UA staffer Miguel Reveles a key cog in SoCal recruiting

There’s a region of Southern California called the Inland Empire, with no defined boundaries necessarily, but it’s widely viewed as the cities within San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Its football community is where Miguel Reveles feels right at home, a part of the family, really, and his Rolodex of recruiting connections is substantial.

Reveles, for Arizona’s pursuit of players from the 2016 class, is close friends with Centennial High coach Matt Logan, which helped in the UA’s pursuit of safety Chacho Ulloa and running back J.J. Taylor.

For the 2017 class, Reveles went to school with one UA commit’s cousin and attends the same church as two of the Wildcats’ top targets. And, he’s tight with a four-star 2018 defensive end’s personal trainer and a four-star receiver’s head coach.

The Wildcats offered a spot to 2019 quarterback David Baldwin recently. Baldwin plays at Upland High, Reveles’ alma mater, and Baldwin’s head coach was Reveles’ offensive coordinator.

“The Inland Empire is a very tight-knit community,” Reveles said.

Sure is.

At Arizona, though, Reveles flies under the radar, working his connections to Southern California to help the UA coaching staff in recruiting. As the director of junior college recruiting and a staff analyst focusing on running backs and special teams, you won’t hear his name as much as that of Donte Williams, who also has heavy connections in the Inland Empire, or Arizona’s other staffers.

But on the recruiting trail, he’s a key cog in the Arizona machine.

“Miguel’s been good,” UA coach Rich Rodriguez said. “He coached high school football there, he knows a lot of people in various parts of Southern California. Part of the deal in the hiring process was to get guys with SoCal ties, and I think it’s paying off in recruiting.”

Reveles coached at Colony in Ontario, California, the former home of UA receiver Samajie Grant, and 2017 running back commit Nathan Tilford is just beginning his senior season there. Reveles’ connections extend back to his playing days, too.

At Highland, he was a receiver and went out for the team at University of La Verne, a Division III program, but quit before camp started to pursue coaching. Since then, Reveles has been a case study in working his way up the coaching ladder. He started at the staff at Los Osos High for one season, Colony for two and Azusa Pacific for one before the Arizona opportunity arose. He’s also had internships with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers, building relationships with the likes of Rex Ryan and Ron Rivera.

“I was an average player,” Reveles said. “I wasn’t a highly touted recruit.”

At Colony, he was Grant’s position coach and was there for a couple seasons . He also coached at Colony as the Wildcats were recruiting Bryan Harper, a signee in the 2012 class who wound up not academically qualifying at UA.

So, of course, Reveles caught Rodriguez’s eye while he was on the recruiting trail.

During Rodriguez’s first year at Arizona in 2012, Reveles was teaching special education at Colony while coaching at Azusa Pacific, a Division II school.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

While on the recruiting trail, Rodriguez stopped by Colony to visit a recruit, but Reveles wasn’t there.

“I took a couple days off at Colony, and they had just been at Colony and they didn’t know I had been (at Azusa),” Reveles said.

“So we saw each other on the road recruiting, and they said, ‘We just stopped by Colony and you weren’t there’. I said, ‘I know, I took the day off so I could go recruit.’”

A job on Arizona’s staff opened — Grant had already committed to Arizona at this point — and Rodriguez called Reveles after signing day, saying a position might be available if Reveles was interested.

He was.

So the UA flew Reveles out for an interview the following week, and he went back home and waited, impatiently calling friends on Arizona’s staff to find out any updates.

Nothing.

Finally, a week later, Rodriguez made an offer.

Reveles accepted and quickly had to move to Tucson, as spring drills were set to begin.

Now in his fourth year, Reveles’ responsibilities have picked up with each season. He’s more involved with recruiting then he’s ever been.

“He knew guys I trained with, the coaches,” Ulloa said.

“So when I would talk with my coaches, they would always say great things about him. It gave me a trusting relationship with him.

“He’s the type of guy that I can go to if I need anything, he’s always there for me.”

Beyond Arizona, Reveles has dreams of one day becoming a position coach in the NFL, specifically special teams.

For now, he’s happy in Tucson, continuing to enhance that pipeline to the Inland Empire.

“I enjoy every day coming to work. Never do I see it as a job. When you’re around good people, your boss is great, those are things you look forward to,” Reveles said. “Never did I think I’d be in this situation. But I let people in my community know, if you put in the time and surround yourself with good people, show coaches you’re willing to work and do whatever it takes, there will be somebody out there who will give you a chance.”