Arizona Football needs to offer local talent, Stevie Rocker

Gaining steam in the class of 2021, local Tucson product Stevie Rocker is picking up offers, and Arizona Football needs to soon be one of them!

Seemingly producing more and more talent in Tucson these days, our own ‘backyard’ should be a great recruiting focal point for the Arizona Football program moving forward.

While Tucson certainly hasn’t been the biggest hotbed for talent, however, every once in awhile, there’s a player that is a can’t miss. And generally speaking, even though it’s not frequent, when Tucson produces players, they produce some big time players!

Arizona Wildcats

Guys like John Fina, Brooks Reed, Ka’Deem Carey and Michael Bates among numerous others are just a few players to name a few!

Among the next wave of great players in the city, are players like; Bijan Robinson, Lathan Ransom, Bruno Fina and Jonah Miller.

However, there’s another one that’s steadily climbing the recruiting ranks, and is one name to keep an eye on. Gaining steam in his 2021 recruitment, is Stevie Rocker, the soon-to-be junior at Canyon Del Oro High School in Tucson, AZ.

Standing an impressive 6-feet tall and roughly 185 pounds, Rocker comes in a bit under the radar, but man is he going to be a good one.

Already drawing comparisons to Carey, also a Canyon Del Oro running back, Rocker has a bit of a powerful running style the Wildcats should covet.

Just 16 years old, Rocker has that perfect blend of size, speed and strength. His biggest upside is that he’s young and has a lot of time to develop still.

This past season for the Dorados, the then sophomore ran for 1,163 yards on just 130 carries (8.9 yard average), with 12 touchdowns. He also added another 182 yards on five receptions with three touchdowns in just nine games played

So with Stevie already beginning to produce at a high-level, programs are starting to take notice.

Nevada was the first to offer just a week ago, and a few days later, Rocker has now picked up his second division one offer, this one coming from conference rival, the Cal Golden Bears.

*Note: Former UA Special teams coach Charlie Ragle, made the offer on behalf of the Bears on Saturday afternoon.

Now, I may be a bit biased here since I went to CDO myself, but Arizona needs to follow suit in making this kid a priority and soon.

The Wildcats have had a good pipeline of players come from CDO (Carey and Jared Tevis), however, they have missed out on others. A few names that come to mind would be Blake Martinez (former standout at Stanford and current LB for the Green Bay Packers), and Aaron Tevis (former standout linebacker at Boise State).

While this kid may not quite be to the level of the five-star Robinson, he’s going to be a fantastic player in this state by the time he’s a senior and that’s what Arizona should like about him the most.

Either way, you don’t let talent like that slip away, especially if Rocker were to end up going to a school like Cal that Arizona would have to play almost every year!

Just by watching his film, hopefully you too can see the type of potential he has! He’s big, moves well, and has the perfect trifecta of vision, speed and athleticism.

Overall he runs at a great pad height, until he gets to the open field where he’s then able to show his burst of speed.

He’s a powerful runner when he gets to that second level, and another thing to covet with Rocker is his blocking ability downfield, as he doesn’t shy from contact!

Overall he is an impressive player for sure!

Stevie Rocker | Class of 2021 Running Back | Canyon Del Oro High School, AZ from Next Level Films on Vimeo.

At Zona Zealots, we’re hoping to see the Wildcats make an offer here soon, as this kid would look great in the Arizona backfield! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!