The new guy walked around Arizona’s practice field early in fall camp, his headphones on. After a few laps, he stopped to watch practice. He did so nearly anonymously.
Chris Singletary was added onto Arizona’s ever-expanding recruiting staff in February as the Wildcats director of recruiting, the last addition in an offseason of change on the Wildcats staff. In Singletary, UA coach Rich Rodriguez gets a familiar face — at least to him — with a savvy recruiting eye.
Assistants Marcel Yates and Donte Williams were brought in from the outside, and Vince Amey and Jahmile Addae were promoted from within, the latter of which opened up a full-time spot on staff for Rodriguez to dig into his history. Singletary has already proven to be a valuable addition to Arizona’s recruiting efforts.
“He was with me at Michigan, he did a great job up there,” Rodriguez said. “He’s got a great personality, he’s perfect for that role … it’s been a really good move. It’s helped us overall in recruiting.”
Singletary, really, was a Michigan lifer. He was a special teams standout for the Wolverines and a member of the 1997 national championship team. Singletary went on to work for NFL super agent Tom Condon for nearly seven years before returning to his alma mater in 2007. A former teammate recommended Singletary to then-coach Lloyd Carr.
“Coach gave me a call — and I played for Coach Carr — and asked if I was interested in being the recruiting coordinator at Michigan,” Singletary said. “It was like, I’m enjoying what I’m doing (at IMG). I love what I’m doing; I have a great client list. But, push comes to shove, and I’m thinking, ‘Shoot, I’m from Detroit, I can come back to my alma mater?’ I can always go back into the agent business, but how many times do I get to go back to where it all started?”
So that begs the question — how does a Michigan Man wind up on the staff at Arizona?
Well, it starts with that connection to Rodriguez.
Rodriguez replaced Carr when the coach retired following the 2007 season and kept Singletary on board as his recruiting coordinator. When Rodriguez’s tumultuous tenure came to an end, Singletary was the lone staff member to be retained by new coach Brady Hoke.
Singletary even worked for a few months on Jim Harbaugh’s staff before he and the school parted ways.
Singletary bumped into Rodriguez at a coaches convention during the offseason. They hadn’t spoken in a while, but it was as if they’d been talking the whole time.
“It was like we had never missed a beat, which was funny,” Singletary said. “It was like catching up with old times and seeing how he was doing, how his family was doing. Same with mine. It was just small talk at first and really catching up. From there it progressed, happened pretty fast, the opportunity arose, and I’m happy to be here.”
Arizona’s recruiting staff now includes Singletary, who brings with him connections to the Midwest and West. He joins longtime staffer Matt Dudek, whose title now serves, essentially, as the team’s general manager of recruiting.
Singletary didn’t need much time to get settled. He worked alongside assistants Rod Smith, Calvin Magee and Tony Dews under Rodriguez in Ann Arbor, and was involved in the recruitment of Scottsdale Chaparral offensive lineman Taylor Lewan to the Wolverines. Lewan played for UA special teams coach Charlie Ragle at Scottsdale Chaparral High School.
Singletary now knows Addae, Amey, Williams and Yates well enough to know exactly whom everyone is looking for in recruiting, and that’s a big part of his job — finding the right guys.
“From my standpoint it’s a matter of, one, bringing to the table what we need in our program. Whatever it is we need: scheme-wise, the body type, making sure the coaches have those guys at their disposal to evaluate,” he said. “Then, from that standpoint, it’s OKG. Is he our kind of guy? Is he going to play with (a) hard edge? Is he a good person? Is he serious about his academics?
“This is a great setup and a great opportunity. There are a lot of things swinging us in the right direction, and we want to build and grow with that.”
