Arizona Football: Matt Dudek, the Heart of the Program

Matt Dudek is the Director of Personnel for the Arizona football program, and players and his head coach cannot say enough about how special he is to them.

Every now and again you happen upon a unique and engaging person who cares about everyone around them, and you are thankful when that person is mentoring our future generation.

Dudek has been with the Arizona Football program since 2011, this is his fourth season with the Wildcats. He is the Director of Player Personnel and On-Campus Recruiting, so he interacts with both future and current players. Dudek also works with all the coaches through the recruiting process. Prior to Arizona, Dudek worked for Rutgers and Pittsburgh in various positions.

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Saying, Matt Dudek, is a special guy is an understatement. Any time his name comes up; it seems to always be followed with a smile or a heartfelt comment. He is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) type of man who seems to wear his heart on his sleeve. Putting cliché’s aside, the players and their parents know he cares and that’s one of the biggest reasons they are attracted to the University of Arizona.

He’s not thinking about what you are going to think about him, what he says or what he does; he just is himself and that’s refreshing. A great example of this is when he took on gymnastics with the Arizona Gymcats. They taught him some moves, and he was game to learn and perform a routine. What resulted was heart warming and quite funny.

We asked Coach Rich Rodriguez about what he felt Dudek adds to his program.

“Matt’s done a great job. He’s got a great personality, and he’s obviously in tune with social media. You know he does a great job organizing recruiting, and I think the players really connect with him and particularly in the recruiting process because he’s engaging he’s personable, he knows a lot about our institution and how we want to build our programs. So he’s been a big part of us trying to build the best program in the country.”

Having three daughters himself, he is game for anything silly. His daughters are adorable; he shares his special moments with them with Wildcats fans, and we all get to know his beauties.

And of course, we cannot leave out the woman behind the man, Mrs. Lindsay Dudek.

Will Parks spoke at length about Dudek at the November 9th Arizona football press conference, his comments are from the heart, and that’s just what Matt does for his recruits, commits, and athletes, he gives them his heart.

“I know Dudek for a long time, and I feel like he’s had my back since day one from when he recruited me at Pitt and then coming here. He’s got beautiful daughters, beautiful wife, I mean he’s a good person. I wouldn’t trade Dudek for anything. That man, I can’t even,” he paused, you could tell he was choked up a bit, “You know there are so many words out there that you can describe for a person, and he can be all the positive ones. I mean he’s a goofball, a funny character.”

Jul 31, 2015; Burbank, CA, USA; Arizona Wildcats safety Will Parks at Pac-12 Media Day at Warner Bros. Studios. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Parks continued, “I learned so much from him as far as how to you know interpret people, how to recruit people…he could teach you so much and you know I am very, very, very, very, very thankful for him…I feel like he’s family like he’s a second, like he can be an uncle to me…I will never forget Dudek.”

We were fortunate to be able to ask incoming Arizona football and quarterback commit Khalil Tate about his thoughts on Matt Dudek. Tate just took his official visit a couple weeks ago. “He’s a down to earth person, he’s honest,” said Tate, “In college, you don’t get a lot of honesty from coaches..the whole coaching staff is honest. They just want to get to know you and go to the next level with you.”

Grey shirt freshman Antonio Parks also had a lot to say, Parks will be arriving in the spring.

“I would just say he is a great recruiting coordinator one of the best in the business and throughout any situation he can help you get through it and he will be there to

answer your call or text, and he will help out throughout problems. That’s what set this coaching staff apart from other programs,” said Parks,”My height and weight didn’t matter to them my heart did .. and that’s why the stood out the most to me than other top programs I had the opportunity to attend.”

Parks continued “One star away from a 4-star doesn’t matter to them guys that’s why they offered me at 5’9 177 pounds and only a 3-star athlete, although I was one of the top DB’s in the state but Arizona really doesn’t have a pipeline here so for them to offer me and still be here waiting on me is great, and Matt Dudek was here every step of the way . I’ve gotten bigger now but before I gained weight and got bigger they offered and let me commit.”

Dudek (@AZ_Matty_D) keeps fans guessing posting some very creative and fun things on Twitter showing his skill in marketing the teams motto. For example, recently for Halloween, he somehow got an edit on Coach Rich Rodriguez that spoke volumes about the teams hashtag #Hardedge.

Another one liner Dudek is famous for saying is ‘on to the next one,’ and he uses it for both games and commits. He also gets the fans into the locker room, and that’s priceless.

The programs football players are Dudek’s kind of guys; they’re very special to him. Here he is looking dapper with three of Arizona’s stars, WR Cayleb Jones, MLB Scooby Wright, and RB Nick Wilson.

The football season just wouldn’t be the same without coach Dudek and his head coach Rich Rodriguez. Zona Zealots sure hopes they stay in Tucson for a couple more years at least. This type of caring and honest coaching staff is very hard to find.

Next: Arizona Wildcats Fans: Be the Fansided Fan of the Year!

Beardown Arizona! Beardown Matt!

Keep up the great work, and promise us that you’ll never change, you be you!

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