When the Arizona Wildcats closed out a nationally televised Thursday night game against the UTSA Roadrunners last week, the "meep meeps" sent out by college football fans enamored with the rapid rise of the Roadrunners turned to images of Wile E. Coyote with the Roadrunner in his jaws.
Arizona RB Nick Wilson is the impact freshman of Week 2
In his first start, the former four-star prospect excelled.
Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
One of the difference-makers in the narrow, 26-23 victory was true freshman running back Nick Wilson in his first start. The 5'10, 188-pound Wilson carried the ball 30 times for 174 yards and one touchdown, accounting for more than 38 percent of the production for Arizona's high-powered offense on 5.8 yards per carry.
For weekly freshman honors, Wilson edges out Baylor wide receiver K.D. Cannon, whose six catches went for 223 yards and three touchdowns. That was one of the more spectacular stat lines of the week. But while Wilson's effort came against the most experienced college football team in the country, Cannon's work was against overmatched Northwestern State, 70-6 losers in the one-sided affair.
Wilson also earned the nod over the impressive young Oregon duo of 230-pound running back Royce Freeman and right tackle Tyrell Crosby. Freeman ran for two touchdowns late in the impressive Ducks victory over the Spartans, with both runs coming behind blocks from Crosby.
As a consensus four-star prospect out of Fresno (Calif.) Central East, Wilson was hardly an unknown out of high school, with his ranking among the top 20 running backs in the nation. In part due to a productive junior season that saw him score 16 rushing touchdowns, Wilson earned offers from Arkansas, Cal, Oregon State, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin -- an impressive group of schools, but perhaps not as star-studded as it might be now if programs could offer based on his production early in college.
Our Arizona site
Our Arizona site
With starting running back Ka'Deem Carey set to depart after the 2013 season, Wilson committed to the Wildcats in March of 2013 and remained firm with his pledge.
After breaking off an 85-yard run in the opener against UNLV to help him go over 100 yards on only seven carries, Wilson beat out senior Terris Jones-Grigsby and junior Jared Baker to earn the starting job against UTSA.
And though the results weren’t often spectacular, Wilson was a workhorse, carrying the ball on 30 of Arizona’s 44 rushing attempts. Against an experienced defense intent on giving up the big play, the true freshman was content to grind out tough yardage, but was still able to find enough daylight to turn in the game’s longest running play, which went for 37 yards.
Sometimes, such steady play on the road in a hostile environment is exactly what a team needs to achieve victory and when considering that Wilson weighs only 188 pounds, his performance becomes even more impressive.
The California native has a long way to go before he can match the legacy of Carey in Tuscon, but he’s off to a good start.
