National Signing Day: Rich Rod’s thoughts as he announces list of 16 more to sign

Rich Rodriguez spoke during National Signing Day about big dudes, 16 athletes not yet signed, and much much more.

What a National Signing Day, and what a week and few months it has been for Arizona Football! Donte Williams departure hurt this program big time, as Arizona couldn’t match Nebraska’s offer.

Along with Williams departure, the Oregon Ducks Head Coach Willie Taggart decided to pilfer Rich Rod’s commits left and right. At one point Arizona’s 2017 class was ranked at No. 15, but that was then. Taggart must feel Rodriguez and staff are really good at finding great players, huh?

Arizona’s record of 3-9 didn’t help either. USC’s Rose Bowl win helped the Trojans who ended up with the No. 5 2017 recruiting class in the country. The Trojans did have several de-commits as well, but then won some huge last-minute commits from Augustus Hawkins HS; Four-star CB Greg Johnson (Donte’ Williams recruit who de-committed from Arizona upon William’s departure) and WR Joseph ‘Jody’ Lewis.

But USC always has a highly ranked class and sometimes the class pans out and sometimes they struggle. And sometimes the Wildcats beat them, much to the delight of Wildcats and UCLA fans everywhere.

Arizona, on the other hand, earned the No. 43 class this season. Number 43 doesn’t necessarily sound great, but it is an improvement. Arizona moved up seven spots up from last season’s No. 50 ranking and matched the ranking of their 2015 class. The difference this season is that some athletes in the Wildcats 2017 class will be playing immediately and competing for a starting position. USC commits will be competing too, but they may be sitting on the bench for several seasons before getting their name called.

More from Football Recruiting

• 3-Star Athlete Chance Harrison commits to Arizona Football
• Local 5-Star DE Elijah Rushing commits to Arizona Football
• Arizona Football gains commitment from 3* Safety, Turran Williams
• Oregon Tight End Charlie Crowell commits to Arizona Football
• Bay Area lineman Justin Hylkema commits to Arizona Football

Rich Rodriguez held a press conference today and explained that this is not the last day, but just the first day of the national signing period. You may think the class is complete, but you would be wrong, Rodriguez is not done. The 23 guys that have signed up to be a Wildcat so far include the five that enrolled early. Rodriguez wants to confirm the recruitment of about 16 additional players, or what he calls “Fine quality student-athletes”. He also indicated he wants his team to be deeper, and he also wants “Big Dudes.”

Arizona’s head coach recruits from Arizona first, but he cannot recruit them if he cannot get them to visit and sometimes he can’t get them to visit. Rodriguez feels that official visits are not where you convince a player to choose Arizona, it’s the unofficial visit that counts the most. He knows he needs to get deeper at key positions.

Rich is open to a big-time player, a fifth-year senior who can run, who is tough and wants to work on their masters.

Rodriguez hopes to add the following players that he listed in order as follows in the coming weeks. He cannot tell any of us if these guys are preferred walk-on’s (PWO) or scholarship athletes per NCAA rules (which he feels is one of the only rules that is possibly beneficial). Here is the list care of Arizona Daily Star:

• WR-DB Izaiah Adams, Cathedral, Los Angeles, same school as Rhedi Short
• OL Tyrell Aponte, Peoria, Arizona
• DT Paige Birdine, Cathedral, Los Angeles, same school as Rhedi Short
• DE Dante Blissit, Desert Edge (Goodyear)
• OL Edgar Burrola, Desert Pines, Las Vegas
• S Rourke Freeburg, Desert Mountain, Scottsdale, Arizona
• OL Tyson Gardner, Queen Creek
• CB Malik Hausman, Bishop Gorman, Las Vegas
• S Azizi Hearn, Oceanside (Oceanside, Calif.)
• WR-RB D.J. Hinton, Tucson, Arizona
• WR Isaiah Lovett, Mountain View **LEGACY, Father is Lamont Lovett**
• RB Noah Pittenger, Brophy Prep, Phoenix, Arizona
• LB-S Elijah Ruiz, Franklin. El Paso, Texas
• WR Trevor Russell, Casa Grande
• LB Ken Samson, Ironwood Ridge
• LB Rexx Tessler, Brophy Prep, Phoenix, Arizona

While we are on the subject of preferred walk on’s and future signees for the Arizona class of 2017, we may have found a diamond in the rough, ‘TwoStarPorter.’

Sometimes players reach out to Zona Zealots if he is interested in playing for Arizona Football, but usually, they are not seniors. Today we hear from a senior, Dylan Porter. After Porter had heard Cody Shear flipped to Oregon, he felt he has a shot and would love to play for Arizona. This young man is still growing, “I’m now 6-foot-6 and 293 pounds,” said Dylan, “I saw that Cody signed with Oregon, so I wanted to see what my chances are with Arizona. I have PWO’s from Notre Dame and Michigan and more but really want to be offered by Arizona.”

Porter is a wrestler who got started late on his recruitment, “I got a really late start with recruiting, so most spots were full. Very excited.”

If nothing else, it’s refreshing to hear from athletes that want to play for Arizona, as Rich Rod explained. “I never worry about the one’s we don’t get, You always worry about the ones you get, cause that’s who you play with,” said Coach Rod, “The disappointment in some of the late de-commitments, a lot of it has to do with the fact that the time, not necessarily me, but the staff and particularly the position coaches have put in.”

De-commitments aren’t always a bad thing, and sometimes it’s mutual said Rodriguez, “I learned a long time ago, you really worry about the one’s you get because those are the one’s you will win with and have success with — and the one’s we got and are getting I think will be really good.”

Rodriguez explained why he would like to have no signing day, or every day is a signing day, it’s because it’s so expensive to recruit a player, $27,000 per recruit. He called signing day a ‘circus, ‘ and feels that some of “These young men will never live up to the hype, and that’s a shame because they are still growing.” He cited that this year there were 757 de-commitments in NCAA Football this year, more than ever before, “It’s gotten worse,” said Rich Rod.

Rodriguez doesn’t feel it’s fair to the player or the school, and the media doesn’t help by writing about the players they feel are a risk to flip. We have written about this, we have pointed out that media can sometimes push away players.

Let’s take Cody Shear, for instance. Some in the press kept tweeting that he was a risk to flip to Oregon. The kid didn’t even have an offer from Oregon; he told us just that. But now, since the media had already said he was a risk to flip over and over again, it gave Shear an open door. And sure enough, Coach Taggart called Cody at 5:45 am on National Signing Day and asked if he was interested in Oregon. By 7:00 am, Taggart told Shear he had a spot for him.

Shear loved Arizona, the coaches, his fellow Arizona commits, but he never thought his dream school was interested, that was until 5:45 in the morning the day he was going to sign to play at Arizona. He gave us a message for Wildcats fans and coaches. We wish him well. His flip has left a hole it seems Rodriguez and his staff are working hard to fill.

Rodriguez also knows he needs size, “You gotta have some big dudes — our size is changing significantly — we’ve gotten a lot bigger — we need some 300-pounders, guys who are active, who can make plays.”

Must Read: Recruiting: Legacy in-state recruits mulling decision, Jalen Harris to announce tonight

All-in-all, with all the de-commits and drama during the last few weeks, Arizona ends up ranked No. 43 in the Nation out of hundreds of schools. The only bummer is that Arizona State came in at No. 42, but it is all subjective, and if Arizona can groom, train and bulk up this class and prepare them well to play in Tucson for the next several years, hopefully, Coach Rod can bring winning back to Wildcats fans. Bear Down Arizona!