FAQ: A look at Arizona Wildcats' recruiting past, present and future

Facts and questions about the state of Arizona recruiting

Before last season, UA coach Rich Rodriguez overhauled his coaching staff with an eye toward recruiting, firing assistants Jeff Casteel, Bill Kirelawich and David Lockwood and replacing one more (Matt Caponi) who left for another job.

By the start of the season, Arizona already had 26 commitments; as a result, the Wildcats’ class was lining up as one of the conference’s best. Then cornerbacks coach Donte Williams, an upstart ace recruiter in Southern California, left for Nebraska in December and some of Arizona’s highest-rated players starting falling by the wayside, flipping and decommitting.

The Wildcats lost nine players to other schools and wound up ranked 10th in the conference after national signing day.

Since then, assistants Charlie Ragle and Tony Dews left for other jobs. Rodriguez hired receivers coach Theron Aych, linebackers coach Scott Boone and special teams coach Brian Knorr to replace them.

With that, Rodriguez has drastically altered his recruiting strategy, namely turning the focus away from four- and five-star targets and expanding Arizona’s recruiting map.

With that, here's an FAQ about Arizona recruiting — that is, facts and questions about the state of Arizona recruiting, how the struggles have impacted things, an evaluation of past classes and a look at the history of recruitment at the UA.

Is it hard to recruit to Arizona?

At this year’s Pac-12 Media Days in Hollywood, California, Rodriguez had a couple pointed remarks about recruiting at Arizona.

The first: “It’s not easy to recruit to Arizona. There’s going to be some challenges.”

The second: “When you coach, in particular if you’re not at the brand name schools, you get a masters in learning how to deal with rejection … we get rejected all the time, but you gotta have a plan. You have to have a plan to go to the next one.”

So is that true? For answers, think like a 17 year old.

Would a high school junior or senior prefer to live in a college town like Tucson or a big city like Phoenix? Well, in six years since Rodriguez and ASU coach Todd Graham were hired, the Sun Devils have had the higher-ranked class every year. That’s nothing new — in the five years prior, Arizona only once (2011) had a higher rated class than ASU.

Of the state's top five recruits each of the last two years, ASU has signed half of them. Arizona? Zero.

Still, is it hard to recruit to the UA?

Let’s answer that with another question — wasn’t it harder to recruit to Morgantown, West Virginia, when Rodriguez coached the Mountaineers there for seven years?

His best class at West Virginia (24th in 2007) ranks well ahead of his best at Arizona (31st), though at the UA, he actually has the same class average as he did at WVU — 42nd.

Former UA coach Mike Stoops wasn’t exactly consistent with his classes, though he did rank in the top 30 on three occasions (23rd in 2005, 19th in 2006, 27th in 2011), which Rodriguez has never done.

How have last season’s struggles impacted the 2018 recruiting class?

The struggles might’ve impacted the 2017 recruiting class, too, helping lead to a wave of decommitments before Signing Day. 

Class of 2018 recruits and their parents have enough research at their disposal to understand that Arizona was bad last year, and that Rich Rodriguez is likely coaching for his job this season.

“I keep my doors open because you never know what’s going to happen with the coaching staff, but I make sure that they know that I am committed to Arizona,” said Amphitheater offensive lineman David Watson, a three-star UA commit. “I would like to keep my doors open just in case, God forbid, something happens to my coaches.”

Compared to last year, the Wildcats aren’t targeting as many four- and five-star recruits, instead choosing to focus on high-end three-stars and diamonds in the rough from around the country. Most of the four-stars being targeted — including receivers Jalen Hall, Solomon Enis and Tommy Bush, offensive lineman Penei Sewell, and safety Bryan Addison — are out of reach.

On the other end of the spectrum, Arizona is the favorite for a commitment from unranked defensive end Caleb Okechukwu, a Washington, D.C., native whose list of 11 scholarship offers includes zero Power Five schools and is led by Bowling Green, Robert Morris, James Madison and Buffalo.

The Wildcats have 11 verbal commitments for 2018. Scout.com rates the class the 71st-best in the nation, and ninth in the Pac-12.

“Every parent, they want to know all the details for every program, what you’ve been through and what it is you’re going through,” said safeties coach Jahmile Addae. “In that situation, being transparent and truthful without every throwing anybody here under the bus or anything like that is probably the best way to go about it. Is that easy? Not always. But I think just being transparent and selling yourself as a person, what we have as a program, those things shine through even after a 3-9 season.”

What is Arizona’s recruiting map?

The Wildcats mainly focused on recruiting in Arizona, California and Texas under Stoops, with some efforts in Hawaii mixed in.

Dick Tomey was pretty much the same, though Hawaii and the Polynesian community as a whole were more heavily emphasized.

Rodriguez has toyed around with Arizona’s recruiting map since arriving at the UA in 2012, without many recruiting ties to the West Coast. Until this cycle, Rodriguez shunned recruiting the state of Texas in favor of a focus on Southern California, Arizona and Las Vegas, with Florida and Louisiana mixed in, and the occasional dip into Michigan.

Last year, Arizona was all-in on California. This year, the Wildcats’ recruiting targets seem to be from all over the place.

After hiring Theron Aych from UTEP, Arizona is focusing heavily on Texas. Aych (receivers) recruits the Houston area, while Jahmile Addae (safeties) and Brian Knorr (special teams/defensive ends) focus on the Dallas area and Northern Texas.

Arizona has offered scholarships to a handful of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore-area players, and is attempting to make inroads in Utah and Washington state. Arizona has three commitments from California, two from Arizona, two from Texas, one from Florida and one from Las Vegas.

“Southern California is always going to be the base, and Arizona is first,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t even try Texas because I thought, ‘Texas kids won’t come.’ Well, that was a mistake.”

How is Rodriguez’s recruiting track record at Arizona?

Rodriguez often insists that it takes a couple of years before you can evaluate a recruiting class. He blames mistakes in recruiting are what led to a lot of the issues of on-field performance the last two years, leading to an overhaul of his coaching staff after the 2015 season.

“Some of it was just bad luck, guys didn’t pan out,” Rodriguez said. “But some of the results from last year are because of the errors in recruiting. It starts with me, but I’ve addressed it with this staff.”

If it takes three years to evaluate a class, that means we can evaluate three classes from Rodriguez’s tenure, from 2012, 2013 and 2014.

2012

One-word: Underrated. Considering Rodriguez was hired in December, the first class turned out OK. The top-rated players (linebacker Dakota Conwell, defensive end Kyle Kelley) didn’t pan out. Safety Will Parks, offensive lineman Cayman Bundage, linebacker Cody Ippolito, receiver Trey Griffey and quarterback B.J. Denker all became solid contributors. Grade: B-

2013

One-word: Scooby. Two of Arizona’s top-rated players (corner Derek Babiash and running back Pierre Cormier) didn’t even last two years. Quarterback Anu Solomon has since transferred. Receivers Samajie Grant and Nate Phillips, offensive lineman Jacob Alsadek, defensive lineman Luca Bruno and linebacker Scooby Wright III were all successful. Grade: B

2014

One word: Disappointing. Of two highest-rated players, one (linebacker Marquis Ware) quit football, and the other (linebacker Jamardre Cobb) wasn’t even on Arizona’s 105-man training camp roster. Salpointe Catholic’s Cam Denson and four-star defensive tackle Marcus Griffin haven’t panned out, and nine other players left the program. Running back Nick Wilson, offensive lineman Layth Friekh, cornerback Jace Whittaker, and quarterback Brandon Dawkins are regulars. Grade: D+