Arizona’s Jedd Fisch gets it, and the prize may be 5-star DE Elijah Rushing

On Jan. 13, the first day college coaches were permitted to make in-person visits to prospects in the Class of 2024, the entire Arizona football coaching staff made the 2.2-mile drive from campus to Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson. The coaches walked in bright and early, at 6. a.m., to watch the Lancers football team go through an offseason workout.

“There wasn’t one coach who wasn’t there,” Salpointe coach Eric Rogers said on Wednesday afternoon. “They wanted to be with our guys and support. That was special, man. It was unique. It was different. And it meant a lot to our team.”

Five-star edge rusher Elijah Rushing is on the team. Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch may as well have shown up at Rushing’s house holding a boom box over his head to profess how much the Wildcats need him.

But this early morning visit was more than just an effort to make a statement to a five-star prospect. It was a declaration from Fisch and his staff that — win or lose with Rushing — Arizona football is committed to recruiting its home territory and having an open line of communication with the most prominent high school in the region.

It was a statement to Salpointe, which needed it after Kevin Sumlin and the previous staff flubbed the recruitment of five-star running back Bijan Robinson in the 2020 cycle. It was also a message to the college football world that Arizona isn’t the same program it was three years ago. The loser’s mentality is gone.

“This staff has the mindset that it can go out and get anyone in the country,” Rogers said.

That’s how winners think. That’s how coaches who take Power 5 jobs and cash those fat checks are supposed to think. That, above all, is how real change occurs.

Wildcat OV 👀🐻⬇️ @BlairAngulo @adamgorney @ChadSimmons_ @CoachEricRogers pic.twitter.com/mOfH5U2z5r

— Elijah Rushing (@elijah_rushing) June 4, 2023

So here we are, seven months after Arizona’s coaching staff made that January visit to Salpointe, and Rushing is set to issue a commitment on Thursday. Arizona has been back to the high school regularly in the time since. The Wildcats staff — mostly defensive ends and outside linebackers coach Jason Kaufusi — is in constant contact with Rushing. The relationships have been built. The message has been sent. The effort has been made.

And guess what? This recruitment is down to Arizona, Oregon and Tennessee, and the Wildcats have all of the momentum heading into his announcement. By nightfall in Tucson on Thursday evening, there’s a very good chance the Wildcats will be well on their way to signing the first five-star prospect in program history.

“For Arizona, they have pitched that Elijah has the opportunity to be at home, stay at home and be the kingpin,” Rogers said. “He has the chance to be the guy, to be on every billboard in this town. Everybody in this town already knows him, so for his face to be all over this town, they stressed that. They also talked about the NIL and the packages and the players and businesses in this town who want to support a local Tucson kid. Being a business owner in this town, I’d love to support a local player who has grown up in this town. If I’m giving money to the kid, I sure would like it to be the guy from my town. That is a strong message.”

Why wouldn’t Arizona be confident? In the 2022 cycle, Fisch landed four-star receiver Tetairoa McMillan of Anaheim (Calif.) Servite, the program’s highest-rated signee in the modern recruiting era. The year before Fisch’s arrival, Arizona managed to sign only one top-1,000 player in the 247Sports Composite in its entire class — which is staggeringly bad. In Fisch’s first full cycle, he signed McMillan and five other top-500 players. The quality of talent coming into the program is significantly better.

The truth is, Sumlin and his staff didn’t try. In the 2020 recruiting class, there were three Power 5 prospects on Salpointe’s roster. Arizona whiffed on all three. Robinson went to Texas and was a first-round selection in this year’s NFL Draft. Safety Lathan Ransom went to Ohio State, and offensive line prospect and Arizona legacy Bruno Fina signed with UCLA. Maybe there was nothing Arizona could have done to get Robinson or Ransom because Texas and Ohio State were involved, but Sumlin and his staff approached it with a “why bother?” attitude. They felt as though there was no point.

Arizona’s coaching staff wasn’t in the hallways with Texas and Ohio State. It wasn’t trying to change Robinson’s mind with a similar sales pitch the current staff is using on Rushing. The coaches didn’t bother to make that same 2.2-mile trip to Salpointe. Sumlin took no for an answer, which is an unforgivable sin for a coach with a base salary of almost $15 million over a five-year period.

What athletic director wants a coach who is going to take no for an answer? If you’re wondering how Arizona managed to become one of the worst Power 5 programs, there’s your answer.

Fisch isn’t taking no for an answer. He may wind up hearing it from time to time because this won’t be a simple three-year build. But Fisch has made the decision that he’ll go down swinging, which is the exact type of attitude Arizona must have if it is ever going to be a relevant football program.

“This staff doesn’t care what star level you are,” Rogers said. “They believe they could show you what their environment and culture is all about and you’ll love it at Arizona. If you’re not from Tucson, this is an unbelievable place to go to college. The campus is gorgeous, the stadium and facilities are top-notch, the indoor practice facility. They have done a tremendous job of staying with the Joneses. … It’s all about the relationships with kids. That, to me, is what recruiting is supposed to be all about.”

It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows between Arizona and Salpointe. The Wildcats offered three-star offensive lineman Luis Cordova earlier in this cycle but chose to move on once spots at that position filled up. Rogers took exception to that, and you’d think the last thing Arizona would want to do is mess up a relationship with the talent factory in its city.

Fisch got on the phone and ironed everything out with Rogers. It wasn’t always a comfortable conversation, but the two eventually agreed to disagree and finished the talk on good terms. Salpointe needs Arizona and Arizona needs Salpointe. The story between those programs isn’t always going to be about five-star prospects.

Arizona’s 2024 class already includes a Salpointe prospect in three-star defensive lineman Keona Wilhite, the No. 595 overall player in the country. Wilhite chose the Wildcats over offers from Washington UCLA, Arizona State, Colorado, Nebraska and others. Arizona also accepted a transfer from Rushing’s older brother, Cruz, who was a preferred walk-on at Florida before returning home to Tucson to accept a scholarship with the Wildcats.

Soon, we’ll find out if Arizona is going to get the younger Rushing. Right now, the odds look pretty good.

But the takeaway from this is that it’s possible. It’s possible for Arizona to sign a five-star prospect out of Tucson, even if this would be the first time it has ever happened.

The previous regime didn’t understand that. Those coaches thought it was impossible to get Robinson, so they chose not to try.

This staff is different. And that is exactly what Arizona football fans want to hear.

(Photo: Ivan Pierre Aguirre / USA Today)