Arizona went 1-11 in Jedd Fisch’s first season as head coach. The Wildcats lost their big-name defensive coordinator who has helped develop multiple NFL players. They are in the throes of a from-the-ground-up rebuilding project.
You wouldn’t know it from their recruiting rankings.
Heading into early signing day Wednesday, Arizona has a top-40 class nationally. The Wildcats are No. 3 in the Pac-12. By day’s end, they could ascend further.
How is any of this possible? How did Fisch and his staff pull this off?
“I think it’s effort,” said Blair Angulo, a college football recruiting analyst who covers the West region for 247Sports.com.
“It boils down to them realizing they needed to change things. To their credit, they’ve actually done that.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise. It’s validated that Arizona always has been capable of this.”
From the moment he was hired last December, Fisch has emphasized energy and relentlessness on the recruiting trail. The results thus far suggest he wasn’t just paying lip service to that endeavor.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Arizona’s 2022 class ranked 35th in the country, per 247Sports.com. Rivals.com had the Wildcats 37th. Both had them third in the conference.
If those rankings hold, this will be Arizona’s best recruiting effort in almost a decade. The Wildcats haven’t cracked the top 40 in 247Sports.com's rankings since 2014, when they were 31st. Rivals had them 37th in 2017. Since then, they’ve been 55th or lower every year.
“They’ve put in a ton of hours from an evaluation standpoint, building relationships,” Angulo said. “Without much to sell in terms of the on-field product, so far done they’ve done a terrific job of letting recruits know there’s an opportunity there. All those things have added up to them reeling in what’s a really good class.”
Fisch and his staff have capitalized on a window of time that could be closed by next fall. It’s still early enough in his tenure that he can sell hope and opportunity. If Arizona struggles on the field to start next season, that pitch will become less convincing.
“Some kids want to play for an immediate winner,” said Adam Gorney, the national recruiting director for Rivals.com. “Some want to build something special. And some want to come in immediately and play.
“That staff has been aggressive in going after (those) guys. That’s going to help win some of these battles.”
Arizona has taken advantage of instability at other schools in the Pac-12. Three top-tier programs — USC, Oregon and Washington — recently hired new coaches. Washington State did as well. The coaches at UCLA and Cal were linked to the Oregon job. Arizona State remains under NCAA investigation.
Of the 17 publicly known verbal commitments to Arizona, over half (nine) are from the fertile recruiting ground of California. That group includes receiver Kevin Green Jr., who recently decommitted from USC. Another California player who had been committed to USC, cornerback Ephesians Prysock, could sign with Arizona on Wednesday.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Trojans, Huskies and Sun Devils all had six or fewer verbal commitments — a driving force in those schools bringing up the rear in the Pac-12 in both 247Sports’ and Rivals’ rankings.
“This has been a wild year in terms of the coaching carousel,” Angulo said. “For Arizona to be out in front of everything ... has allowed them to pitch continuity, pitch this new program on the rise.
“Fisch arrived last December. He’s been there a year. That has given him a head start of sorts.”
But Fisch and his staff still had to put in the work. By all accounts, they have.
Those include Fisch’s Twitter account. Whenever Arizona secures a verbal commitment, Fisch tweets a graphic of a dancing cactus. He tweeted one at 9:44 p.m. Monday along with this lead-in: "Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop!!"
The proof also lies in the rankings.
"If you’re No. 3 in the Pac-12 right now," Angulo said, "you take that every day."
