Arizona Running Back Took Something 'Personal' Ahead of Second Half Breakout
It was a long stretch of losing for the Arizona Wildcats prior to them finally winning last Friday night.
For a team who came into this season with high expectations following their 10-win campaign a year ago, going winless in the month of October after upsetting then-ranked Utah on the road was not something anyone had in mind.
One of the reasons for their prolonged struggles has been because of injuries on defense and across the offensive line.
While that still was present ahead of their matchup against Houston, the coaching staff was able to do enough to move the ball and score points on offense, while also deploying a defensive game plan that completely shut down the Cougars.
It wasn't pretty by any means for Arizona since they still had four three-and-outs in the first half and an interception in Houston territory during the fourth quarter, but they were able to do enough to get them back into the win column.
A main catalyst of that was their running game.
The Wildcats ended up rushing for 113 yards, with 107 of those coming from Quali Conley.
This was something that had been missing from Arizona's offense, as Justin Spears of The Arizona Daily Star notes they only had 89 net rushing yards in the previous 10 quarters prior to the second half of Friday's contest.
Knowing that, the senior running back took things personally before his explosion to close out last week's game.
"We went into halftime talking about, 'We need to run the ball and keep the defense off the field.' We took that personal and started running the ball more and were more physical," Conley said per Spears.
A balanced attack is something that head coach Brent Brennan has been preaching since he arrived in Tucson, but during certain game states when they are trailing by multiple scores, they have been relegated to throwing the football more often than they would otherwise have liked.
Combining obvious passing situations with a beat up offensive line, it's easy to see why this unit has struggled as much as it has this year.
That's why having an effective running attack from kick off is so important for this team, and despite the sixth starting combination in the trenches, the Wildcats were able to find enough success on the ground to win this game.
They'll need to do that in their final two contests of the year if they're going to qualify for a bowl game and upset their archrival Arizona State Sun Devils.
