Faron Wiley did not call his youngest son, Michael, a sophomore running back at Arizona, after his last game. The elder Wiley helped raise two other boys who would become Division I athletes. He learned that sometimes it’s best to let it breathe.
“What I found is, after a tough loss or tough game, it’s better to give them some distance,” Faron Wiley said by phone Tuesday. “It’s something I would not have done with the first two.”
Last week’s loss to Colorado was the latest tough game for the Wildcats, who have dropped a school-record 11 straight dating to last season. It was a breakout game for Michael Wiley, who rushed for a career-high 123 yards on a mere seven carries.
The sophomore didn’t see it that way. When he went to bed after the game, he was thinking more about the plays he didn’t make than the ones he did.
Arizona Wildcats running back Michael Wiley (6) stiff arms Colorado Buffaloes safety Derrion Rakestraw (3) as he gallops into the backfield in the third quarter of their Pac12 football game at Arizona Stadium,Tucson, Ariz., December 5, 2020.
“There were some things I did good. But this is not a time for me to feel satisfied,” said Wiley, who’s about to play in his second Territorial Cup matchup against Arizona State on Friday. “There’s a lot of things that I can do better. As a team, we can do a lot better. So I’m not really taking this as a win for me.”
Wiley dropped a pass in the second quarter. Had he caught it and stayed on his feet, it would have been a touchdown. At worst, it would have put Arizona in range to kick a field goal.
“I just didn’t catch it,” Wiley said. “I don’t want to make excuses for myself. Next time I gotta catch it.”
In the third quarter, Wiley broke free for a 33-yard run — one of three covering 29-plus yards. As he burst into the secondary, Wiley shifted the ball from his right hand to his left to keep it away from CU safety Derrion Rakestraw. Wiley also threw a stiff-arm at Rakestraw, who got just enough of the tailback to trip him up. Wiley landed at the 5-yard line.
“I know how big a deal that is,” said Faron Wiley, who was watching the game from his home in the Houston area. “I was sitting there talking to my wife: ‘You gotta house it, dude.’ You get stopped so close like that, there are so many things that can go wrong.”
Sure enough, freshman quarterback Will Plummer threw an interception two plays later. The Wildcats again came away with zero points in a game they would lose 24-13.
“I knew he was disappointed in the game,” Faron Wiley said of Michael. “Anything I would say would just be piling on.”
Faron described Michael as “very self-aware.” He doesn’t need to be told what he’s done wrong.
“He and I talk about it all the time,” said Faron Wiley, a senior vice president at the real estate firm CBRE. ‘You’ve gotta be self-aware; otherwise, you won’t get better. That’s the reason why I don’t need to call him up after the game and point out all the things he could have done better. He knows without me grinding on him.”
Unlike older brothers Jonathan and Jacob – who would play basketball at Southern Illinois and Illinois-Chicago, respectively – Michael’s parents enrolled him at a prep school. They knew Strake Jesuit would be tough. They knew Michael would be up to the challenge.
“They throw a bunch of work at you,” Faron Wiley said. “It prepares you in that regard. Being around a bunch of other kids like that, it helps keep you conscientious and level-headed. Otherwise, you’re going to struggle.”
Michael Wiley plans to keep working in 2021. He added about 15 pounds of muscle this past offseason. If he can improve his acceleration and balance, he might be able to turn those near-misses into touchdowns.
“If I keep doing those things,” Wiley said, “I’ll just get better.”
Filling the gaps
The most critical matchup on the other side of the ball in the Territorial Cup pits ASU’s rushing attack vs. Arizona’s run defense.
The Sun Devils rank third in the Pac-12 with 211.5 rushing yards per game. The Wildcats are allowing a league-high 273.5 per game, including 407 last week.
The Buffaloes did most of their damage on big plays. Four runs accounted for 260 yards.
“We’ve preached all year about being in your gap and doing your job,” UA defensive tackle Aaron Blackwell said. “Kudos to Colorado. They had some great coaching maneuvers, where they kind of saw some things that we weren’t prepared for and exploited that pretty hard.”
Linebacker Rourke Freeburg said a lack of discipline led to those chunk plays.
“You go back and look at the film, we’re having guys fit wrong gaps, and I’m guilty of it myself,” Freeburg said. “Understanding assignment and eye discipline will help go a long way in stopping big plays like that.”
The Sun Devils’ leading rusher is Chip Trayanum, a 5-11, 230-pound freshman who’s averaging 7.1 yards per carry. The Wildcats have faced backs of all sizes. They had their best success against USC, which features 235-pound Markese Stepp, 220-pound Malepeai Vavae and 215-pound Stephen Carr.
“They had a couple of backs that were 220-plus, and I don’t think anybody shied away from either one of those backs,” Freeburg said. “If we get hats to the ball and be physical, we’ll be just fine.”
The Trojans rushed for 173 yards. Since then, Arizona has allowed 233, 281 and 407.
Extra points
- Plummer could make his second straight start if Grant Gunnell (shoulder) is unable to return after missing most of the past two games. “He’s been pretty calm,” Wiley said of the freshman. “He’s just young right now. Versus UCLA, he was just kind of thrown out there. Very unfortunate that Grant went down on the first play. Comfortability-wise, he (Plummer) handled himself pretty good. He’s gonna progress a lot better now.”
- Like Arizona, ASU has had trouble in pass protection. The Sun Devils allowed five sacks against UCLA last week. “Any time the quarterback gets hit, it’s too many,” ASU offensive coordinator Zak Hill told reporters. “It doesn’t matter if it’s one or whatever we were. But you’re always looking to improve the communication.”
- ASU sophomore quarterback Jayden Daniels is adjusting to a new system amid an erratic schedule. He has completed only 55.2% of his passes so far, down from 60.7 last season. “It’s a tough year, because you don’t really get any of that flow,” Hill said. “You don’t really get any of that momentum. You can’t really get into a groove playing one game and then playing a month later and not having practices in between. So it’s hard.”
