Arizona Wildcats Face Three Huge Keys to Success vs. West Virginia
It's a matchup of a pair of wounded teams as the Arizona Wildcats prepare to host the West Virginia Mountaineers in the continuation of Big 12 Conference play for both teams on Saturday at Arizona Stadium.
Arizona (3-4, 1-3 in Big 12) has now lost three straight games in a part of their schedule where many outsiders felt there was an opportunity for at least two victories.
Some of that is due to the weighty injury situation on this team. But the offense has had significant execution problems and the defense hasn’t been able to sustain its level of execution from earlier this season.
West Virginia's coach, Neal Brown, is squarely on the hot seat in Morgantown. Nothing has gone right lately for the Mountaineers (3-4, 2-2) and they’re coming off an awful loss at home to Kansas State. The locals seem ready to move on from the sixth-year coach, but there are five games left to be played and the Mountaineers can still reach a bowl game.
Here are three keys to success for the Wildcats as they face the Mountaineers.
Get Back to the Run
It’s time to accept the fact that quarterback Noah Fifita is struggling. He now has more interceptions (10) than touchdown passes (nine). His completion percentage has dropped below 60%. He's among the FBS leaders in fumbles among quarterbacks. He’s taken 13 sacks. He needs help and the Wildcats need to turn to their run game against the Mountaineers.
Quali Conley has rushed for 500 yards and six touchdowns, but you could argue he’s been under-utilized. He only has 93 carries is averaging less than 100 yards per game. Arizona can pair him with Kedrick Reescano more regularly and they can be a quality 1-2 punch. As the Wildcats try to fix Fifita, they can feed Conley and Reescano and take some of the pressure off of their young quarterback.
Stop the Run
West Virginia's offense is unique in that it really likes to run the football with three particular players. Quarterback Garrett Greene is actually the Mountaineers’ leading rusher with 471 yards. But he's joined by running backs Jaheim White, who has 416 yards rushing, and CJ Donaldson Jr., who has 412 yards rushing. Greene has three touchdown runs while White and Donaldson each have five.
It's an incredibly balanced approach to running the football and because Greene runs the Mountaineers’ run pass option game so well, diagnosing who has the ball and doing it quickly will be important for the Wildcats. That’s why all of Arizona’s defensive injuries are so problematic. It will be even harder now that linebacker Jacob Manu is out for the season. But Arizona must find a way to limit the Mountaineers’ effectiveness on the ground.
Just Score
That sounds like a commercial slogan, right? But it’s the truth when it comes to this Arizona offense. When the Wildcats dropped 61 points on New Mexico opening weekend, everyone had visions of a high-flying Wildcats offense. Well since then the Wildcats have scored 87 points in six games for an average of 14.5 points per contest.
Worse yet, starting with the Utah game, where the Wildcats scored 23 points, that average has dropped each week. Whatever adjustments the Wildcats make offensively it needs to lead to touchdowns.
