'Never stop recruiting:' How Arizona landed the freshman class that's turned things around

Recruiting ... it's a crapshoot

When defensive lineman Kurtis Brown verbally committed to UA coaches in April 2016, he became one of the first players to join the Wildcats’ 2017 recruiting class.

That same night, Kylan Wilborn — a defensive end from Notre Dame Prep in Sherman Oaks, California — verbally committed to the Wildcats, too. Brown had played against Wilborn before, and watched some of his highlights online shortly after he committed. He saw Wilborn’s speed then, but it looks even better now that they’re teammates.

Wilborn has perhaps been Arizona’s best defensive player this season, leading the team in sacks and managing four alone against UCLA star Josh Rosen two weeks ago. Brown has been a member of Arizona’s defensive line rotation.

Brown and Wilborn were part of a class that Rich Rodriguez publicly praised, even if the experts didn’t.

But that’s the thing about recruiting; it’s a crapshoot.

Mistakes in recruiting played a major part in Arizona’s 3-9 season in 2016. And this year’s recruiting successes are the main reason why the Wildcats, who will host No. 15 Washington State on Saturday, are suddenly competing for a Pac-12 South title.

Seventeen true freshmen have played this season. And at least five of them — Wilborn, linebackers Colin Schooler and Tony Fields, tight end Bryce Wolma and safety Troy Young — are expected to start against the Cougars.

At least one player saw it coming.

"I was looking at these recruits (after committing) and I’m just like, this class is going to be real good,” Brown said. “It doesn’t matter what was happening during the season, the 2017 class will be good.”

So how did Arizona do it? Here’s a look at the seven steps Rodriguez and Arizona took to building his best recruiting class in six years.

Step 1: Staff changes

Arizona’s 2017 recruiting efforts began in January 2016.

Rodriguez overhauled his defensive coaching staff, firing Jeff Casteel, David Lockwood and Bill Kirelawich and watched as Matt Caponi left for West Virginia. Rodriguez replaced them with a younger, recruiting-minded staff led by Marcel Yates, Jahmile Addae, Donte Williams and Vince Amey.

Yates and Williams had roots in Southern California, Amey in Northern California and Arizona and Addae in the South. The new coaches helped Rodriguez close out the 2016 cycle, then went full steam ahead on recruiting for 2017.

Shortly after Signing Day, Rodriguez added former Michigan staffer Chris Singletary to help with recruiting.

Step 2: Keep it in the family

On Jan. 16, Catalina Foothills quarterback Rhett Rodriguez verbally committed to play for his father.

If not for RhettRod, the Wildcats might never have reeled in one of their most consistent performers.

Tight end Bryce Wolma, a three-star player from Saline, Michigan, verbally committed to the UA on April 6, 2016, a few days after committing to Northwestern.

Why the switch? Wolma and Rhett Rodriguez are best friends and former middle school teammates. RhettRod managed to persuade his friend to follow him to Tucson. Wolma’s 22 catches rank second on the UA roster; he’s third with 192 receiving yards. Wolma has scored two touchdowns, one of which helped Arizona beat Cal in overtime last week.

Step 3: Reel in a big fish

On March 2, 2016, four-star recruit Greg Johnson — the top-ranked athlete in the West at the time — shocked many when he announced a verbal commitment to Arizona.

Johnson, a wide receiver/cornerback, chose Arizona over offers from every blue-blood program in the West.

Though Johnson never enrolled at the UA (he's now a cornerback at USC), his commitment was important. Other recruits soon took notice of the Wildcats.

Brown and Wilborn soon jumped on board. Four-star cornerback Thomas Graham and three-star safety Scottie Young took notice.

In mid-April, four-star running back Nathan Tilford — who held offers from USC, UCLA, Michigan and Nebraska — gave a verbal commitment to Arizona.

Step 4: Capitalize on momentum

By the start of the 2016 season, the Wildcats had 27 players committed to their class. All 27 stayed committed despite a 3-9 season that put Rich Rodriguez squarely on the hot seat. Coaches dropped one player, defensive lineman Elijah Watson, from the class due to off-field concerns.

For much of the season, Arizona had one of the Pac-12’s highest-rated recruiting classes. Rodriguez repeatedly called it one of the best recruiting classes in program history.

The class had Johnson, a star with offers from USC and UCLA and other schools in the SEC. Arizona’s coaches also did well with recruits that weren’t considered elite but maybe should have been.

“I think when you look at that, rankings are for the fans,” Singletary said. “That’s for the casual fan. At the end of the day it’s about production.”

And the class of 2017 has certainly produced:

• Tony Fields II leads Arizona in tackles. His best offers were from Arizona State, California, Colorado, Missouri and Washington State.
• Colin Schooler is the reigning Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week, and has been arguably Arizona’s best defensive playmaker. His best non-Arizona offers came from Nevada, Fresno State and New Mexico.
• Wilborn leads the team in sacks. He only had three offers: Arizona, Hawaii and Idaho.
• Wolma didn’t receive offers from any Big Ten school other than Northwestern.
• Scottie Young was rated one of the country’s best freshmen by Pro Football Focus before suffering a knee injury. His only other major-conference offers came from Colorado and Washington State.
• Troy Young started in place of Scottie Young last week. His teammates say he looks like an SEC player. He picked Arizona over Alabama-Birmingham.

Step 5: Bonding

As Arizona’s class grew, the commits started a text message chain. Every new player who committed was added to the group. Players who decommitted got cut.

By Signing Day, the newest Wildcats were already friends. They trash-talked, joked, and hyped each other.

“Really, where we knew that they were going to be special wasn’t even necessarily the kids we brought in,” Addae said. “It’s how close-knit they were before they even got here. Our freshmen knew each other like if they lived down the street before they got here.”

Step 6: Weathering The Storm

Last Nov. 30, Williams was asked how Arizona’s staff had managed to keep the 2017 class together despite an ugly season.

“It’s hard to break up a family,” he said.

A week later, Williams took a job at Nebraska.

Williams was the driving force behind Arizona’s efforts to recruit Johnson, defensive tackle Austin Faoliu and safety Rhedi Short. He helped in the recruitments of Scottie Young, wide receiver Brian Casteel and Tilford.

Shortly after Williams left, Johnson flipped to USC and Faoliu and Graham to Oregon. Four other UA recruits players flipped elsewhere in the coming weeks: Among them were defensive end Matt Leo (Iowa State) and linebacker Bryce Brand (Maryland).

Arizona still made it work.

On Dec. 20, former Nevada coach Scott Boone was hired as Arizona’s new linebackers coach. Not long after, the Wildcats secured Schooler. Boone had been trying to recruit to Nevada previously.

That month, the Wildcats also reeled in cornerback Tony Wallace, defensive tackle Sione Taufahema and linebacker Jose Ramirez. Wallace has played on special teams and as a backup on defense.

In January, they added linebacker Anthony Pandy, kicker Lucas Havrisik and defensive end My-King Johnson. Pandy is emerging as a part of Arizona’s defense, Havrisik is Arizona’s kickoff and long field goal specialist and Johnson has shown flashes of talent on the scout team. Just before signing day, Arizona reeled in running back Gary Brightwell from Delaware.

Singletary said the UA’s coaches focused more on landing the next player than wondering why other guys had decommitted.

“You can’t control who’s not here,” Singletary said. “You find the next guy. Sometimes, in some of those instances, some of those guys that we … might have taken later might’ve been better than the guy that already left. I think it’s just a matter of … never stop recruiting. Never.”

Step 7: Last-minute scrambling

Quarterback Braxton Burmeister was days away from enrolling at Arizona in January when new Oregon coach Willie Taggart offered him a scholarship. Burmeister now is the Ducks’ starting quarterback.

The morning of signing day, Eugene native offensive lineman Cody Shear received an Oregon offer, too, and flipped to the Ducks.

To fill Burmeister’s quarterback slot, the Wildcats signed unranked quarterback K’Hari Lane.

To fill Shear’s slot, the Wildcats brought in Ventura College offensive lineman Maisen Knight.

Eventually, Arizona also signed junior Coffeyville College defensive tackle Dereck Boles, now the Wildcats’ starter at nose tackle.

Those three late additions didn’t factor much into the national perception of Arizona’s 2017 class.

The decommitments left Arizona with just one four-star recruit (Tilford) and near the bottom of the Pac-12’s recruiting rankings. Scout.com listed Arizona’s class 10th in the Pac-12 and 45th overall; Rivals had the UA at eighth in the Pac-12 and 37th overall.

With the way Arizona’s 2017 players have played thus far, the rankings might be more of a suggestion than a fact. Hype fodder instead of facts. At least, that’s how Arizona’s coaches view it.

“It probably wasn’t even ranked that high according to somebody’s rankings, but in our mind it was ‘this class is going to be sneaky good,’” Rodriguez said. “Plus, we needed it.”

Talk to any Arizona coach, from Rodriguez to Singletary, and they’ll say they knew this class was going to be special early on. It wasn’t one player either.

It was Tilford on the highly ranked, highly recruited end, or Schooler on the under-the-radar, overlooked end of the spectrum. It was all of it together.

Now, Arizona’s future looks much brighter than it did a season ago.

“I don’t think there’s just one guy, because every guy has their story of how they got here. Some had a few more offers from others. But everybody had their backstory of how we recruited them,” Singletary said. “They trusted the process, they trusted the vision and they bought in. When you’re buying in, you’re trusting and you believe in it, you willing to work for it, good things happen.

Singletary’s belief was reaffirmed when the players started filing onto campus, in the spring and the summer. They looked, and acted, the part.

“You could see this was not too big for them,” Singletary said. “They’re embracing the moment.”