Game week is finally here.
The Arizona Wildcats are set to face BYU on Saturday in the Good Sam Vegas Kickoff Classic at Allegiant Stadium.
So much about this UA team is new, from the weight room to the head coach to the front office to roughly a third of the roster.
So, naturally, we picked five returning players as potential breakout candidates in 2021.
You might consider that prognostication to be a bit conservative, maybe even a little chalky. But as impressive as many of the newcomers looked in spring practice and training camp, it’s difficult to project how they’ll fare in a new situation.
The five players listed below all have an excellent opportunity to surpass their prior production at Arizona. They are listed in alphabetical order.
WR Tayvian Cunningham
Vitals: 5-10, 183, fifth-year senior
Key 2020 stats: 9 catches, 139 yards, 1 TD, 15.4 avg., 19.3 KOR avg.
The case: Cunningham might have been the most improved Wildcat during training camp. He put on about nine pounds of muscle over the summer and expanded his game, running sharper routes and making more plays in the intermediate areas of the field.
Cunningham has split time between the football and track teams. He clocked a personal-best time of 10.61 seconds in the 100 meters earlier this year. A player that fast should have career averages greater than 11.9 yards per reception and 19.4 yards per kickoff return.
Cunningham’s 15.4-yard per-catch average last season included a 75-yard touchdown reception in the opener vs. USC. He averaged only 8.0 yards on his other eight grabs.
How could an athlete as explosive as Cunningham get so little bang for his buck? Arizona’s porous pass protection undoubtedly played a role. If the scheme created opportunities for him, they weren’t realized aside from that deep ball against the Trojans. Cunningham also wasn’t as polished a player as he is now.
We don’t expect Cunningham to lead Arizona in receptions; that should be a two-man battle between Stanley Berryhill III and BJ Casteel. But there’s a good chance Cunningham will rank among the offense’s leaders in big plays thanks to his own improvement and Jedd Fisch recognizing how potent a weapon Cunningham can be.
DE Jalen Harris
Vitals: 6-5, 254, fifth-year junior
Key 2020 stats: 18 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 3 passes defensed
The case: This isn’t the first time we’ve projected Harris to break out. He wouldn’t be here again if it already had happened. But the stars just might be aligned this year.
New defensive coordinator Don Brown is a big believer in finding what players do best and keeping them in that lane. Harris can rush the passer effectively if given the opportunity to do so. By playing him at a traditional end position, Brown is setting up Harris for success.
Harris mostly played outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme last season. According to Pro Football Focus, Harris was on the field for 85 passing snaps in four games. He rushed on 48 of those — roughly 56.5%. He dropped on 37. Harris did not record a sack.
Defensive end Jalen Harris seems to be on track for his best season at UA after his consistent performances this spring and fall.
The previous season, Harris was on the field for 303 pass-play snaps. He rushed on 278 of those — 91.7%. He had four sacks.
A better way to look at pass-rush effectiveness is quarterback pressures. PFF credited Harris with six on his 48 rushes last year, meaning he applied pressure 12.5% of the time. The previous year he had 25 pressures, for a 9.0% rate. So, sacks aside, one could argue Harris actually improved as a pass rusher last season.
He has been Arizona’s most consistent front-seven playmaker since spring. We expect that to continue.
PK Lucas Havrisik
Vitals: 6-2, 188, fifth-year senior
Key 2020 stats: 6 of 7 FG, 51 long, 81.0% touchback rate (17 of 21)
The case: Like Harris, Havrisik is poised to put it all together in his fifth season.
Blessed with NFL-caliber leg strength and then some, Havrisik has been a weapon on kickoffs since Day 1. In his UA debut, on Sept. 2, 2017, he kicked off 10 times. Nine were touchbacks.
Last year, albeit in a truncated season, he showed signs that the consistency that has eluded him on placements might be within reach. Havrisik missed his first field goal attempt of the season, then made six straight. It’s the longest streak of his career. He entered 2020 with a 59.4% success rate.
Kicker Lucas Havrisik was the only Wildcat to earn preseason All-Pac-12 recognition from the media, landing on the second team thanks to his big leg.
Havrisik was the only Wildcat to earn preseason All-Pac-12 recognition from the media, landing on the second team. If he builds on last year, there’s no reason he can’t garner postseason all-conference accolades — especially if the voters take kickoffs into consideration (which they should).
Havrisik has a career touchback rate of 75.2%. That’s elite.
But that alone won’t make him an all-league honoree. Nor will a handful of 50-plus-yard field goals, which are practically a given. Havrisik has made at least one in each of his four seasons and is 5 of 9 from distance for his career.
Havrisik has to hit a high percentage from everywhere. He’s always been capable of it.
CB Christian Roland-Wallace
Vitals: 6-0, 194, third-year sophomore
Key 2020 stats: 26 tackles, 3 passes defensed
The case: Roland-Wallace intercepted a pass in the second game of his career. He hasn’t had a pick since. But if this offseason is any indicator, they’re coming.
It seemed as if Roland-Wallace made at least one play on the ball in every practice that was open to the media. His hands are plenty good enough. As a junior in high school, he caught 42 passes for 611 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Roland-Wallace should have more opportunities to make game-changing plays if Brown’s system works the way it’s intended to. The high-pressure scheme puts cornerbacks on the proverbial island. It also speeds up the clock for opposing quarterbacks. That should lead to more errant passes.
Arizona barely had a pass rush the past two years, ranking last in the Pac-12 in sacks each season.
Christian Roland-Wallace should be a force in the defensive secondary this season, provided the Wildcats can help him out with a better pass rush.
Asked what he liked the most about Roland-Wallace, Brown said: “Everything.” He lauded Roland-Wallace’s length, presence, physicality and work ethic and compared him to former UConn standouts Byron Jones and Blidi Wreh-Wilson.
Brown knows what a professional defensive player looks like. He has coached 29 NFL draft picks over the past decade.
Arizona’s new cornerbacks coach, DeWayne Walker, knows too. He has spent about half his career coaching DBs in the league.
Roland-Wallace looked the part from the moment he arrived on campus. He now has the infrastructure around him to thrive.
RB Michael Wiley
Vitals: 5-11, 207
Key 2020 stats: 31 carries, 222 yards, 3 TD, 7.2 avg.; 8 catches, 33 yards, 4.1 avg.
The case: Fun fact about Wiley ... He had the same number of carries in his second season at Arizona as his first — yet rushed for more than twice as many yards.
Wiley upped his yardage from 106 to 222, his per-carry average from 3.4 to 7.2 and his touchdown total from zero to three. In a season in which little went right for the Wildcats, Wiley got better.
Now he’s poised for an even bigger role with an even bigger, stronger body. Wiley has added 21 pounds since his freshman year. He ran with noticeable body lean during training camp and intends to finish runs with greater authority when the real games start.
Running back Michael Wiley, center, scored three TDs and averaged 7.2 yards per rush in 2020, and seems poised to play a big role in the UA offense in 2021.
Although running back is Arizona’s deepest position, Wiley has positioned himself to be the lead dog. He has the best combination of speed, power and experience in the group.
It’s unclear how the UA will rotate its backs under Fisch. As many as three are expected to play regularly, so it’s unreasonable to project Wiley to get 25-30 touches a game.
But he easily could average 15-20 touches. If he were to match his average gain from scrimmage the past two seasons of 6.0 yards — a figure he easily could exceed — he’ll be in the neighborhood of 100 total yards every week. That’s the stuff breakouts are made of.
