Editor's note: This story ran in the Star's college football special section.
The first three elements in a successful college football reconstruction project are (1) hard work, (2) financial resources and (3) coaching acumen.
And luck.
Although Jedd Fisch doesn’t wear a hard hat to the office, he’s an on-the-clock specialist. A 40-hour work week? Try 80. Recruiting alone requires 30 or 40 hours a week just to keep your head above water.
Finances? Since Fisch was hired, it’s unlikely any Pac-12 school has spent more on a football makeover than Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke, which includes money paid to fire Rich Rodriguez, Kevin Sumlin and their staffs, but also on facility upgrades. (And don’t forget the little things: Fisch hired a Hollywood agency to drop a football out of a helicopter so that Rob Gronkowski could give UA football more attention than it has had in years.)
Coaching skill? Fisch hired the league’s most NFL-experienced staff, with a total of 58 years in the big leagues.
And luck. Without luck, the first three elements of winning football probably couldn’t break .500.
In college football, luck is finding a walk-on like All-American safety Chuck Cecil, spurned by Stanford, or a two-star recruit like All-American linebacker Scooby Wright, who wasn’t even offered a scholarship by his neighborhood schools Cal Poly and Sacramento State.
Alabama and USC probably don’t need to get lucky. At Arizona, luck is a must.
In January of 2021, a month after Fisch was hired, Arizona got lucky, although even Fisch probably didn’t realize it.
Desperate for recruits to add to its dreadful recruiting Class of 2021, Fisch’s defensive coordinator, Don Brown, turned over some rocks on his home turf in New England. He phoned Stack Williams, a UConn football alumnus — Brown had coached at UConn a decade earlier — and asked for help turning over those rocks.
Williams, who operates Supreme Athletic, a Connecticut-based training and mentorship program, had just the guy — wide receiver/running back/special teams standout Anthony Simpson.
The recruiting services had lost track of Simpson, who had been the greater Hartford-area player of the year in 2019. Simpson’s recruiting offers were from FCS schools Merrimack College, Wagner and Central Connecticut.
Simpson didn’t want to play at that level. He decided to enroll in a prep school in New York to work on his academic status and ride out the limited COVID-19 recruiting cycle. He was hopeful he’d get another crack in the Class of 2021.
When Brown called Stack Williams, the conversation turned to Simpson. Fisch and Brown and the UA’s recruiting staff did their homework, liked what they saw and offered Simpson a scholarship.
“I was speechless. It was a blessing, I cried for joy,” Simpson told the Hartford Courant newspaper. “I feel like I worked so hard, I think I deserved it. I always thought I had the chance of playing FBS football.”
Anthony Simpson cried when he received a scholarship offer from the UA.
Simpson was one of two additions Fisch made to the UA’s February 2021 signing class; all the others were leftovers from the Sumlin staff.
The recruiting services essentially didn’t take note of Simpson’s addition to the UA Class of 2021. He is football’s equivalent of a baseball utilityman. He played all over the field — running back, cornerback, receiver, kick returns, kick coverage.
I listened to a video of Fisch talking about Simpson after a recent UA football practice — Fisch referred to him as a “four-core” athlete — and the upbeat tone of his voice told the story. This could be a significant step toward ending Arizona’s 1-23 nightmare.
It was then that Fisch announced Simpson would wear jersey No. 1 this season.
A year ago, Fisch made it clear that wearing No. 1 at Arizona is a much-earned honor. It will be worn only by those whose value goes beyond blocking and tackling and yards gained. It will be offered to those with intangibles and leadership that lead to success.
“You look at what ‘Simp’ has done: He won the offseason program, finished No. 1 in every category in the offseason,” Fisch said at the press session. “Anytime we had a receiver down, he took it. He took the ‘F’ rep, the ‘Z’ rep, the ‘X’ rep, and did a great job at it. He gave unbelievable effort.”
That’s how Cecil was first noticed in 1982 and Scooby in 2012. Their desire and success became contagious.
Maybe this isn’t headline-making material for the average fan, but to a football coach, any football coach — especially the talent-needy Fisch — a player like Simpson has significant value. Arizona has only had a few all-purpose players of note the last 30 years, such as Chuck Levy, Syndric Steptoe and, more recently, Stanley Berryhill III, now on the Atlanta Falcons roster.
Berryhill was a walk-on at Arizona in 2017. A year ago he made the All-Pac-12 team as an all-purpose player. He, too, was awarded jersey No. 1 by Fisch.
Now comes Anthony Simpson. He’s among the first signs that Arizona’s time in the Pac-12 basement may be coming to an end.
