Arizona Football: Johnny Nansen not afraid of competing for recruits

Being on the job for a little less than a week, new Arizona Football defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen already is competing on the recruiting trail.

This off-season has been a rather busy one so far for Arizona Football as the Wildcats replaced former defensive coordinator Don Brown with UCLA’s Johnny Nansen last week, and they have also begun to see plenty of roster turnover.

Coming into the off-season, head coach Jedd Fisch was going to have a lot of work in front of him. First, he was going need to prioritize finding a new defensive coordinator and quickly. Beyond that, he also needed to address the Wildcats’ woes on the recruiting trail.

As we all saw this past season, Arizona desperately needs an insurgence of talent in the worst way possible, and with this off-season being a vital one for the Cats, it made making the right coaching hire all the more important.

Well, luckily for us, Nansen seemed to fit what the Wildcats were looking for, and with his reputation of being a good recruiter, the fit for him in Tucson seemed natural, as his hire will hopefully settle some of those other things.

So with Arizona Football needing an increase to the level of talent, defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen is going to help with the Wildcats’ mentality.

In his first press conference where he was introduced as the new defensive coordinator, Nansen addressed his thoughts on recruiting. “I think it’s a mindset,” he said, “I’m not afraid to compete against those big schools. I think if you have that mindset, I think that makes you an elite recruiter. I think it’s a mentality that you’ve got to have in order for you to become a great recruiter.”

It has been a week since Nansen was first introduced as the replacement to Don Brown, and already he is making his impact felt.

Wasting no time by jumping on the recruiting trail with Fisch, and Co., together they have been busy on the road for the past week, offering kids from California, Texas, Florida, and everywhere in between.

Nansen is bringing his fearlessness to the Wildcats, and Arizona’s new recruiting mentality is refreshing to see as the Wildcats go toe-to-toe with the “big boys” in college football including USC, Oregon, and Florida State among several others.

If Arizona is going to bring in the talent that they need to turn this thing around, they cannot be shy in competing, and so far it seems Nansen is helping with that. Let’s just hope it leads to more recruiting wins.