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Arizona Football is looking to add more size in recruiting

By Eric Townsend

TUCSON, AZ - NOVEMBER 24: Head coach Kevin Sumlin of the Arizona Wildcats calls out from the sideline during second half action of a college football game against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Arizona Stadium on November 24, 2018 in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images)
TUCSON, AZ - NOVEMBER 24: Head coach Kevin Sumlin of the Arizona Wildcats calls out from the sideline during second half action of a college football game against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Arizona Stadium on November 24, 2018 in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images) /
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Moving their focus to the class of 2020, the Arizona Football team is looking to add more size to their current roster, by the way of recruiting.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and despite the hype last season, the Arizona Football team faltered in 2018. Changing cultures takes time and with a new head coach, patience is needed especially for the Wildcats.

First off, comparing Arizona in the Rich Rodriguez years to now, it is apparent the playing styles have been vastly different.

Arizona Wildcats
Arizona Wildcats /

Arizona Wildcats

With that, also means different recruiting needs to fit scheme of the head coach. Under Rodriguez, it was all about speed and athleticism and that shouldn’t have been a surprise in the scoreboard and production during his tenure.

From 2012-17, while there were decent results, however, the larger problem at hand was clearly evident at times, especially when the Wildcats simply were just overpowered against bigger teams.

That’s not to throw any players under the proverbial bus, no, it’s merely stating there’s a fine balance between recruiting for speed and athleticism and recruiting for overall size and athleticism.

In the competitive world of college athletics, winning reigns supreme and recruiting and training is ultimately where that success begins.

While the Wildcats needed speed under Rodriguez to run the fast-paced spread offense, I feel that unfortunately compromised the teams’ overall size at times, especially when they played “bigger teams”.

Just for reference, the average player size for the Wildcats last season was 6-feet-1-inch and 228 pounds.

Now with a slight change of style and scheme under the newly hired head coach Kevin Sumlin, it is apparent he is looking to add more size, and that should be evident in his recruiting approach.

If you have been paying attention of recent, the Wildcats have been making some offers for 2020 already, and so far, they’ve come to some pretty ‘big players’.

  • 3* CB- Ryan Watts (6’2” 187 lbs.) – Little Elm HS (Little Elm, TX)
    • Offers from; Arizona, Baylor, Arkansas, Colorado and Cal among others
  • 3* CB- Joseph Wilson (6’1” 180 lbs.) – North Shore HS (Houston, TX)
    • Offers from; Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana Monroe  and Florida Atlantic among others
  • 3* ILB- Carson Bruener (6’2″ 205 lbs.)- Redmond HS (Redmond, WA)
    • Offers from; Arizona, Oregon, Utah and Cal among others
  • 3* DL- Tre’Vonn Rybka (6’4” 280 lbs.)- Dickson County HS (Dickson, TN)
    • Offers from; Arizona, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Memphis and Cincinnati among others
  • 4* DL- Jay Hardy (6’4.5″ 265 lbs.)- McCallie School (Chattanooga, TN)
    • Offers from; Arizona, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Virginia Tech among others
  • 3* DL- Omarr Norman-Lott (6’4” 295 lbs.)- Grant Union HS (Sacramento, CA)

These of course are just a few offers. While we have a ways to go until we officially put the class of 2020 together, it will be interesting to see how this staff approaches this.

More. On Arizona Football Recruiting. light

At Zona Zealots, we are excited to see how this class progresses and hope Sumlin and staff can put more players into the NFL, something Rodriguez didn’t do so well while at Arizona.

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