Arizona Football: The Top 5 local recruiting blunders
Honorable Mention Selections
Matt Griebel
Position: Safety
Class: 2001
High School: Canyon del Oro (Oro Valley, AZ)
College: New Mexico State
Matt was a standout two-way player at CDO, before heading to New Mexico State, en route to becoming a fantastic collegiate player.
Converting to safety with the Aggies, Matt finished his college career with an astounding 336 tackles (at least 132 solo), four interceptions and a defensive touchdown.
He was so good his senior year in Las Cruces, that Matt finished No. 6 in the country in total tackles. Now granted he never went on to play professionally after that, but for an Arizona team that was atrocious during that time period as well, passing on a player like Griebel was a mistake in my opinion.
Jeff Cotton
Position: Wide Receiver
Class: 2015
High School: Mountain View (Marana, AZ)
College: Pima Community College/ Idaho
Misevaluating a player once is bad enough as it is, misevaluating a player twice is even worse!
For those that don’t now, Jeff is a former standout at Mountain View High School, where he was a star in receiver. That was all before he went to Pima Community College, the local Community College, where he became a solid junior college player as well.
Eventually landing in Idaho, Cotton would appear in 21 games for the Vandals, totaling 1,797 yards on 137 receptions with 14 touchdowns in his two seasons in Moscow, ID.
Now, could that production be matched in Tucson? I don’t know, that’s hard to say, but seeing him succeed elsewhere after the Wildcats missed on him, is not good.
As it stands, Cotton is now a Practice Squad player for the Los Angeles Chargers, which again, is another bad look for Arizona.
Cam Gaddis
Position: Wide Receiver/ Defensive Back
Class: 2010
High School: Santa Rita (Tucson, AZ)
College: Pima Community College
Another Tucson standout that the Wildcats seemingly missed.
Cameron was a fantastic high school player at Santa Rita High School in Tucson, where he was a part of some pretty good teams.
After receiving virtually no offers, Cam went on to play at local Pima Community College, putting together a rather solid two seasons with the Aztecs.
From then on, not much is known about Cam other than he is now a standout player in the uniquely popular Indoor Football League (IFL). If you’re good enough to play professionally, then Arizona really has no excuse why they didn’t try recruiting him at the high school or junior college levels.
Oddly enough, Cam has returned to Tucson, where he will play for the local Tucson Sugar Skulls.
Jovan Stevenson
Position: Running Back/ Defensive Back
Class: 2008
High School: Sunnyside (Tucson, AZ)
College: Oregon State
Maybe a toss up with this one, again, if you have a local player receiving Power Five offers, it’s a bad look if you don’t give an offer if you are Arizona.
Nonetheless, Jovan was a standout football player with local Sunnyside High School, putting up some very impressive numbers.
He seemed to taper off when he went up to Corvallis, but again, he played well enough with the Beavers in four seasons that I think an offer should have been made.
Jovan showed a lot of promise at running back in his first two seasons, totaling 366 yards rushing with six touchdowns on 83 carries. It wasn’t until he switched to defense his last two seasons, that he seemed to have gotten lost on the depth chart.
Either way, I still don’t think Arizona should have let Jovan get away.