From the moment Jedd Fisch took over as the head football coach for the University of Arizona, he said recruiting would be the life blood of the program and expounded that if a coach can’t recruit, well, then he can’t do half of his job.
And so far so good on the recruiting trail. Fisch zeroed in almost immediately on the Anaheim Servite trio of quarterback Noah Fifita, tight end Keyan Burnett and wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan.
Fisch enticed Fifita almost immediately and, in short time, had flipped Burnett from his USC commit.
Those were maybe the most high profile commitments but it didn’t stop there as Fisch raided California for one of the better all purpose backs in the nation in Stockton (Lincoln) running back Jonah Coleman, borderline 4 star Concord (De La Salle) defensive back Zeke Berry, and, more recently, 4 star Westlake Village (Oaks Christian) linebacker Sterling Lane.
It’s also not a coincidence that all of these recruits are from California prep powerhouses.
Factor in Fisch reeling in an in-state class loaded with three star kids from all over Phoenix with legitimate offers from top 25 schools and it’s easy to see that the recruiting template is to sign good in-state kids and load up on three and four star California kids. This is a mantra that worked well for Arizona during the Tomey years.
These kids all committed to Arizona knowing the Cats wouldn’t be very good.
They committed because they bought into the energetic vision that Fisch and his coaching staff were selling.
That vision remains in place but after the mirage that has fully evaporated from a spirited season opener against BYU it’s easy to see that if Arizona isn’t the worst program in power five football it’s certainly in the discussion.
More disconcerting is that Arizona fan support is at an absolute all time low. The announced home attendance of 33,000 for Arizona’s home loss to Northern Arizona was woefully disingenuous as one look at the crowd gave a much more real estimate of anywhere between 15 to 20,000 fans.
And, until Arizona wins football games, fans aren’t going to show up.
It goes without saying recruits generally don’t dream of playing in front of empty stadiums.
In the same prepared paragraph where Jedd Fisch said nobody would outwork him on the recruiting trail was also a reference to recruiting prospects who are grinders and honor the process to get to where the program needs to get.
Fisch is about to find out over the next few months just how prepared some of his highly rated recruits are prepared to grind.
