Arizona Football: Maybe Willie Taggart converting Arizona commits was a good thing?

While Oregon Head Coach Willie Taggart continues to offer Arizona offered and committed or recently de-committed players, Oregon Ducks fans want to change the subject.

Zack Rosenblatt of the Arizona Daily Star started posting quotes from Arizona Football folks regarding Taggart and his flipping of commits towards the end of the recruiting season last year. Taggart had just gotten hired, and he was not familiar with the west coast. But he must have had a huge crush or respect for Arizona’s Head Coach Rich Rodriguez because he went after a ton of his targets and commits.

Discussions on Rosenblatt’s feed started veering onto a different path, namely whose town is the best? Tucson or Eugene? Duck fans trying to change the subject, good try, we are not fooled!

Let me go a bit further. Some Duck fans are delirious!

The Wildcats are traveling to Oregon to play the Ducks this Saturday at 4:00 pm PST/5:00 MST on the Pac-12 channel. So once again the East Coast and anyone who does not have the Pac-12 channel will miss this matchup.

According to Michael Lev, Arizona Daily Star, the weather in Eugene is usually wet. He wrote this about the weather report:

"Arizona did wet-ball drills today and will continue to do them through the week. The current Saturday forecast for Eugene calls for a high of 51, a low of 42, with mostly cloudy skies and a 10 percent chance of rain"

Talk about the upcoming football game between the two teams have heated up for real, but it’s getting ugly. Wildcats fans, and now we know that coaches and players, did not forget the feeding frenzy that ensued for Taggart desperate to fill out his class.

Rosenblatt and I asked Taggart some questions at Pac-12 Media Day, here are his answers and more (6:00 Rosenblatt asked about Oregon, 13:36 I asked about the flipping – his commits, answer his  will floor you):

Here is coach Taggart today talking about his plan to defend Tate, “Pray.”

Arizona Football wide receiver Shun Brown told it more like it is:

Braxton Burmeister committed to Arizona, then de-committed, then recommitted, then de-committed and committed to Taggart and the Oregon Ducks. GOOD RIDDANCE!

I wrote about the competition that Burmeister faced in high school and how it was nothing like the competition Khalil Tate faced with Serra High School (Pac-5) back in 2016. It was vastly different. Serra faced much better and more talented teams in Los Angeles. Pac-12 quarterbacks Josh Rosen, Anu Solomon and Brandon Dawkins also played in the Pac-5.

This is why I concluded we got the athlete with the most potential and upside, nothing phased Tate in high school, and he ran like the wind.

Related Story: Why Khalil Tate > Braxton Burmeister (From Zona Zealots 2016 archives) You heard it heard first, but may have missed it!

Arizona quarterback coach Rod Smith reflects on what most Wildcats fans feel at this point in the season:

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So why do I think that it may be a good thing that Arizona commits flipped to Taggart and his Oregon Ducks? If a player is a man that can commit to people, someone who values their word, and if they always really wanted to go to Arizona, they would never flip.

Some of these players flipped on their friends, the future fellow Arizona teammates they spent time bonding with. Greg Johnson flipped to USC early then Cody Shear flipped to Oregon on signing day. Both were very close and spoke about Rhett Rodriguez and the commits chat rooms that they spoke every day. It had to be hard for those left behind, but I am sure none of them are thinking about that now that Arizona is doing so well. And maybe, just maybe, the flipped commits leaving brought them closer together.

I surmise that both of these great young men, exciting football players in their own right, had always wanted to commit to those other schools. Both red-shirting, their time will come. But who wants a player who doesn’t want the school and their fans? The saving grace is that they didn’t flip to Arizona State. Am I right?

Arizona attracts players who want to compete for their place on the depth chart, just like Ricky Hunley did in his freshman year. Players not afraid to compete, players who love football as much as Rich Rodriguez does, players who want to make Wildcats fans proud.

Must Read: More on Arizona Football from ZZ....

It is what it is. As Wildcats fans, we should be happy it ended up this way. The football Gods have a funny way of dishing out miracles: Wildcats fans get to cheer on Heisman candidate Khalil Tate, and Oregon Ducks fans worry about Braxton Burmeister starting. Just when plenty of fans thought Arizona Football was in the toilet, their coach would be or should be fired, and one huge reason was losing Burmeister to Oregon, the Cats are sitting pretty at the No. 2 slot in the Pac-12 South. The team is about to pounce on the Oregon Ducks, in the charming but very wet town of Eugene, Oregon. BEAR DOWN ARIZONA!