Thursday, December 20, 2018

These 2019 recruits should contribute immediately for Arizona

This class has a few guys who can step in early

The Arizona Wildcats secured 20 signatures on the first day of Early Signing Period and are unlikely to be adding any more until National Signing Day in the spring.

The class currently sits just inside the Top 50 nationally, full of junior college prospects, size and Texans.

Arizona is quietly loading up on depth at each position and figures to be in a good spot next season when it comes to personnel.

The added depth makes it harder for incoming prospects to step in immediately, but here are five guys who will likely have a big role in 2019.

Jalen Curry, 4-star wide receiver

So this is pretty obvious but Arizona desperately needs help at wide receiver. Gone are Shun Brown, Tony Ellison and Shawn Poindexter and in comes a wave of extremely young receivers.

Curry is obviously young himself, but his talent level is already higher than most, if not all, of Arizona’s returning receivers. He is quick off the line, strong, can accelerate, get up for a ball and make a guy a miss.

At times I think he catches with his body a little too often and I’m interested to see how his route tree develops as a lot of his film was filled with fades and tunnel screens.

With his size at 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, Arizona now has a legitimate high volume receiver that can step in to fill such a big void.

Bobby Wolfe, 4-star cornerback

Another obvious pick here after cornerback was one of Arizona’s weakest positions last season due to injury and inexperience, but those aren’t issues heading into 2019.

Add a four-star corner in the mix, along with two-stars Maurice Gaines and Chris Roland, and if this is still Arizona’s weakest position on defense next season, that seems like a good problem to have.

You have Lorenzo Burns and Jace Whittaker as your top two corners, but I like Wolfe to enter the mix as a serious contender to start, if not get into the rotation very early on at the very least. I could see Wolfe either straight up leaping Burns on the depth chart at some point, which shouldn’t be seen as a knock to Burns. Or, if Whittaker is struggling to get to full health still, Wolfe fills in there immediately.

He’s a big time corner with size at 6-foot-2, speed and range, and he can probably go head-to-head with some of the best Pac-12 receivers from day one.

Myles Tapusoa, JuCo defensive tackle

Arizona went to the junior college ranks to bolster the defensive line and I really love what Tapusoa brings to Arizona. In my opinion he is the most complete recruit Arizona signed.

Listed at 6-foot-3, 325 pounds, he has the size, power and quickness you want on the defensive line, and with Dereck Boles no longer in the rotation, Tapusoa is the obvious and immediate fill in at nose guard.

Tapusoa is enrolling in just a few weeks, and you have to like what he can bring to the table being coached up by Iona Uiagalelei.

Paiton Fears, JuCo offensive lineman

A tackle spot is up for grabs and after hearing that Joe Gilbert sees Josh Donovan as a guard, it seems likely that Paiton Fears steps into the starting role considering the youth at that position.

Coming from a big time junior college with some big offers like Baylor, Missouri and West Virginia, Fears was somehow unranked prior to his commitment, and then climbed all the way to become Arizona’s fifth highest ranked commit.

At 6-foot-6, 325 pounds, he provides a lot of power and still has a good amount of quickness to him, I also like that Joe Gilbert mentioned his ability to redirect guys.

Whether Fears plays left or right tackle, that is still unknown. Donovan Laie started as a true freshman at left tackle and flipped over to right tackle for the majority of the season.

Eddie Siaumau, 3-star safety/linebacker

Coming out of American Samoa, Arizona was Siaumau’s only FBS offer and most will think this is an absolute dartboard flier, so hear me out.

This class is interesting because it’s hard to project which of the remaining guys will be able to see the field since there is a nice pile of depth at every position now.

The offensive line looks pretty solid and you need time to develop. Quarterback could certainly get interesting if Grant Gunnell balls out from day one. Running backs have quite the load and while receivers definitely need some work, I’m not sure Jalen Johnson is quite ready to fill in immediately the way Curry is.

Safety is arguably Arizona’s deepest position, but they do play quite a number of guys. The cornerbacks have two returning starters, bring in an elite talent like Bobby Wolfe and return some young guys who filled in last season. Defensive line clearly needs some more developed guys, evidenced by their JuCo recruiting.

Linebackers have a great starting duo but does need more quality depth to take the burden off Colin Schooler and Tony Fields, and at times you might want something a little different off the edge over Jalen Harris. And we saw Kylan Wilborn battle through some wear and tear his freshman year and kind of get phased out when Harris started to turn the corner.

A few people on Twitter mentioned Kwabena Watson as an immediate impact guy and I think he is such a great combination of size and speed, but he might be a little wirey right now and can easily pack on some more weight.

For me, Eddie Siaumau already has the size and is filled out nicely at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds.

What I love about him is that he can move around to a lot of different spots. He played a good amount of safety in high school and has speed to cover, has the size to fill in at stud immediately, or could even move to weakside backer. I don’t think a look at defensive end is out of the question either.

Point being that he can most likely come in at stud, which is a versatile position to begin with, and move around the field and do a lot of different things whether that’s in pass rush, holding the edge in the run or dropping into coverage.



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