It’s almost here. The start of another season is getting closer as the fall sports are getting ready to get going across college athletics. Arizona football will begin next Monday and will have its report day on Sunday. Football media days are this week and things will soon be off and running for another year. On the basketball side of things it’s all about recruiting for one more week as the live evaluation period comes to an end in Las Vegas.
We’ll get you caught up on all the latest in this week’s War Room.
Football
Rich Rodriguez and his program now have less than a week until they all reconvene and begin preparations for the upcoming season. It will be a busy week for the Arizona head coach with his portion of the Pac-12 Media Days taking place Wednesday and Report Day on Sunday. Then it’s on to camp and what could end up being an eventful year and it is a pivotal time for the future of the program.
* Arizona is at an interesting point as a program. A handful of coaches and staffers have left the program this offseason only fueling the fire that Rodriguez’s time in Tucson is nearing its end. The latest was one-time recruiting coordinator and most recently general manager and director of player personnel, Matt Dudek. He is a staffer who has been with Arizona since Rodriguez arrived to the school and he joins others such as Donté Williams, Charlie Ragle, Tony Dews and football analyst Miguel Reveles all to leave for other jobs just in this offseason alone.
It is going to make for an interesting time this week at the Pac-12 Media Days as there are sure to be questions about the state of the program from the national and local media in attendance. The expectation is that Arizona will be selected either at the very bottom or near the bottom of the Pac-12 South rankings in the media poll, and again it will be an interesting day to see how Rodriguez reacts to that as well as the – likely negative – questions that come his way this week.
We have our own questions that we would like to have answered this week and that is what we’ll focus on in this portion of the War Room.
- Question No. 1: How much of the offseason movement has been by design?
The roster and coaching movement is something that Rodriguez is not going to be able to avoid answering questions about this week. There was already a sense at the end of last season that it was going to take place, but it’s hard for a coach to say that he’s going to start pushing some players out. One thing he did discuss was the incoming recruiting class and group of newcomers that is going to reach more than 40 players when all is said and done. When you talk about that as much as Rodriguez did toward the end of last season and over the course of the spring there is something more going on. We saw it manifest itself in a number of departures after last season and it is clear the Wildcats want new blood on the team and want those newcomers to make up a large portion of the roster. It will be interesting to get Rodriguez’s take on all this and what he hopes comes of all of it this season and beyond.
- Question No. 2: What prompted him to load up on quarterbacks like he did?
Yes, injuries were an issue last season and it left the team in such a bad predicament having to pull Khalil Tate’s redshirt before it wanted to. However, the Wildcats would have been fine with what they had coming in prior to going out and getting some of the late additions. Rodriguez likes to have a handful of scholarship quarterbacks on each roster so it makes sense from that point but having so many players in the same class with three incoming freshmen is an interesting one especially when Tate is just going into his sophomore year. The addition of Donovan Tate late in the year is a particularly intriguing one. He isn’t going to be on scholarship so it isn’t going to hurt the Wildcats any from that point but taking a chance on a quarterback who has been out of the game for nearly a decade isn’t exactly going to make the other signal callers excited. Rodriguez has been confident in Donovan Tate’s abilities and feels he can make a push up the depth chart in a hurry. It is all an interesting situation and one that Rodriguez will certainly be asked about this week.
- Question No. 3: With so many negatives expected to be discussed and asked about, what are some positives Rodriguez has going into the season?
Just expect there to be a lot of negatives and low expectations when it comes to Arizona on Wednesday and the national media gets its chance to talk more with Rodriguez. We have already said to expect the program to be at the bottom of the division when the media poll comes out and with the ballots that have already been released by some media members that is where things are headed. Throw in the players that have left the program for one reason or another and the coaches who have left this offseason and there will be plenty of things Rodriguez doesn’t want to address needing to be addressed. So what does he like about this team? The running back position is the glaring positive about the Wildcats this year and something that will be key in the team trying to get back to where it wants to be and in the bowl picture. But, it will be interesting to see what else the UA head coach likes about this year’s team and what stands out to him when it comes to positives about the Wildcats.
Football recruiting
All while Arizona is getting ready for the start to its camp it is also getting ready to host a big visit weekend this Saturday. The annual end-of-summer event normally dubbed “The Closing” is set to take place in Tucson giving the Wildcats a chance to get some of its prime targets on campus. That means pulling double duty for a bit as the summer workouts end and the transition to recruiting then back to the team goes on in the next few days.
* A couple more prospects have been added to the list of visitors for this weekend and one of the big ones to watch as a potential commitment at some point is former UCLA safety pledge Jhevon Hill from Cajon High in San Bernardino, California. The 6-foot-3 recruit backed off his decision a while back and Arizona has been one of the schools involved most. It is interesting that his recruitment has paralleled Rhedi Short’s recruitment in a lot of ways and he will be on campus at the end of the week for a trip out to Tucson. It will give the Wildcats a chance to get in better position and make an impact on his recruitment before the season gets going.
“I’m taking a visit to Arizona on July 29,” Hill told Rivals.com last week. “I want to get to know the coaches more and get a good feel for the environment.”
The Wildcats have been active in his recruitment and along with Washington State, Utah, Cal and others. It will be an important trip for him as he goes through the process as the next couple months will tell the story about where he ends up.
Arizona is right in the thick of it and at this point it is an integral trip for the Wildcats. A good visit puts UA right at the top as he goes into his senior season. A timeline for a decision hasn’t been set yet, but it is one that looks like it will get settled in the coming months as he plays out his final high school season.
In addition to Hill, the Wildcats will also have another Cajon prospect out for the junior day only he won’t be a junior officially yet. Rising junior quarterback Jayden Daniels will also be making the trip out to Tucson for the event. The 2019 prospect put together a strong showing on the passing league circuit this spring and summer and he is an intriguing recruit. Daniels only holds an offer from Nevada at this point but he is someone the Wildcats could eventually offer on the visit or later on in the process.
He checks in at 6-foot-2 and while he is a quarterback he could play some other positions down the line because of his size.
* Arizona continues to make offers and it wouldn’t be shocking to see some more come out of this weekend’s event, but someone the program decided to get more involved with last week is already trying to put together a visit with the Wildcats. Frisco (Texas) Wakeland standout receiver Tre Adams added Arizona to his list last week and it is already one of the bigger programs on his list. He has started to narrow things down, but with the Wildcats coming into the mix he has decided to push things back a bit so he has some time to make a visit out to Arizona. He won’t be at this weekend’s event but his hoping to use an official visit on a trip out to UA in the next month or so to see if it’s the right spot for him. Illinois, Utah and BYU are some of the other programs on his list that stand out but Arizona is a school he said he is “very” interested in.
“Towards the end of June I went to the A&M Commerce Camp where coach (Theron) Aych and coach (Brian) Knorr were there and they liked my speed and my route running,” Adams said of how his offer with the staff came together. “I connected with them after camp and kept in contact with them for a couple weeks until last week when they offered.”
Adams is not planning to make his commitment until he gets a chance to visit Arizona so there will be plenty of time to make up ground in his recruitment and playing in the Pac-12 is something that has intrigued him so far.
“I wanted to get down there before the season but I wasn't able to make it there before the dead period in August,” he said. “So I will take an official on a game day, but not sure which one yet.”
We’ll get you caught up on all the latest in this week’s War Room.
Football
Rich Rodriguez and his program now have less than a week until they all reconvene and begin preparations for the upcoming season. It will be a busy week for the Arizona head coach with his portion of the Pac-12 Media Days taking place Wednesday and Report Day on Sunday. Then it’s on to camp and what could end up being an eventful year and it is a pivotal time for the future of the program.
* Arizona is at an interesting point as a program. A handful of coaches and staffers have left the program this offseason only fueling the fire that Rodriguez’s time in Tucson is nearing its end. The latest was one-time recruiting coordinator and most recently general manager and director of player personnel, Matt Dudek. He is a staffer who has been with Arizona since Rodriguez arrived to the school and he joins others such as Donté Williams, Charlie Ragle, Tony Dews and football analyst Miguel Reveles all to leave for other jobs just in this offseason alone.
It is going to make for an interesting time this week at the Pac-12 Media Days as there are sure to be questions about the state of the program from the national and local media in attendance. The expectation is that Arizona will be selected either at the very bottom or near the bottom of the Pac-12 South rankings in the media poll, and again it will be an interesting day to see how Rodriguez reacts to that as well as the – likely negative – questions that come his way this week.
We have our own questions that we would like to have answered this week and that is what we’ll focus on in this portion of the War Room.
- Question No. 1: How much of the offseason movement has been by design?
The roster and coaching movement is something that Rodriguez is not going to be able to avoid answering questions about this week. There was already a sense at the end of last season that it was going to take place, but it’s hard for a coach to say that he’s going to start pushing some players out. One thing he did discuss was the incoming recruiting class and group of newcomers that is going to reach more than 40 players when all is said and done. When you talk about that as much as Rodriguez did toward the end of last season and over the course of the spring there is something more going on. We saw it manifest itself in a number of departures after last season and it is clear the Wildcats want new blood on the team and want those newcomers to make up a large portion of the roster. It will be interesting to get Rodriguez’s take on all this and what he hopes comes of all of it this season and beyond.
- Question No. 2: What prompted him to load up on quarterbacks like he did?
Yes, injuries were an issue last season and it left the team in such a bad predicament having to pull Khalil Tate’s redshirt before it wanted to. However, the Wildcats would have been fine with what they had coming in prior to going out and getting some of the late additions. Rodriguez likes to have a handful of scholarship quarterbacks on each roster so it makes sense from that point but having so many players in the same class with three incoming freshmen is an interesting one especially when Tate is just going into his sophomore year. The addition of Donovan Tate late in the year is a particularly intriguing one. He isn’t going to be on scholarship so it isn’t going to hurt the Wildcats any from that point but taking a chance on a quarterback who has been out of the game for nearly a decade isn’t exactly going to make the other signal callers excited. Rodriguez has been confident in Donovan Tate’s abilities and feels he can make a push up the depth chart in a hurry. It is all an interesting situation and one that Rodriguez will certainly be asked about this week.
- Question No. 3: With so many negatives expected to be discussed and asked about, what are some positives Rodriguez has going into the season?
Just expect there to be a lot of negatives and low expectations when it comes to Arizona on Wednesday and the national media gets its chance to talk more with Rodriguez. We have already said to expect the program to be at the bottom of the division when the media poll comes out and with the ballots that have already been released by some media members that is where things are headed. Throw in the players that have left the program for one reason or another and the coaches who have left this offseason and there will be plenty of things Rodriguez doesn’t want to address needing to be addressed. So what does he like about this team? The running back position is the glaring positive about the Wildcats this year and something that will be key in the team trying to get back to where it wants to be and in the bowl picture. But, it will be interesting to see what else the UA head coach likes about this year’s team and what stands out to him when it comes to positives about the Wildcats.
Football recruiting
All while Arizona is getting ready for the start to its camp it is also getting ready to host a big visit weekend this Saturday. The annual end-of-summer event normally dubbed “The Closing” is set to take place in Tucson giving the Wildcats a chance to get some of its prime targets on campus. That means pulling double duty for a bit as the summer workouts end and the transition to recruiting then back to the team goes on in the next few days.
* A couple more prospects have been added to the list of visitors for this weekend and one of the big ones to watch as a potential commitment at some point is former UCLA safety pledge Jhevon Hill from Cajon High in San Bernardino, California. The 6-foot-3 recruit backed off his decision a while back and Arizona has been one of the schools involved most. It is interesting that his recruitment has paralleled Rhedi Short’s recruitment in a lot of ways and he will be on campus at the end of the week for a trip out to Tucson. It will give the Wildcats a chance to get in better position and make an impact on his recruitment before the season gets going.
“I’m taking a visit to Arizona on July 29,” Hill told Rivals.com last week. “I want to get to know the coaches more and get a good feel for the environment.”
The Wildcats have been active in his recruitment and along with Washington State, Utah, Cal and others. It will be an important trip for him as he goes through the process as the next couple months will tell the story about where he ends up.
Arizona is right in the thick of it and at this point it is an integral trip for the Wildcats. A good visit puts UA right at the top as he goes into his senior season. A timeline for a decision hasn’t been set yet, but it is one that looks like it will get settled in the coming months as he plays out his final high school season.
In addition to Hill, the Wildcats will also have another Cajon prospect out for the junior day only he won’t be a junior officially yet. Rising junior quarterback Jayden Daniels will also be making the trip out to Tucson for the event. The 2019 prospect put together a strong showing on the passing league circuit this spring and summer and he is an intriguing recruit. Daniels only holds an offer from Nevada at this point but he is someone the Wildcats could eventually offer on the visit or later on in the process.
He checks in at 6-foot-2 and while he is a quarterback he could play some other positions down the line because of his size.
* Arizona continues to make offers and it wouldn’t be shocking to see some more come out of this weekend’s event, but someone the program decided to get more involved with last week is already trying to put together a visit with the Wildcats. Frisco (Texas) Wakeland standout receiver Tre Adams added Arizona to his list last week and it is already one of the bigger programs on his list. He has started to narrow things down, but with the Wildcats coming into the mix he has decided to push things back a bit so he has some time to make a visit out to Arizona. He won’t be at this weekend’s event but his hoping to use an official visit on a trip out to UA in the next month or so to see if it’s the right spot for him. Illinois, Utah and BYU are some of the other programs on his list that stand out but Arizona is a school he said he is “very” interested in.
“Towards the end of June I went to the A&M Commerce Camp where coach (Theron) Aych and coach (Brian) Knorr were there and they liked my speed and my route running,” Adams said of how his offer with the staff came together. “I connected with them after camp and kept in contact with them for a couple weeks until last week when they offered.”
Adams is not planning to make his commitment until he gets a chance to visit Arizona so there will be plenty of time to make up ground in his recruitment and playing in the Pac-12 is something that has intrigued him so far.
“I wanted to get down there before the season but I wasn't able to make it there before the dead period in August,” he said. “So I will take an official on a game day, but not sure which one yet.”
