If EA Sports College Football 25 has anything to say about the Arizona Wildcats’ at running back, San Jose State transfer Quali Conley is RB1.
However, EA Sports hasn’t added running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt to the video game; that’s been “really frustrating” for the New Mexico Transfer
“I’ve been waiting to play with myself for the longest (time), play with Arizona,” Croskey-Merritt said. “I reached out to EA Sports, trying to get in the game and they reached back. Whenever the update is, that’s when I’ll be in the game. I can’t wait.”
While Croskey-Merritt waits to become a video game character and impact Arizona’s offense virtually, he hopes to star in the actual UA offense that bolstered its running backs room in the offseason after losing it’s top three ball carriers: Michael Wiley and DJ Williams both were out of eligibility and signed with NFL teams as undrafted free agents, while Jonah Coleman hit the transfer portal.
“I’m settling in great,” said Croskey-Merritt, who joined the program in the summer. “Everything has been good and it’s been a family atmosphere and the guys are welcoming me. It feels great to be here.”
Croskey-Merritt
The Montgomery, Alabama, native played four seasons at Alabama State before before rushing for 1,190 yards and 17 touchdowns in his one season at New Mexico in 2023.
“He’s a physical runner and is a dominant running back,” said former New Mexico head coach Danny Gonzales, who is now Arizona’s linebackers coach and special teams coordinator. “His personality is infectious.
“He fit in with the team the day he got here. It was quite the recruiting battle, like in anything,” Gonzales added. “I think Jacory is where he’s supposed to be and the Big 12 is going to find out all about that.”
‘Explosive twitch’
Arizona running backs coach Alonzo Carter, a fellow Alabama native, said the 5-11, 208-pound Croskey-Merritt has “explosive twitch to him that you like to see and break tackles.”
“I knew he could bring something different to the table,” Carter said. “He has a lot of patience and great vision. ... With Jacory, if you’ve been at practice, you can see he’s special. It’s just a matter of what we do. They key is teaching him patience and detailing things, and he appreciates that.
“He likes the tough coaching, he wants answers. He’s a young man that will come in and ask, ‘Coach, how did that look?’ Not to get the pat on the back or validation, but he wants to know what he needs to work on. When you have a person that’s like that, those are the type of kids you like coaching.”
Getting Croskey-Merritt to Tucson wasn’t a perfectly smooth acquisition. Even though Croskey-Merritt committed to play at Arizona in the spring, he finished his final semester at New Mexico with plans to join the UA in the summer.
“Not being able to enroll early, it left him out there for people to poke at him and sway him either way,” Carter said of Croskey-Merritt, who flipped his commitment to Ole Miss before he did an about-face. “We still recruited him and told him our arms are wide open. ‘We want you here.’ I think our relationship grew from that. ... We just showed him love. It wasn’t transactional, it was all about the love, and he felt that. ... We’re glad he’s here. We don’t even talk about the decision, because I want him to focus on, ‘Now that you’re here, let’s move forward.’”
Arizona running back Quali Conley participates in hitting drills during spring football practice on April 11. Conley averaged 4.31 yards after contact per rushing attempt in 2023 at San Jose State.
Arizona, in its first year under head coach Brent Brennan, “just felt like it was a great fit,” Croskey-Merritt said.
“This is where I needed to be ... It was a great opportunity for me to help the team out and just keep up the great things that they did last year,” Croskey-Merritt said. “We just want to build something special here and do it again.”
Conley
‘Very deep room” at RB
The addition of Croskey-Merritt brings Arizona’s “very deep room” to five scholarship running backs, along with Conley, Ole Miss transfer Kedrick Reescano, junior Rayshon “Speedy” Luke and redshirt freshman Brandon Johnson. Reescano is a 6-foot, 214-pounder, who was a highly touted prospect from the Houston area in 2023. Reescano is “different,” Carter said.
“He brings some athleticism and physicality to the room that we didn’t have in the spring,” he added. “What Ked brings to the table will be a big addition to the room, and we welcome that. ... Going into the Big 12, I knew we had to upgrade the athleticism and get some more size.”
Luke
Added Carter: “It’s probably one of the more athletic rooms. ... They’re very competitive and it’s like a brotherhood. I think we can be, top to bottom, one of the better running back rooms in the Big 12 — maybe even the country. That’s a challenge I’m always going to give them.”
Since Croskey-Merritt and Reescano are new compared to the other running backs, they sit in the front rows of position meetings, “ask a lot of questions and spend time in the building,” Carter observed.
“Trying to make sure they’re matching what Quali and Speedy bring to the room, because they were here in the spring,” Carter said. “So they want to make sure when we rotate, it doesn’t fall off and it brings out the best in the young guys.
“When you have five guys that can do the things they’re doing, it’s fun to coach, but it’s also an iron-sharpens-iron type of mentality and they compete every day. It’s been a pleasure coaching them so far.”
Once a position of concern, Arizona’s running backs make a case for the deepest position on the team between Conley, Croskey-Merritt, Reescano, Luke and Johnson, who will have a fair shot to crack the four-man rotation the Wildcats are expected to use this season.
Utah linebacker Levani Damuni (3) manages to catch Arizona running back Rayshon Luke (21) after he hauled in a pass in second quarter of their Pac-12 matchup at Arizona Stadium on Nov. 18, 2023.
‘Doing our job’
“I pride myself in being a person that’s fair,” Carter said. “It’s a good problem to have, to play to the strengths of the personnel, and that’s what we will do. I’ll make sure I’m putting the young men in the best position to succeed, but I’m also going to do what’s best for the team. When you have a quarterback like Noah Fifita and a receiver like (Tetairoa McMillan), you just want to complement the offense. ... We want to make sure we’re doing our job.”
Emphasis on fair. Throughout Arizona training camp, Carter has preached ball security or “vicing the ball,” pass-catching and blocking. Carter has a “No block, no rock” sign in his office, meaning if Arizona’s running backs can’t block and protect Fifita, they won’t see the field. Every Arizona running back has been on the receiving end of Carter’s tough and honest coaching in training camp.
“He yells at everybody,” said Conley, who rushed for 842 yards and nine touchdowns at San Jose State last season. “There’s no favoritism with Coach Carter. You’ll get his best every day, and we have to give him our best. That’s his style of coaching, so you have to accept it.”
Alonzo Carter, running backs coach for the University of Arizona football team, answers questions during a preseason media luncheon at Arizona Stadium Tuesday.
Carter is challenging his running backs thrive on special teams. He wants the 5-9, 172-pound Luke, who Conley dubbed “the fastest player in the country,” to “be the top kick returner in the Big 12.”
“Playing, to me, is that, too,” Carter said. “I’m challenging all five of my guys. ‘Are you a starter on punt team? Are you a starter on kickoff team? Are you a starter on kickoff return?’ A lot of times, people think running backs are running kicks. No. There’s other ways you can affect the game. I’m bragging and saying I have one of the more athletic rooms in the Big 12 and the country. Well, it needs to show not only in the backfield, but in the special teams space.”
Eventually, the hierarchy of Arizona’s running backs will be determined, but Carter and his group won’t have a pecking order. Instead, it’s 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D, Conley said.
“We want everyone to prepare like a starter and go out and play like a starter; don’t play like a backup,” he said.
Injuries happen, too. “Playing this position, you never know what will happen,” Croskey-Merritt said.
“Everybody has to be ready to go at any given moment,” he added. “We’ve got the talent to do that.”
In the early stages of training camp, “we’re still scripting our practices, but at some point, there won’t be any scripts. You’ve got to know it all,” Carter said.
If Arizona’s running backs reach their potential, “we have so much that we can bring to the table,” Conley said.
“As a unit, we’re stacked,” Conley said.
