Arizona football recruiting: 3-star safety Rhedi Short decommits from UCLA after Tucson visit

Arizona could be on the verge of landing an extremely talented safety

The Arizona Wildcats hosted a long-time UCLA Bruins commit on Saturday for Junior Day in 3-star safety Rhedi Short. This had been Short's second visit to Tucson this spring, a good sign considering he had been committed to UCLA since October.

Late Sunday evening, Short decommitted from UCLA, reopening his recruitment.

Thank you all for understanding, please no interviews or questions. http://pic.twitter.com/XAUlDbn8mS

— Rhedi Short (@Rhedoggy) May 9, 2016

Luckily, I was able to get a chance to talk to Short just after his visit, getting his thoughts on the program and where Arizona stands.

Short was offered by Arizona in late February, and since then, he's been in communication with the entire coaching staff.

"I've talked to Coach Singletary, Coach (Tony) Dews, Coach Donte' (Williams), Coach (Jahmile) Addae, Coach (Marcel) Yates a little bit," he said. "Pretty much everyone on the defensive staff."

The new coaching staff brings a resurgence of youth and a renewed energy. That new energy has translated well into recruiting.

"It seems like a fun staff to be around," Short said about the coaching staff. "Really cool coaches, really young. They don't act old I guess you could say. They're young and hip. They can relate to the players a little more."

Short's now been on campus twice in the past six weeks. The first was more on a whim while the second was a little more serious.

"The first time I came out it was one of my coach's ideas," Short explained. "He said he was taking a trip over there with a couple of other kids from some other schools and he asked if I wanted to come and said why not. I really liked it and thought that I needed to come back just with my parents so my parents can check it out and see."

"I like the program. Everything as a whole, a lot actually. I think it's headed in a really good direction."

Naturally, I asked him about his commitment to UCLA. While he didn't give too much away, it was clear that he was pretty interested in Arizona.

"I am going to say that right now, I'm solid with UCLA, but I do really like Arizona," when asked about his commitment to UCLA. Within 24 hours, Short decommitted from the Bruins.

While this bodes extremely well for Arizona, especially in the cases of Jessie Britt and Kahi Neves in this past recruiting class, the Wildcats aren't entirely in the clear yet. Oregon offered Short about a week ago and he made the trip for an unofficial visit.

"Oregon," he said when asked if there were any other schools recruiting him. "I was talking to Oregon before they offered. I went up there and liked it. I've just been talking to them."

With his recruitment entirely wide open now, it's all about making plays and making sure he and his family feel comfortable.

"Really, just a school where I feel like I can get what I need to get done," he explained when asked about what he's looking for in a school. "Where I feel most comfortable. And for my parents, I need them to feel comfortable being there."

Arizona has eight commits in the 2017 class and two of them have been recruiting Short to join them in the desert.

"Greg Johnson. I've talked to him a lot. That's a close friend of mine. I've talked to Kurtis Brown, he's talked to me a little bit," he said about his relationship with current commits in the class.

And do they talk about playing together at Arizona?

"Yeah, (Greg) does actually. Every now and then he'll ask what I think about it and if I'm going to go there."

While we don't know exactly when Short will commit to his future school, Arizona figures to be in good shape to land the 44th-ranked safety in the nation, a borderline 4-star prospect.

His junior season highlights are below

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