Jedd Fisch’s golf game isn’t on par with his recruiting prowess. Not even close.
But the second-year Arizona football coach is nothing if not optimistic. So even after hitting a wayward tee shot on the 10th hole of the Cologuard Classic pro-am at Omni Tucson National Resort on Wednesday, Fisch could see the bright side
He pointed to the score for his group. Fisch’s fivesome — which also featured UA athletic director Dave Heeke; school president Robert C. Robbins; businessman and UA donor Cole Davis; and PGA Tour Champions pro Scott Verplank — played the front nine at 7 under par. They would finish at 10 under, one of the better scores of the day, with Fisch contributing a pair of net birdies on the back nine.
Fisch doesn’t have much time to play golf. He said Wednesday’s round was his second since June. He has a family to raise and a football team to run. Twice-weekly tennis matches, lasting about an hour apiece, are much easier to squeeze in during the offseason.
Fisch is about to have even less free time. Arizona is slated to start spring practice next Wednesday. More than 20 new Wildcats will be hitting the field for the first time for football activities under the supervision of Fisch and his staff. He sees it as a “new beginning” and a “fresh start” for his program, which hasn’t come close to hitting the turn yet.
In the meantime, Fisch enjoyed his time on the course. His competitiveness showed when he failed to execute shots, but he didn’t take much of it seriously. When it was pointed that the wind didn’t help him avoid a greenside bunker on No. 17, Fisch retorted: “My inability to do anything with the ball didn’t help either.”
After the round ended about 20 minutes later, Fisch spoke to the Star about his area of expertise — football. Topics included Arizona’s new batch of players, recruiting and the impact of NIL (name, image and likeness) on the sport. The conversation has been lightly edited.
You’ve had only limited interactions with them, but what are your initial impressions of the new group of players?
A: “What we do get to do is watch them run around and see their athleticism. I always invite them up to my office, spend some time, talk with them a little bit. The new guys are embracing being an Arizona Wildcat, whether they came from another school or whether they came from high school. They have a great energy about them, a great confidence about them.
“And the best thing about them is, they don’t see what happened in the past. They don’t really worry about what happened in the past. They’re really excited about moving forward with this team.”
We know you can’t name names, but you got a commitment from a four-star quarterback Tuesday. Why is it important to have a QB in every class?
A: “It’s critical for a couple reasons. One, they build momentum for your class. If you see what Noah (Fifita) did for our class when Noah committed to us, he built momentum. People wanted to play with Noah. People wanted to be around Noah. Noah could take his team to the state finals and wear Arizona wristbands. There’s things that go into having a quarterback as an early commit.
“The other part of it is, really anywhere you are, in the NFL or in college, you’re always bringing one new quarterback in every year. In college football, you’re always recruiting a quarterback because you have the ability to redshirt guys, you have different stages of people’s careers, you have different development that’s needed. And you have a situation where you want to build that depth up. We all saw what happened last year when we didn’t have the depth that we needed. So we are never going to put ourselves in that position again. Now I think we have a very strong quarterback room.”
How did you pull off a top-25 recruiting class coming off a 1-11 season?
A: “We never talked about being 1-11. We talked about being a part of the change. We felt like this was our first recruiting class. So it’s almost like Year 0 of the coaching, then Year 1 of recruiting, then Year 1 of coaching because now ... you’ve recruited the players that you want. You’re then developing the players that you have. You’re then building a roster ... and making them better.
“People want to be a part of the change. They want to be a part of something different. They want to be a part of ... taking a team that hasn’t had great success recently back to where it should be.”
How big of a factor was NIL in putting together this recruiting class, and how big of a factor do you feel like it’s going to be in future recruiting classes?
A: “I would say minimal in terms of this recruiting class, as it was just almost in the middle; NIL started getting passed while the commitments were coming in. Moving forward, it’s gonna be a big part of everything that goes on. I wouldn’t be surprised if the transition goes from people being focused on facilities to people being focused on NIL. In the last decade, it was all about glitz and glamor with facilities. Now I believe that there’s going to be conversations that exist in terms of, ‘What can you provide?’
“Truth be told, though, they also have to recognize that it’s still about development and being a college athlete ... that the real money comes if you become a pro player and you focus in on that, or if you become a professional outside of sports.”
Are you starting to have conversations about NIL with recruits and their families?
A: “We talk about it all the time. You can’t use it for an inducement. You can’t tell them, ‘This is what we’re going to give your son if he comes here.’ So it’s more along the lines of just making sure that we have the conversations, that we’re aware of NIL, we’re active in (the) NIL space and our friends (with) the Wilbur and Wilma program will be able to assist.”
Last year, going into spring, everything was new for everybody. Although you have a new defensive coordinator, there’s a lot more familiarity now. Will that put you ahead of the game? Or will having so many newcomers in important positions mitigate that?
A: “We better be ahead of the game. We’ve now all worked together for a year, most of us. We feel like we’ve improved in every area. We feel like we’ve built a stronghold in terms of what we want to get done schematically. We understand what it should look like. Our players are a year stronger, most of them, and a year better. The guys that just entered are gonna have to catch up quick.”
