Friday, January 15, 2016

Arizona football recruiting: Official visits and recruiting board updates

No sleep until National Signing Day

The Arizona Wildcats' coaching staff is hosting several recruits this weekend, most of which receiving offers within the last two weeks or so. Now, Rich Rodriguez and his staff will try and swoop in on a few late additions for this class. Currently ranked 47th in the nation, this class has a lot of work to do. Winning on signing day translates to wins on the field, and Arizona is currently ranked 10th in the Pac-12.

Below are some of the remaining targets that Arizona has been in contact with via offers, coaching visits and official visits, along with my thoughts on where their recruitment lies. After all the visits are complete this weekend, I'll be reaching out to all of the recruits for more information. If there are any other prospects you want to know more about, feel free to leave your comments below.

Arizona visits former Arizona commit Kapri Doucet

I doubt Arizona is still in the picture here, but Coach Dews went out to visit Doucet at his home on the east coast. He's been having coaches from all power five conferences visit him in the past couple of days, but here I think Oklahoma is the leader and where he'll end up on signing day. Make that two linebackers that former Arizona defensive coordinator Mark Stoops has been able to steal from Arizona as the linebackers coach at OU. Last year, it was down to Arizona and Oklahoma for 4-star linebacker Arthur McGinnis.

Rich Rodriguez makes late push for in-state 4-star defensive end Connor Murphy

Arizona isn't even in Connor Murphy's top five list, which consists of Alabama, Arizona State, Michigan, Oregon and USC. He has been on campus a few times throughout the season but it didn't seem very significant. Michigan has been the leader in his recruitment for quite some time now, but he still has a few other official visits to take.

Arizona visits former Arizona commit Josh Allen

Allen got an in-home visit from the coaching staff this week, and will be on campus for his official visit starting on January 15th. He'll be hosted by another JUCO product, Paul Magloire. People have been wondering if he will commit during his visit, but he will be taking his remaining visits to UCLA and Miami before deciding. In the recruiting roundup last week, I had said that Josh Allen would likely end up at UCLA.

But the news of Marcel Yates potentially coming to Arizona could change some things. He was one of the first guys to ever recruit Allen out of Long Beach City College, and that could be a huge factor. This is a complete wild card for me right now. The fact that Arizona offered another defensive end (I'll get into that later in this post), and went to visit Connor Murphy makes me think they're not entirely confident about Allen.

A couple weeks ago I was 100 percent confident he was coming back, when he announced UCLA and Miami were back in it, along with the coaching shakeup on the defensive side of the ball, but things have changed quite a bit. Now, with a familiar DC, and a good official visit this weekend, things could be looking good. But all in all, it's a very tough situation to assess.

London Iakopo gets an in-home visit

Last recruiting roundup, I had said that I would not be surprised if Iakopo bolted and scheduled a few more visits alongside his upcoming Louisville visit. From what I know, that Louisville visit was simply just to compare Arizona, because he had never been on any other college campus except for Arizona. While the Cardinals could be a threat, it seems as if Iakopo is solid for now.

Matt Dudek heads to Hawaii to visit Arizona's top prospect

Not a bad business trip

Arizona commit Russell Halimon on campus

The 3-star running back made his way to Tucson. Once he recovers from his ACL injury, he's going to be a great running back in the system.

Western Kentucky commit Jessie Britt arrives on campus

The 2-star running back is on his official visit to Arizona this weekend. He's been committed to WKU since late July, but, after receiving an offer from the staff about a week ago, he's moved quickly to schedule a visit. The timeline of events certainly tells me that Sean Riley is gone -- likely to Syracuse -- and that Arizona has a very good chance of flipping Britt from a Hilltopper to a Wildcat.

Former Tennessee commit TaDarryl Marshall comes for official visit

Maybe I missed something, but Arizona came in super late on his recruitment and got him to schedule a visit during the first weekend upon the ending of the dead period. He has two more official visits, one to Illinois and the other to Kentucky. I don't know much about the 3-star athlete out of Alabama, so this will be a recruitment I'll check up on after his visit when I set something up with him.

Arizona hosts 3-star Louisiana defensive back Clifford Chattman

This is another interesting recruitment. Chattman has had some big-time programs come after him, yet he's scheduled an official visit to Tucson. After Tucson, he'll head to Florida State and then Texas A&M. Chattman is a higher-end 3-star defensive back, ranked 47th among all athletes in the nation. Of course, when you think about Florida State and Texas A&M, those are programs far superior to Arizona. But that could just be what gets Chattman to sign the dotted line for Arizona: the ability to see the field early.

I wouldn't think much of it, and wouldn't anticipate Chattman committing to Arizona, but it's definitely an odd sight to see those three schools as a recruits official visits.

3-star linebacker Troy Cassidy visits Tucson

Another recruit I don't remember ever hearing anything about, but he made it on campus. Cassidy is a 3-star linebacker out of Carlsbad, CA and has quite a few Pac-12 offers. The 6-3 204lb outside linebacker is ranked 84th in his position.

I'm really not too sure where he stands, as I've never talked to him, nor can I find him on the Twitters. From a report a while ago, SDSU, Boise State and Washington were among his favorites. Maybe that new DC announcement comes in handy in Cassidy's recruitment. Arizona has a lot of depth at linebacker and if they run a base 4-2-5 going forward, that could be tricky. Still, I think there's a decent shot here for Cassidy's talents.

Remaining targets

Kee Whetzel: A 3-star athlete with some huge size,  he has Arizona in his top five and is going to be heading out soon for an official visit. Maryland, Louisville, UCF and Indiana are his other top suitors. Arizona has a huge advantage here coming from the Pac-12 in an explosive offense.

Terrell Burgess: The 3-star corner is currently visiting Boise State, which could get awkward with all of the defensive coordinator news. As of now, it's hard to tell where Arizona stands. It seems as if he's heavily considering staying close to home at San Diego State, with Utah and Arizona coming at him the hardest.

Lorenzo Burns: When I speak to Lorenzo Burns he gives no indication as to who his leaders are. He's setting up an official to California, and says he has SDSU, Nebraska and Oregon State among the contenders as well. This is another recruitment that's super hard to get a read on.

Kaelin Himphill: I liked Arizona's chances at landing the 2-star linebacker out of Oregon a few weeks ago, but the more I think about it, the more I think he's staying close with Oregon State. I haven't spoken to him since the new year, so we'll see where things go. He recently picked up an offer from Utah on his birthday earlier this week and said it was the best present ever.

Emmanuel Beal: Beal relased his top three consistening of New Mexico, Arizona and Louisville. When I spoke to him after he was offered by Arizona, he has said that was top choice and that he had been waiting on that offer for such a long time. I like him signing with Arizona come February with his potential visits elsewhere.

Kyzir White: A lot of people have been asking about White, and I'm not sure Arizona is able to sway him out of West Virginia.

Michael Daniels: A new JUCO prospect that was recently offered by Arizona. He's a 6-0 190lb defensive back out of Globe Tech in New York, NY. He's been all about Arizona on his Twitter lately, so that's a good sign. I'll be catching up with him later this weekend. His highlights are below.

Jarrius Wallace: I had a bit on him in the last recruiting round up.

Arizona offers new safety Tristan Cooper

He hasn't touched his Twitter since 2013 and I've never had the opportunity of talking to him. From the looks of it, Arizona, New Mexico and Illinois are his final three schools. He's a 6-2 180lb safety out of El Paso, Texas.

Arizona offers 2-star defensive end and FAU commit Fransisco Nelson

A new offer for Arizona. They're going after another committed prospect in Fransisco Nelson. I'll be having more on him later next week.



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