Arizona’s landing spot in the latest round of conference realignment could affect where Jedd Fisch and his staff recruit. But it won’t change how they go about it.
Since he arrived in December 2020 and built a bigger, better front office, Fisch and his team have recruited relentlessly. The Wildcats achieved a top-25 class for 2022, and they’re trending toward another.
After securing 11 verbal commitments in June and another one already in July — with a few more on the way — Arizona’s 2023 class is ranked 29th nationally, according to 247Sports.com. Before Fisch came aboard, the Wildcats hadn’t finished in the top 30 in the previous 13 recruiting cycles.
“Our staff has done a really, really good job,” Fisch said. “We’ve got ourselves in a position now where we have a very talented football team.”
What are Fisch and his staff doing that their predecessors weren’t? What’s the secret to their success?
In a phone interview this week, Fisch provided a peek behind the curtain. He disclosed some of his staff’s best practices — which are more basic than you might think.
Hard work. Relationships. Extensive evaluation. Those are the bedrocks of Fisch’s recruiting philosophy. He and his staff can lean on those core principles no matter how the landscape skews. Whether it’s conference realignment, the transfer portal, NIL or whatever’s coming next, the approach remains the same. “It’s personal” isn’t just a slogan on a T-shirt.
Before dining with his wife while on vacation on the East Coast, Fisch spoke with the Star about all things recruiting. Excerpts from that conversation can be found below. It has been lightly edited.
How would you describe your formula for success as it pertains to recruiting?
A: “It always starts with work — how committed and how hard you want to work to build relationships with every possible individual that affects the decision of the recruit. Are you committed to not just recruit the player but recruit the family? Are you committed to not just recruit the family but recruit the coach? And then just continue to take that to whatever levels need be.
“We’re very much relationship- and family-oriented. I believe that we also have a very strong message that we can sell. And that message is: We have 150 years of NFL experience in our building every single day. Six of our coaches have coached (and/or played in) in the National Football League. So they know what it’s like to sit in a personnel meeting.
“We all know that it’s very hard to fulfill the dream of being an NFL player. But that doesn’t mean that we want to kill your dream before you show up to college. Our goal is to do everything we can to help you achieve your dream.”
The relationship part sounds a lot like your program slogan, “It’s personal.” How big a factor is that in this whole equation?
A: “I would say it’s probably 85%. There’s not a recruit that doesn’t put that in their announcement, that doesn’t hashtag it, that doesn’t relate to it.
“There’s a big ‘It’s personal’ sign in my office. Immediately, we talk about what that means to them. For me, ‘It’s personal’ is not about just me. It’s about: How do you make it personal, make your decision personal and make the relationship personal?
“What I want every player that comes to our program to know is that we have a very strong bond that will continue way beyond your time in college. We’re going to make a commitment to developing you as a person and as a player.”
“What I want every player that comes to our program to know is that we have a very strong bond that will continue way beyond your time in college," said UA coach Jedd Fisch. "We're going to make a commitment to developing you as a person and as a player.”
You’ve opened your home to recruits. To what extent is that part of the process?
A: “If we’re gonna sell family and talk about it being personal to all of us, it’s a huge part of it. We make it a great event. We have kids at our house, all of our coaches’ wives at our house, all of their families there. We include our coaches’ kids in all of our recruiting events.
“Our whole philosophy is to make sure that these parents understand that, yes, we’re going to develop them; yes, we’re gonna do everything we can to help them achieve their goal. But more than any of that ... your son is going to be taken care of here. They’re going to be treated like part of our family.
“I have our current players over at my house all the time. You can’t just say it on a recruiting weekend and then not follow through with it.”
What’s that experience like for a recruit?
A: “We have a wide-open house. You’ve got my two dogs running around. My 10-year-old always has friends over. There are people in the pool, there’s music playing, there’s food everywhere.
“We were averaging about 100 people a weekend in June. It’s fun. It’s a party.”
Let’s shift to the evaluation side of things. There are literally thousands of prospects out there. How do you narrow down that list?
A: “You build your criteria for every position — what you want your defensive tackle to look like, what you want your offensive guard to look like, what you want your quarterback to look like. You have all your measurables, and then you have all of your traits that you write down: What would make an Arizona Wildcat player? Which we keep in house.
“Then you look at different ways to start (trimming) that down. Whether that be through combine times, through track times, through all the camps these kids go to, through all the information that high school coaches give out, to what you can grab on the Internet.
“Then you’ve got student assistants, graduate assistants, analysts. We’ve got six or seven full-time employees in our recruiting department that are watching each position group. Then they take it to the position coach. And then the position coach takes it to the coordinator. The coordinators take it to me. We go through them all.
“We then make our determination if that player is an offer or not an offer; or if he’s somebody that we want to hold and look at the next go-round — maybe after spring evaluation, maybe after summer camp. Some kids you look at and say, ‘I’d like this player to come to camp before I make an offer.’ Other players you would look at and say, ‘This guy is an offer right off the film.’ And then there’s the third guy that you say, ‘I want to get a live evaluation on him at his high school.’ ”
You said you wanted to keep the traits in house, but what are some of the criteria you discuss when determining whether a player is a fit in your program?
A: “Certain position groups you want to make sure that they play or have played two sports in high school. Where’s their academics? What does their GPA look like? How do they bend? How do they move? Do they do any track? (With) wide receivers, what is their catch ratio — how many balls are thrown to them to how many do they catch?
“Say a guy’s maybe underweight but (has) extreme speed. Maybe there’s somebody that (has) great size, but speed is a question mark. Maybe someone’s gonna be 6-foot-5, 270 pounds and you’ve got to be able to project whether you think they can get to 300. So there’s projections involved, there’s traits involved, there’s all aspects to the evaluation process. But then, most importantly, it’s the film.”
What about work ethic and character? How do you make that determination?
A: “Talk to others. (That) is usually the easiest way to make it, the safest way. It’s very hard to evaluate somebody’s work ethic or character without investing in the kid. Meaning, call the guidance counselors, call the principals, talk to a couple of the teachers at their school.
“You can talk to kids for two years now. How do they text? How do they call? What do they put on their Instagram? What do they put on their Twitter? All those things we try to monitor.
“We also have to make a decision; we have to make a call. Is a kid being a kid? Is this somebody you want to bring into your program or not?”
How do you know whether people are being truthful and forthcoming with you?
A: “That comes from experience. A lot of our coaches have coached for a long time. You’ve seen it, you’ve lived it, you’ve been burned before. And then other times, you’re like, ‘Hey, this guy’s been an unbelievable ally to me. I know he’s going to tell me the truth. I know he’s going to tell me every part of it, every part that I need to know.’ ”
What are the final steps in determining whether to offer a recruit?
A: “It all varies. There are certain players that you can make a decision on right away. Let’s say somebody (presents a player) and says, ‘Hey, everyone in the building thinks we should give an offer on this guy. Take a look.’ You could take a look and then within five minutes, 10 minutes, you’d be like, ‘Yeah, I see why.’
“And then the opposite extreme would be, ‘Coach, three of the assistant coaches think we should offer him, two of the other guys don’t. Take a look at him. What do you want to do on this guy?’ When something like that occurs, we have cutups available, we have game film available, we can spend more time on that person.
“And then I would talk to the coaches: ‘Why do we want to move on this guy? How important is it to move on him right now? What is it that you like? What are the traits?’ ”
You obviously have to trust the people around you.
A: “A thousand percent.”
