In major boost to Cats' class, WR Tetairoa McMillan flips commitment from Oregon to Arizona

Jedd Fisch and the Arizona football coaching staff did it: “T-Mac” is an Arizona Wildcat.

Star wide receiver Tetairoa “T-Mac” McMillan, a top priority of the UA’s coaches during the early signing period, decommitted from Oregon on Saturday morning and flipped his pledge to the Wildcats.

Fisch made the announcement with a tweet showing “T-Mac” spelled out in the sand from Cabo San Lucas, the Arizona logo serving as the “A.” The UA football office’s social media feed confirmed the commitment moments later.

Rivals.com lists the 6-foot-4-inch, 185-pound McMillan as a five-star recruit and the second-best wide receiver in the 2022 recruiting class. According to 247Sports.com, McMillan is a four-star recruit, the fifth-best wide receiver and 46th-best overall prospect in the nation.

247Sports.com lists McMillan as the highest-rated football player to ever commit to Arizona. That distinction had been held by former UA cornerback Devin Ross, who was a highly rated member of the Wildcats’ 2006 recruiting class.

McMillan is now the top-rated recruit in Arizona’s class, edging out tight end Keyan Burnett — his teammate at Anaheim, California’s Servite High School — as well as cornerback Ephesians Prysock and outside linebacker Sterling “Deuce” Lane. The Wildcats have signed four Servite players this week: McMillan, quarterback Noah Fifita, Burnett — who is the son of former UA linebacker Chester Burnett — and linebacker Jacob Manu.

McMillan caught 179 passes during his high school career, amassing 2,640 yards and scoring 34 touchdowns. He was named a high school All-American, the Polynesian High School Player of the Year and both the Gatorade and MaxPreps.com California Player of the Year. McMillan was also named the MVP of Southern California’s powerhouse Trinity League, which features Santa Ana Mater Dei and Bellflower St. John Bosco, among others.

“T-Mac is all ball,” said Arizona wide receivers coach Kevin Cummings. “T-Mac loves the game of football and you see it the way he plays. He’s got a volleyball background, which I think is why he’s so explosive when it comes to catching a ball. His catch radius is unreal. Any ball that’s in his area, he has a chance to get. ... He’s very light on his feet. He’ll tell you he doesn’t need to be a burner, because ‘I got great routes, great hands and I know the game.’ So, he just goes out there and balls.”

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McMillan committed to Oregon in August after taking a visit to Arizona, becoming the highest-rated skill position player to commit to Ducks coach Mario Cristobal. But he began to reconsider his decision after Cristobal left for Miami; rather than sign on Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period, McMillan continued to weigh offers from both the UA and Oregon.

Landing a five-star recruit has been a near impossibility at Arizona over the years. Arizona received a pledge from Texas running back Leo Mills in 1998, and got commitments from five-star defensive linemen Gabe Long and Louis Holmes — both junior college players — as part of a stacked 2006 class. Mills’ career never quite took off, Holmes was inconsistent during his two seasons in Tucson, and Long never enrolled.

Landing McMillan could be a game-changer for Fisch and a UA program that’s coming off a 1-11 season.

“He’s a baller,” Keyan Burnett said of McMillan on ESPN Tucson’s “Spears and Ali” on Wednesday. “He goes out there and makes plays. He’s an offensive game-changer — really on both sides of the ball, he can play defense, too. You don’t see a lot of dudes like him. Having a guy like that will make winning a championship in the Pac-12 a lot easier.”

McMillan, Fifita and Burnett are expected to enroll at the UA next month.

“It’s special. This a special class that we got. Looking at these athletes ... this is big for Arizona,” Burnett said. “Regardless, we’re going to come in and change it for the better. Hopefully we can bring winning back to Tucson.”