We don't want to be just a good group; we want to be a dominant group. We want to be able to do whatever we want to do. We want to be able to run the ball, we want to be able to throw the ball."
Starting defensive tackle Justin Washington, who missed last week's game because of a sprained knee, is questionable for Saturday's game at UCLA. He has four sacks and 8.5 tackles for loss. Backup slot receiver Richard Morrison is expected to miss one or two more games because of a shoulder injury.
