Arizona has reeled in its ninth recruit for 2018. Along the way, the Wildcats may have made their rivals worse.
Defensive tackle Josh Walker announced his verbal commitment to Arizona’s 2018 recruiting class on Tuesday, choosing the UA over dozens of offers from power programs.
Many experts had Walker bound for Arizona State. Six of the eight contributors to 247Sports.com’s “Crystal Ball” projection said he’d sign with the Sun Devils. The other two listed his destination as “foggy,” and did not make a pick.
As part of a long message posted to Twitter, Walker said “I’ve decided to become a ‘West Coast Wildcat’ at the University of Arizona” and mentioned that UA coach Rich Rodriguez and defensive line coach Vince Amey provided him with the feeling of “family” he was looking for, which sealed the deal.
He ended the note with: “This is my decision and I stand by it 100 percent.”
The 6-foot-2-inch, 285-pound lineman hails from the prestigious IMG Academy in Florida. The Scout.com recruiting service rates Walker as a three-star recruit, the 78th-best defensive tackle in the nation, No. 27 in the South and No. 4 in Florida. He is Arizona’s highest-rated 2018 commit by Scout.com.
Arizona certainly can use all the help on the defensive line it can get. The Wildcats will lose two key seniors — Parker Zellers and Luca Bruno — after this season, as well as defensive line/outside linebacker hybrids Jack Banda and DeAndre’ Miller. Larry Tharpe Jr., Justin Belknap and Finton Connolly will be the only remaining linemen with significant playing experience, and the first two are either current (Tharpe) or former (Belknap) walk-ons.
The Wildcats had expected to add USC transfer defensive lineman Noah Jefferson to their roster this year, making him eligible to play beginning in 2018 — he’d have sat out the 2017 season due to transfer rules — but that ultimately didn’t pan out.
Walker is the most highly sought after recruit to join Arizona’s class for next year so far, holding offers from 40 schools, including Notre Dame, UCLA, Nebraska, Michigan State, Mississippi State and West Virginia. On July 27, Walker told Scout.com that his final three schools were ASU, Wake Forest and Minnesota.
