Arizona's coaches are continuing to look at options across the board in both the 2021 and 2022 classes. There are a handful of spots left in the 2021 class and now that the coaching staff under Jedd Fisch is on campus it has allowed the coaches to dig in and begin looking closer at which recruits they want to add with just a couple weeks to go until the start of the signing period.
This week that brought a couple more scholarship offers for UA to members of the senior class while the staff also continues to explore preferred walk-on options as well. Here's a rundown of the latest 2021 recruiting news.
Four-star 2021 lineman re-offered by Arizona's new coaches
Notable offers: Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington, Washington State, Georgia, Miami, Michigan, Oklahoma, Penn State, West Virginia, San Diego State, San Jose State
Rundown: Arizona's previous staff offered San Diego-Helix standout lineman Josh Simmons long ago, but once he committed to Oregon the Wildcats started to look at other options and never made their way back into his recruitment. Simmons hurt himself by informing coaches that he would only be able willing to play defense in college despite being a standout offensive lineman at the high school level. Many programs backed off leading to some uncertainty about what would happen next. He started to zero in on San Diego State in the fall but ended up not committing to that program and now has seen renewed interest from colleges after letting coaches know that he's is moving back to the offensive line.
“Nobody has ever seen me at defensive line,” Simmons recently told Rivals.com. “I don’t know what was going through my mind. People were saying I needed to slim down and I took that too far and I didn’t think I could put the weight on quick enough but I did. I put on a lot of good weight. Everybody knows I play the o-line spot pretty good. I thought why don’t I stay there and make some money off it and change my family situation.”
The four-star prospect has immense talent on the offensive side of the ball but at this stage in the process many programs simply don't have room to add him leaving Arizona in a good position to make a run. He was re-offered by the new UA staff this week and the Wildcats are certainly in a good position. He wants to take visits so it could take some time before he settles on a commitment since he will have until April to sign. For now though he is someone to get to know since Arizona is going to be in the mix. Arizona State and UCLA have been involved with him while Auburn, Oklahoma and SDSU have been heavily in the mix as well. There is a feeling that he ultimately wants to stay close to home leaving UA in a good spot considering Tucson is not all that far from San Diego.
“Stuff kind of shifted really fast with this Covid stuff,” Simmons said. “For someone who is kind of new to this recruiting stuff, it just happened this year and I didn’t know what to do with it. Now that I know how to go about things, me and my mom want to make sure this last decision is the best decision so we’re just waiting for the country to open back up and we’re going to explore the country to see which schools can develop me not only for the next level but for the level after that.”
• Latest PWO news
Arizona's coaches are working different fronts when it comes to recruiting right now. Some coaches are focused on the 2022 class already while others are still working on the finishing touches for the 2021 class. There are also walk-ons the staff is looking to add so that it can begin moving on completely to the next stages of development for the program. One of the new preferred walk-on offers that went out in the last few days went to Scottsdale-Saguaro safety Anthony Gonzales. The 6-foot prospect decided Monday to take that opportunity with the Wildcats allowing him to stay close to home and join UA. He has some impressive playmaking abilities and should help provide some more depth in the secondary for the new staff. Also, as mentioned above, getting any players from Saguaro on the roster should be helpful for the new staff to build some connection with that school. DeWayne Walker is the one who made the PWO offer to Gonzales and there is certainly a chance he ends up moving over to cornerback once he arrives on campus.
OL/DL Danny Peters – La Canada (Calif.) St. Francis
As the Wildcats continue to look for walk-on options this winter, one new PWO offer that went out on Sunday went to the two-way lineman from Southern California. The likely scenario is that Peters plays on the offensive side of the ball, but he has some impressive ability for a walk-on player. He won the lineman of the year award in his league last season. He has some nice natural athleticism and good size at about 6-foot-5 but there hasn't been a ton of Power Five interest up to this point. Oregon State is one school that has kept in contact with him while some smaller programs have been quite interested as well. Considering UA is looking for more depth and talent along the offensive line he is not a bad option as a walk-on player but at this point he is still mulling his options to see what other programs decide to offer him a spot as well.
This week that brought a couple more scholarship offers for UA to members of the senior class while the staff also continues to explore preferred walk-on options as well. Here's a rundown of the latest 2021 recruiting news.
Four-star 2021 lineman re-offered by Arizona's new coaches
Notable offers: Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington, Washington State, Georgia, Miami, Michigan, Oklahoma, Penn State, West Virginia, San Diego State, San Jose State
Rundown: Arizona's previous staff offered San Diego-Helix standout lineman Josh Simmons long ago, but once he committed to Oregon the Wildcats started to look at other options and never made their way back into his recruitment. Simmons hurt himself by informing coaches that he would only be able willing to play defense in college despite being a standout offensive lineman at the high school level. Many programs backed off leading to some uncertainty about what would happen next. He started to zero in on San Diego State in the fall but ended up not committing to that program and now has seen renewed interest from colleges after letting coaches know that he's is moving back to the offensive line.
“Nobody has ever seen me at defensive line,” Simmons recently told Rivals.com. “I don’t know what was going through my mind. People were saying I needed to slim down and I took that too far and I didn’t think I could put the weight on quick enough but I did. I put on a lot of good weight. Everybody knows I play the o-line spot pretty good. I thought why don’t I stay there and make some money off it and change my family situation.”
The four-star prospect has immense talent on the offensive side of the ball but at this stage in the process many programs simply don't have room to add him leaving Arizona in a good position to make a run. He was re-offered by the new UA staff this week and the Wildcats are certainly in a good position. He wants to take visits so it could take some time before he settles on a commitment since he will have until April to sign. For now though he is someone to get to know since Arizona is going to be in the mix. Arizona State and UCLA have been involved with him while Auburn, Oklahoma and SDSU have been heavily in the mix as well. There is a feeling that he ultimately wants to stay close to home leaving UA in a good spot considering Tucson is not all that far from San Diego.
“Stuff kind of shifted really fast with this Covid stuff,” Simmons said. “For someone who is kind of new to this recruiting stuff, it just happened this year and I didn’t know what to do with it. Now that I know how to go about things, me and my mom want to make sure this last decision is the best decision so we’re just waiting for the country to open back up and we’re going to explore the country to see which schools can develop me not only for the next level but for the level after that.”
• Latest PWO news
Arizona's coaches are working different fronts when it comes to recruiting right now. Some coaches are focused on the 2022 class already while others are still working on the finishing touches for the 2021 class. There are also walk-ons the staff is looking to add so that it can begin moving on completely to the next stages of development for the program. One of the new preferred walk-on offers that went out in the last few days went to Scottsdale-Saguaro safety Anthony Gonzales. The 6-foot prospect decided Monday to take that opportunity with the Wildcats allowing him to stay close to home and join UA. He has some impressive playmaking abilities and should help provide some more depth in the secondary for the new staff. Also, as mentioned above, getting any players from Saguaro on the roster should be helpful for the new staff to build some connection with that school. DeWayne Walker is the one who made the PWO offer to Gonzales and there is certainly a chance he ends up moving over to cornerback once he arrives on campus.
OL/DL Danny Peters – La Canada (Calif.) St. Francis
As the Wildcats continue to look for walk-on options this winter, one new PWO offer that went out on Sunday went to the two-way lineman from Southern California. The likely scenario is that Peters plays on the offensive side of the ball, but he has some impressive ability for a walk-on player. He won the lineman of the year award in his league last season. He has some nice natural athleticism and good size at about 6-foot-5 but there hasn't been a ton of Power Five interest up to this point. Oregon State is one school that has kept in contact with him while some smaller programs have been quite interested as well. Considering UA is looking for more depth and talent along the offensive line he is not a bad option as a walk-on player but at this point he is still mulling his options to see what other programs decide to offer him a spot as well.
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