Why does Arizona Football struggle recruiting local talent?

For the many following the Arizona Football recruiting cycle like myself, you’re seeing a lot of local talent omitting the Arizona schools. So why is that?

The addition of Kevin Sumlin was supposed to solve many of the Arizona Football recruiting woes, right? Well, in theory that was certainly the belief, but so far in the 2020 class, that hasn’t quite happened.

Historically, Arizona and more specifically Tucson, hasn’t been the hot bed region for football talent. Sure, there have been a few big names like; Ka’Deem Carey, Brooks Reed, Levi Wallace (walked on at Alabama), Blake Martinez (went to Stanford), etc., but generally speaking the talent is not as frequent.

Arizona Wildcats

However, the class of 2020 is a unique one. So far, we’ve seen high profiled names like; Bijan Robinson, Lathan Ransom and Bruno Fina (son of former Arizona legacy, John Fina). That’s good for Arizona, right?

Well, no, not really. Despite those three kids playing about 5-10 minutes from campus, all have decided in recent weeks, that Arizona will not be the destination that they will play. Ouch…

Is that Sumlin’s fault? Really hard to say, because we don’t know his recruiting strategy, plus, the guy has only been here about a year. In recruiting, relationships are paramount, and that development take quite some time, not just a year.

While a lot of the blame for the fall out between Arizona and Salpointe High School can be put at the feet of Rich Rodriguez, if I were Sumlin, I would have been on their campus on day one trying to salvage or improve that relationship.

But to be fair, I don’t think you can really blame Sumlin much if at all for those recruiting woes. Boiled down to a larger problem, is the perception of Arizona Football not only in Tucson, but in the state as a whole.

Need proof? See the lack of the states best players choosing Arizona the last 5-10 years! Heck, even that school up north has had some issues keeping the top talent in the state.

So will Arizona fix that perception? Can Arizona even fix it? Honestly, I don’t know, but I do know it’s an unhealthy expectation as fans or even for our coaches to assume just because a top talent is in your state or even in your city, to expect that supreme talent to have the desire to stay in-state, without putting in much effort in recruiting.

To me, the only recipe to fixing things is winning. At the end of the day, it’s really all that matters, and changing the perception of the program is up to whatever staff coaches here, to ultimately find a way to get it done.

To put it into basketball terms, Lute Olson didn’t start out recruiting the NBA-level players from day one. He put in the work to recruit the talent here, coached them up and built off of momentum. Sean Elliott’s commitment just happened to expedite that growth.

For Arizona Football, it isn’t the easiest place to recruit to, and when you have schools like Ohio State, UCLA, etc. coming in your own backyard taking you’re talent, it makes it all the more difficult to compete.

Anyways, that’s just why I think it’s difficult for Arizona Football to recruit the top talent. What do you think? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!