It’s the start of a new week although that doesn’t really mean much to most people right now under the current conditions. We hope that everyone reading this is staying healthy and sane during these trying times. To help take your mind off of the current state of things here is another edition of the War Room to get you caught up with all the latest regarding Arizona as the offseason continues to unfold.
Football and football recruiting
We will begin on the football side where the offseason process has certainly been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. The Wildcats were only able to get in four practices during the spring and the entire offseason program has been thrown off course since college sports were shut down because of the spread of the virus.
At this point there are no clear indications of when college football will resume nor when players will be allowed to get back together and begin preparations for the upcoming season. The rumblings behind the scenes have indicated that there will be at least some changes to the schedule this season whether that is simply being delayed or the schedule being shortened in some way.
The biggest issue will be getting players ready and in game shape while also preparing players to be as injury-free as possible during the season. It is unlikely that athletes will be permitted to be on campus in many states unless the rest of the student body is also allowed to be on campus making it a tricky situation for a team working to get ready for the upcoming season.
Rosters remain somewhat incomplete at this stage since a potential NCAA rule change that would allow first-time transfers to avoid having to sit out a season could force another wave of transfers to take place.
• Staying in tune with that thinking the Wildcats are still in the process of finalizing their own roster and last week the team had its most significant player of the offseason enter his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal. Veteran safety Scottie Young Jr. is going to finish out his career somewhere else after announcing his plans to transfer. The California native is heading into his senior season and was set to be one of the most experienced players on Arizona’s defense this year.
Instead, the Wildcats will have to figure out another solution as Young is one of a handful of safeties to leave the program since the last game of the season.
There are only four scholarship safeties left on the roster as things stand now with just two of them – Christian Young and Jarrius Wallace – having any kind of extensive experience. Jaxen Turner was likely to receive plenty of playing time last year before an injury cut his first season short while Rhedi Short is going into his fourth season but has yet to contribute on the field.
So what’s the answer?
For Arizona the answer could be with moving players from other positions, which was likely always going to happen regardless of what took place with the rest of the safety group this offseason. That unit was Arizona’s worst last season and forced the coaching staff to move cornerback Jace Whittaker over to help solidify the group. Since there will be fewer safeties on the field in Paul Rhoads’ 3-4 defense there is less of a need for players, yes, but there is still going to need to be an upgrade of depth there.
Turner certainly has the skill set to move into a starting role while Christian Young is likely to return to starting duty. However, one player to watch whenever the team can get back out on the field is Christian Roland-Wallace whose best position in the future might be safety. He has great size and the skill set to go with it that would allow him to be a successful safety.
Another option, albeit one that would require some convincing, would be either moving senior receiver Brenden Schooler to defense full time or having him play both ways. Schooler began his career at Oregon as an impact safety and so there is a familiarity with the position. He did not play defense during the start of spring ball as his focus was solely on playing receiver, but the door has never been closed on the graduate transfer wideout potentially spending some time at his old position.
At this point all options are open for the Wildcats.
* As recruiting kicks into high gear one unintended impact of the shutdown of in-person contact for college programs has been a hyper focus on recruiting. Coaches don’t have a lot of other things to work on right now since the contact they are permitted to have with their current players remains limited. What that has done is given recruits a chance to move through the recruiting process faster than normal even without having the chance to take in-person recruiting trips.
Virtual visits have become the norm and Arizona has been able to host several prospects for those trips already in recent weeks as the recruiting “dead” period rolls on.
It has helped give a better picture of the process and we thought it would be a good idea to give a list of recruits to keep a close watch on as the process unfolds. Arizona is currently behind many other programs in 2021 recruiting since the Wildcats have yet to land a prospect in the current junior class, but there are some names to know about and watch that could change that in the coming weeks and months.
The California defensive lineman, who is a basketball player that only began playing football recently, has already made plenty of movement in his recruitment. He recently included the Wildcats among his final five and his relationship with defensive line coach Stan Eggen is a big part of the process. It would not be a shock to see him eventually be one of the first recruits to commit to UA although there is still some progress that needs to be made overall with his recruitment.
The Illinois-based linebacker already has a connection with Kyle DeVan since it was the UA offensive line coach who recruited his older brother to Ball State. That relationship is going to be key throughout the process and coming out west could end up being in the cards for Weerts who has already been able to take a virtual visit with the Wildcats up to this point. He is another prospect who is making quick progress through the process, so he remains another recruit to watch moving forward.
The three-star receiver from Texas is one of the prospects who was actually able to take a spring visit to Arizona ahead of the recruiting dead period and that is a big deal for the Wildcats since he will not be able to get on another physical visit anywhere for quite some time. Goffney has since seen his recruitment continue to take off as his offer list has expanded, but that connection with the Wildcats and early visit has a chance to pay off in a big way for Kevin Sumlin’s program.
Texas quarterback Seth Henigan had been a big priority for the Wildcats’ coaches and he was able to take a visit to UA earlier in the year, but he committed to Memphis recently taking him out of the equation at the position. The likelihood of Arizona landing an elite-level quarterback in the 2021 class is slim since Grant Gunnell is going to have the starting job for the foreseeable future, however, Arizona always wants to take a quarterback in every class and the Hawaii-based signal caller is one to know. Arizona has not yet offered him officially, but outside linebackers and area recruiter Andy Buh has remained in constant contact with Friel. The Wildcats will likely make their offer official whenever he is able to get on campus and when that happens it also wouldn’t be a shock to see him pull the trigger on a decision. Friel has a lot of strong qualities about his game and he has the size that Noel Mazzone is looking for so he could end up being a strong fit for the Wildcats.
The New Mexico-based defensive end has already started building a relationship with the Arizona coaches and with Eggen coming from New Mexico there is certainly some familiarity there. Kiehne is already working on lining up his visit schedule for when he is allowed to make trips again and Arizona is on the list of schools that will receive an official visit from the three-star recruit. His process could take longer than some of the other recruits on the list, but he has already started to make quite a bit of progress so far.
* The increased attention and communication between coaches and prospects has pushed some recruits to start narrowing down their decisions already. Arizona has continued to remain as part of some of these lists.
In addition to Dimitris, who is down to Arizona, Mississippi State, Colorado, UNLV and Maryland, the Wildcats also made the cut for a couple more recruits in the 2021 class including Dallas-area defensive end Terrell Tilmon and Louisiana running back Logan Diggs.
Tilmon is down to eight schools now narrowing his list down from about 20 options and Arizona remains in play. Arizona, Baylor, Kansas State, Louisiana Tech, Minnesota, Oregon, SMU and Texas Tech are the programs that made the cut. The Wildcats will have their work cut out for him as Arizona is one of the schools he has not had a chance to visit in person yet.
Diggs is down to 10 schools with UA still involved and part of the list along with Arizona State, Arkansas, Louisville, Michigan State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, USC and Vanderbilt. He is another one with nearly 20 offers, but the Wildcats should remain in play as the process moves forward as long as the program can get him out on a trip at some point.
Football and football recruiting
We will begin on the football side where the offseason process has certainly been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. The Wildcats were only able to get in four practices during the spring and the entire offseason program has been thrown off course since college sports were shut down because of the spread of the virus.
At this point there are no clear indications of when college football will resume nor when players will be allowed to get back together and begin preparations for the upcoming season. The rumblings behind the scenes have indicated that there will be at least some changes to the schedule this season whether that is simply being delayed or the schedule being shortened in some way.
The biggest issue will be getting players ready and in game shape while also preparing players to be as injury-free as possible during the season. It is unlikely that athletes will be permitted to be on campus in many states unless the rest of the student body is also allowed to be on campus making it a tricky situation for a team working to get ready for the upcoming season.
Rosters remain somewhat incomplete at this stage since a potential NCAA rule change that would allow first-time transfers to avoid having to sit out a season could force another wave of transfers to take place.
• Staying in tune with that thinking the Wildcats are still in the process of finalizing their own roster and last week the team had its most significant player of the offseason enter his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal. Veteran safety Scottie Young Jr. is going to finish out his career somewhere else after announcing his plans to transfer. The California native is heading into his senior season and was set to be one of the most experienced players on Arizona’s defense this year.
Instead, the Wildcats will have to figure out another solution as Young is one of a handful of safeties to leave the program since the last game of the season.
There are only four scholarship safeties left on the roster as things stand now with just two of them – Christian Young and Jarrius Wallace – having any kind of extensive experience. Jaxen Turner was likely to receive plenty of playing time last year before an injury cut his first season short while Rhedi Short is going into his fourth season but has yet to contribute on the field.
So what’s the answer?
For Arizona the answer could be with moving players from other positions, which was likely always going to happen regardless of what took place with the rest of the safety group this offseason. That unit was Arizona’s worst last season and forced the coaching staff to move cornerback Jace Whittaker over to help solidify the group. Since there will be fewer safeties on the field in Paul Rhoads’ 3-4 defense there is less of a need for players, yes, but there is still going to need to be an upgrade of depth there.
Turner certainly has the skill set to move into a starting role while Christian Young is likely to return to starting duty. However, one player to watch whenever the team can get back out on the field is Christian Roland-Wallace whose best position in the future might be safety. He has great size and the skill set to go with it that would allow him to be a successful safety.
Another option, albeit one that would require some convincing, would be either moving senior receiver Brenden Schooler to defense full time or having him play both ways. Schooler began his career at Oregon as an impact safety and so there is a familiarity with the position. He did not play defense during the start of spring ball as his focus was solely on playing receiver, but the door has never been closed on the graduate transfer wideout potentially spending some time at his old position.
At this point all options are open for the Wildcats.
* As recruiting kicks into high gear one unintended impact of the shutdown of in-person contact for college programs has been a hyper focus on recruiting. Coaches don’t have a lot of other things to work on right now since the contact they are permitted to have with their current players remains limited. What that has done is given recruits a chance to move through the recruiting process faster than normal even without having the chance to take in-person recruiting trips.
Virtual visits have become the norm and Arizona has been able to host several prospects for those trips already in recent weeks as the recruiting “dead” period rolls on.
It has helped give a better picture of the process and we thought it would be a good idea to give a list of recruits to keep a close watch on as the process unfolds. Arizona is currently behind many other programs in 2021 recruiting since the Wildcats have yet to land a prospect in the current junior class, but there are some names to know about and watch that could change that in the coming weeks and months.
The California defensive lineman, who is a basketball player that only began playing football recently, has already made plenty of movement in his recruitment. He recently included the Wildcats among his final five and his relationship with defensive line coach Stan Eggen is a big part of the process. It would not be a shock to see him eventually be one of the first recruits to commit to UA although there is still some progress that needs to be made overall with his recruitment.
The Illinois-based linebacker already has a connection with Kyle DeVan since it was the UA offensive line coach who recruited his older brother to Ball State. That relationship is going to be key throughout the process and coming out west could end up being in the cards for Weerts who has already been able to take a virtual visit with the Wildcats up to this point. He is another prospect who is making quick progress through the process, so he remains another recruit to watch moving forward.
The three-star receiver from Texas is one of the prospects who was actually able to take a spring visit to Arizona ahead of the recruiting dead period and that is a big deal for the Wildcats since he will not be able to get on another physical visit anywhere for quite some time. Goffney has since seen his recruitment continue to take off as his offer list has expanded, but that connection with the Wildcats and early visit has a chance to pay off in a big way for Kevin Sumlin’s program.
Texas quarterback Seth Henigan had been a big priority for the Wildcats’ coaches and he was able to take a visit to UA earlier in the year, but he committed to Memphis recently taking him out of the equation at the position. The likelihood of Arizona landing an elite-level quarterback in the 2021 class is slim since Grant Gunnell is going to have the starting job for the foreseeable future, however, Arizona always wants to take a quarterback in every class and the Hawaii-based signal caller is one to know. Arizona has not yet offered him officially, but outside linebackers and area recruiter Andy Buh has remained in constant contact with Friel. The Wildcats will likely make their offer official whenever he is able to get on campus and when that happens it also wouldn’t be a shock to see him pull the trigger on a decision. Friel has a lot of strong qualities about his game and he has the size that Noel Mazzone is looking for so he could end up being a strong fit for the Wildcats.
The New Mexico-based defensive end has already started building a relationship with the Arizona coaches and with Eggen coming from New Mexico there is certainly some familiarity there. Kiehne is already working on lining up his visit schedule for when he is allowed to make trips again and Arizona is on the list of schools that will receive an official visit from the three-star recruit. His process could take longer than some of the other recruits on the list, but he has already started to make quite a bit of progress so far.
* The increased attention and communication between coaches and prospects has pushed some recruits to start narrowing down their decisions already. Arizona has continued to remain as part of some of these lists.
In addition to Dimitris, who is down to Arizona, Mississippi State, Colorado, UNLV and Maryland, the Wildcats also made the cut for a couple more recruits in the 2021 class including Dallas-area defensive end Terrell Tilmon and Louisiana running back Logan Diggs.
Tilmon is down to eight schools now narrowing his list down from about 20 options and Arizona remains in play. Arizona, Baylor, Kansas State, Louisiana Tech, Minnesota, Oregon, SMU and Texas Tech are the programs that made the cut. The Wildcats will have their work cut out for him as Arizona is one of the schools he has not had a chance to visit in person yet.
Diggs is down to 10 schools with UA still involved and part of the list along with Arizona State, Arkansas, Louisville, Michigan State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, USC and Vanderbilt. He is another one with nearly 20 offers, but the Wildcats should remain in play as the process moves forward as long as the program can get him out on a trip at some point.
