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“You have to want to be here.” – Arizona Athletic Director Dave Heeke
It’s certainly too early to have a feel for how the new Jedd Fisch era will play out, but Dave Heeke has ideas as to what the next coach needs to do.
“You have to want to be here and the recruiting has to be more than photo ops. And you have to absolutely embrace the grind of recruiting and putting together a staff that is all moving in the same direction. And that starts with prioritizing local kids. You look at how Coach Tomey did it and that’s the blueprint.
Tomey. There’s that name again.
“Jedd has a ton of energy and he knew what he signed up for and if you look he’s putting in the effort that needs to be done. It is just going to take time to get it back to where it needs to be.”
Bene is hopeful things have changed, but there remains skepticism. He fears a certain player on the current roster represents the embodiment of past problems. Again, problems Fisch still must address if there is to be success in the desert.
“Stan Berryhill III is a great player and by all accounts a great kid. He also grew up in Tucson and had to walk-on here even though everyone knew who he was. He wanted to succeed and put in more effort to get this thing going.”
Arizona is in a deep hole. It is a disastrous football program that faces a massive uphill climb. But reclamation projects have been successful elsewhere. Oregon State, Iowa State, Kansas State, Northwestern. Places with no pedigree have achieved different levels of accomplishment.
Can Arizona do the same? Why not? But it won’t be easy, and notable observers believe the recipe includes the desire to succeed in Tucson, to recruit locally first while extending the web to other regional markets that include Texas and California, and embracing the accomplishments that occurred prior to the turn of the century. The coach must do this despite an apathetic fanbase that demands winning before embracing a willingness to return to Arizona Stadium.
Is Fisch the right man for the job, or the latest to pass through the Wildcat coaching turnstile?
That might depend on how well he embraces the aforementioned formula.
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