Safety Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles has been one of the Arizona Wildcats’ most productive players in recent weeks. That’s how it was supposed to be all along.
Flannigan-Fowles’ senior season didn’t start out that way. He struggled against BYU. He got banged up against Houston. He didn’t start against Southern Utah or Oregon State, snapping a streak of 27 straight appearances in the UA lineup.
Sometimes established veterans don’t mesh with new coaching staffs. Flannigan-Fowles appeared to be headed for a last-season letdown.
Instead, the Tucson product pulled himself out of his funk. He reclaimed his starting job and is playing the best ball of his college career as it nears its conclusion. Arizona visits No. 8 Washington State on Saturday in the penultimate game of the regular season.
“You’re talking about a mature guy,” UA coach Kevin Sumlin said. “He lost playing time because of the way he played early. Guys can go either way with that. But mature players and tough players, they’re able to look at themselves.
“We talk about this as a program. The first question shouldn’t be, ‘Why is so-and-so playing?’ The question you need to ask is, ‘Coach, why am I not playing?’ When you have those frank discussions — ‘Here’s what you need to do’ — it benefits us all.
“Mature players take that to heart, look within and then fix things. That’s what he has done. He’s a great young man. He’s a leader. I think he’s approached this thing as a mature adult. Obviously, his play has reflected that lately.”
Arizona safety Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, right, knocks the ball out of the hands of Colorado receiver K.D. Nixon to stop him on fourth and short during the teams' game at Arizona Stadium on Nov. 2.
Flannigan-Fowles posted a career-high three pass breakups in Arizona’s 44-15 victory over Oregon. He followed that up with a career-best two tackles for losses, including his first career sack, in the Wildcats’ 42-34 win over Colorado.
Every one of those plays had a significant impact. All three of Flannigan-Fowles’ pass breakups against the Ducks came on third down. The first of his two TFLs against the Buffaloes happened on fourth-and-2 from the UA 6-yard line. The sack came on second-and-goal four series later. Colorado ended up settling for a field goal.
Flannigan-Fowles has looked like a much more confident player than the one who got caught peeking into the backfield against BYU, resulting in an easy touchdown pass from Tanner Mangum to Matt Bushman.
The difference? Flannigan-Fowles is playing a more relaxed brand of football now. He was pressing early in the year, trying too hard to make his senior season a special one.
“That’s probably the biggest thing,” Flannigan-Fowles said. “I wanted to go out with a bang. So I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. That was (causing) me to play a little tense.”
The benching also played a role. Flannigan-Fowles still played against Southern Utah and Oregon State; he hasn’t missed a game in four seasons. He ended up making a critical fourth-and-goal stop against the Thunderbirds.
But getting booted from the starting lineup, even if only temporarily, was a blow to one of Arizona’s top locker-room leaders. Flannigan-Fowles is one of only 12 seniors on the roster.
“It motivated me,” Flannigan-Fowles said. “I had to pick my play up.”
Entering the home stretch of his Arizona career, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles is still motivated by the Wildcats’ 69-7 loss to Wazzu in 2016. pic.twitter.com/ECoFbd69Tu
— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) November 13, 2018
Flannigan-Fowles didn’t blame anything or anyone for his early-season issues — other than himself. Heeding Sumlin’s advice, Flannigan-Fowles “checked in-house” and found the answers he was seeking there.
“I’m not going to put my play on somebody else’s shoulders,” Flannigan-Fowles said. “I’m going to look at myself first. I’m going to check myself before I look around and (ask) why am I not playing or why I’m not playing the way I should be playing.”
Flannigan-Fowles leads Arizona with two forced fumbles and ranks second with seven pass breakups. He and his fellow defensive backs will need to be on point against Washington State, which has the No. 1 passing attack in the country.
The secondary should take its cues from its lone healthy senior. The Cougars will make plays; they do against everyone. You have to be resilient.
“Over the season, you’re going to take some bumps and bruises,” cornerback Lorenzo Burns said when asked about Flannigan-Fowles’ in-season comeback. “He’s done a great job of staying focused, staying humble, staying hungry within the team — and staying a great leader. It’s been showing lately.”
Arizona's J.J. Taylor made the preseason All-Pac-12 team at two spots - all-purpose specialist and tailback.
Leach on Taylor
Despite a prolific career at Southern California powerhouse Corona Centennial High School, tailback J.J. Taylor had only two Pac-12 offers — from Arizona and Washington State.
Taylor chose to become a Wildcat, and he’s having an all-league type of season. The redshirt sophomore leads all Power Five conference players in all-purpose yards per game.
What did WSU and Arizona see in Taylor that others might have missed?
“We felt like he was a good player, an explosive player,” Cougars coach Mike Leach said. “He was a talented guy … making a ton of plays.”
Taylor would have had more Power Five offers if he weren’t 5-foot-6. Leach was willing to overlook Taylor’s lack of size. Some of Leach’s best backs at WSU, such as Marcus Mason and Jamal Morrow, were listed at 5-9.
“I can’t say it’s never discouraged me (from pursuing a player), but I think it’s definitely overrated,” Leach said.
No limit on night games
The Washington State game will be Arizona’s ninth this season that starts at 7 p.m. or later local time. Kickoff is at 7:30 in Pullman, 8:30 in Tucson. Arizona State will play at the same time against Oregon in Eugene.
Those kickoff times are determined by the Pac-12’s TV partners. Fox had the first pick for this week and chose the USC-UCLA game for its 12:30/1:30 time slot. ESPN had the second selection and picked UA-WSU.
The fact that Arizona had played at night in eight of its first 10 games was not a factor.
“There is no limit on the number of night games an institution could play in a season,” Pac-12 spokesman Dave Hirsch said. “We do track game start times by institution and work with Pac-12 Networks to provide some start-time balance, when possible.”
Arizona and ASU will play for the Territorial Cup a week from Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on FS1.
