Over the last nine months, every time I read about Arizona football coach Brent Brennan signing another transfer portal prospect from Albany or Alcorn or Portland State, I would grimace.
How can you build a Big 12 contender with obscure transfers?
I mean, Ismail Mahdi, a running back from Texas State via Houston Christian? C’mon. He played for an 0-11 high school team, and his only other offer out of a small-town Texas high school was Texas A&M-Commerce.
And then last week, Mahdi rushed for 189 yards against Kansas State and looked like the next Ka’Deem Carey.
Arizona running back Ismail Mahdi (21) hops his way out of trouble as he picks up yards after contact in the fourth quarter against Kansas State, Sept. 12, 2025, in Tucson.
I should have known better to brush off an obscure prospect. Many years ago, 1981, I was invited to take a recruiting trip with Arizona coach Larry Smith and defensive coordinator Moe Ankney as they visited six high school prospects in Phoenix. What I saw should’ve forever reminded me that a five-star recruit is not a lock, and a no-star recruit could someday be your franchise player.
At the first stop on Smith’s recruiting tour of Phoenix that December day, 1981, Tempe McClintock High School elite linebacker Tim Casey met Smith in the parking lot. “I’m sorry,” he said, “but I’m going to either Notre Dame or ASU. I don’t want to waste your time.” Casey was a career sub at ASU.
The UA coaches then drove to the house of Trevor Browne High linebacker Darin Tupper, the state’s Player of the Year. Tupper and his parents informed Smith that Arizona was no longer on the list of possible schools. The scene repeated when Tempe Corona del Sol receiver Glenn Dennard and his father greeted Smith at the door and told them thanks but no thanks. “I’m going to ASU,” Dennard said. Neither Tupper nor Dennard became starters at ASU.
Finally, at Phoenix South Mountain High School, Smith and Ankney met with coach Moody Jackson. As they waited for linebacker Byron Evans to join them, Smith asked who was recruiting Evans.
“New Mexico State and NAU,” the coach said. “He also got a call from Western New Mexico.”
When Evans arrived, he explained that he had attended ASU summer camps after his sophomore and junior years, but the Sun Devils weren’t interested.
In 1985, Evans broke Arizona’s single-season tackles record (188) and again broke the record as a senior in 1986, with 196. He was the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year who would start for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles for eight seasons.
My favorite Byron Evans story — UA teammates called him the B&E Locomotive — was that after Arizona knocked ASU out of the Rose Bowl with a riveting comeback, 16-13, at Sun Devil Stadium in 1985, new Sun Devil coach John Cooper began his post-game press conference by saying “... before we get started, I’d like to know how (ASU) let Byron Evans get out of town four years ago.”
Evans went 4-0 against his hometown Sun Devils and was the best player on the field in 1985 and 1986.
So welcome, Mahdi, to Underdog U. Along with the B&E, perhaps the three most famous recruiting “coups” in UA football history were Mahdi-type “nobodies.”
– In 1982, Chuck Cecil, a safety from Helix High School in San Diego, hoped to attend Stanford. But on his recruiting visit to Stanford, coach Paul Wiggin told him there was no scholarship available. Why? Cecil was only 155 pounds, if that. So Cecil walked-on at Arizona, no scholarship. By 1987, he was the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year, setting a league record with 21 interceptions, including four against — who else? — Stanford, in an epic 1987 game at Palo Alto. Cecil is now in the College Football Hall of Fame.
– In 1982, Sunnyside High running back David Adams led Tucson with 1,068 rushing yards. Alas, his only scholarship offer was from Weber State. On the night before letter-of-intent day, UA coach Smith asked his coaches to whom they should offer their final available scholarship of the year. They did not vote for Adams, who was judged by recruiters to be too small, at 5-6, 160 pounds. But Smith overrode his assistants and gave his last scholarship to Adams. In 1986, Adams led the Pac-10 in rushing with 1,175 yards. Along with Trung Canidate and Carey, he is the top UA running back of the last 50 years.
– In 2012, undersized linebacker Philip Wright of Santa Rosa, Calif., went to a summer camp at Boise State. The coaches recommended Wright look at Big Sky Conference schools. Recruiting gurus ranked Wright a two-star prospect. Even nearby Sacramento State did not offer a scholarship. Arizona defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel saw something else in the undersized linebacker known by the nickname “Scooby.” Two years later, Scooby Wright led the nation in tackles, 163, and was a first-team All-American.
Arizona has profited from dozens of other “Two-Star Scoobs,” from John Fina and Sean Harris to Steve McLaughlin and Spencer Larsen, all of whom became All-Pac-12 players. Never say never, right?
Last week, I asked former Arizona assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Gary Bernardi, 1980-86, about those long-ago recruiting coups. “I never paid attention to those rankings,” he said. “They mean very little.”
Now comes Mahdi. Welcome to Two-Star U.
