Arizona has made waves with its 2017 recruiting class lately, securing seven verbal commitments since June 5.
All but one of those recruits were rated three-stars by Scout.com, the other — offensive lineman Edgar Burrola — and under-the-radar two-star recruit.
Most of the big guns — a.k.a. the four- and five-star players UA is targeting — won't decide for a while. Friday, the Wildcats had some quality face time with one of their top targets — five-star corner Darnay Holmes.
The Wildcats have been hitting the satellite camp circuit hard — coaches have been seen throughout Southern California, in Utah and at Ohio State in recent days. Friday, the coaches partook in the Sound Body Sound Mind camp in Los Angeles. Four-star corner Thomas Graham — a high priority UA target — was also at the camp.
At one point, UA cornerbacks coach Donté Williams had some one-on-one coaching time with Holmes, as seen in this tweet from ESPN's Erik McKinney...
Arizona coach Donte Williams working with No. 39 overall prospect Darnay Holmes at the... https://t.co/V7tF6qop6f pic.twitter.com/uXCC1ibSn4
— Erik McKinney (@EMcKinneyESPN) June 17, 2016
Later, Holmes retweeted McKinney and said "Real recognize real! Learned some stuff from this guy! #CaliZona #BearDown" about Williams.
The Wildcats are still considered a long-shot for Holmes, from Calabasas, California and rated the No. 1 corner in the nation and the 8th-best prospect overall by Scout.com. He has visits planned for Nebraska, Ohio State and Michigan and is being recruited heavily by nearby USC and UCLA. He told Scout.com he'd likely visit one of the Florida schools (Florida State, Miami) as well.
Still, Arizona is doing well in that area, building buzz with the 2017 class in general. The key here will be convincing Holmes to take a visit to campus during the season. One thing at Arizona's advantage — Darick Holmes, Darnay's brother, is a receiver currently on the UA roster.
