Mahdi, Harris rejoin Wildcats as Arizona football awaits clarity on eligibility

Wearing a navy blue shirt with “Loyalty” emblazoned across the chest and matching UA shorts, Mahdi spent time with Arizona’s running backs and new position coach Lyle Moevao on the sidelines of the Dick Tomey Practice Fields Monday.

Harris showed up towards the end of practice to watch the Wildcats and mentally integrate himself with the defense.

It was like Arizona added two players from the transfer portal, except those players are the leading rusher from last season and a linebacker that had the third-most tackles behind former safety Dalton Johnson and current linebacker cohort Taye Brown.

Their personalities and character are the biggest reason why Mahdi and Harris were re-added to the UA football team following U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney’s recent federal ruling in Colorado, allowing class of 2022 student-athletes, who weren’t grandfathered in the NCAA’s new five-in-five rule, to compete for the upcoming 2026-27 sports season.

The five-in-five rule allows student-athletes to use up their eligibility in five years — with their eligibility clock starting upon their freshman year in college or after their 19th birthday. Several 2022 athletes competed in four years, but weren’t granted an additional year of eligibility, like Harris and Mahdi.

Just when Mahdi and Harris were in football purgatory after going undrafted in April, the running back and linebacker — who both transferred from Texas State prior to last season — revived their football-playing careers.

“I think it’s great,” said Arizona head coach Brent Brennan. “Like I told you guys when we spoke at the start of training camp, the thing that’s a little bit different about those two grown men is they’re great human beings and they’re great football players. It’s a win-win for us. We’re not bringing someone into our family that won’t be welcomed back. Everyone is excited that they’re rejoining us, which is cool.”

Even though Mahdi and Harris are being integrated with the 2026 version of the Wildcats, the eligibility status of the fifth-year seniors remains unknown.

The NCAA suspended Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter two games — initially three — for accepting a $427 plane ticket after he declared for the NFL Draft, an expense he paid back in full. Harris and Mahdi took part in the NFL Draft process and participated in Arizona’s Pro Day.

If the recent federal ruling happened in January, Mahdi, Harris and conceivably seventh-round cornerback Michael Dansby, who’s now a rookie with the Seattle Seahawks, would’ve returned to the Wildcats and not pursue the draft process with agents and trainers. Mahdi likely wouldn’t be the co-founder of Dickey’s Barbecue Pit on Thornydale Road in Tucson.

When asked if Mahdi and Harris would be suspended to start the season, Brennan said, “No one knows.”

“Everybody is waiting, waiting to see how this thing unwinds with the NCAA with all the decisions that are being made all over the country right now,” Brennan said. “We need to get (Mahdi and Harris) here, get them acclimated and that kind of thing. We want to take care of that.”

Added Brennan: “It’s so interesting, because there’s still so much that’s unknown. The sooner we can have clarity on how it’s going to play out, the better — I think for everybody in college football, not just the Arizona Wildcats. To be honest with you, that’s been working in the background and we’ve been focused on building this football team right now.”

As Mahdi and Harris work their way back, first order of business, “they need to re-establish who they are on this football team.

“I don’t think it’ll be fair for us to come in and ask them to be leaders right now,” Brennan said. “This team has been working for eight months now and there’s great leadership that has already been defined and continues to develop every day. Both of those guys are smart, we’ll do a great job of feeling that out and working their way into those roles.”

Mahdi and Harris’ conditioning, seven months removed from being a part of Arizona’s strength and conditioning staff on a regular basis, will be closely examined by strength and conditioning coach Cullen Carroll and head football trainer Jeronimo Boche, with the season just over three weeks away.

“The time they spend early on with our strength and conditioning staff and our training staff, that’s going to give us a better indication of how close they are to being ready to help us,” Brennan said.

Joked Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege: “We’ll see what type of shape (Mahdi is) in. He might be cooking too much barbecue, eating too much barbecue, I don’t know. We gotta figure out if Mahdi can move still. We’ll see.”

If Harris and Mahdi return to the playmaking leaders they were last year, the Wildcats will bolster two position groups that already have promising players.

Arizona has six scholarship running backs: Mahdi, Kedrick Reescano, Quincy Craig, Marshall transfer Antwan Roberts and second-year running backs Wesley Yarbrough and Cornelius Warren III.

Mahdi, Reescano, Craig and Roberts have a combined 1,182 carries for 6,504 rushing yards and 45 touchdowns, along with 179 receptions for 1,617 yards and 15 receiving touchdowns — and 3,536 offensive snaps, per Pro Football Focus. The Wildcats returned their entire running back room and added a transfer who was recruited by Doege to Marshall and has worked with the offense since January.

Arizona’s running backs have an everybody-eats mindset, especially for a player like Mahdi, who rushed for 859 yards and four touchdowns last season.

“If you ask them, ‘Hey, you guys good with us bringing Mahdi back?’ The answer would be, ‘Hell yeah,’ because they love him and Mahdi was that type of teammate,” Doege said.

But Doege made it very clear to Mahdi: “Quincy and Ked are playing at a high level. Just because you came back and you’re the top rusher last year, this is a new season. Those guys have been through a lot of work this year and they’re looking really good, so it’s going to be a competition just like it was the year before.”

Arizona has Brown and Chase Kennedy — two mainstays at linebacker — leading the defense, with transfers Everett Roussaw Jr. and Cooper Blomstrom also in the mix at linebacker. Arizona is also returning linebackers Myron Robinson, Jabari Mann, Leviticus Su’a and Coleman Patmon, among others, and the Wildcats added freshmen Dash Fifita and Jaden Parker in the offseason.

Harris has played 1,796 defensive snaps in his college career, according to PFF, and has 201 career tackles.

Determining reps in training camp and practice after adding Mahdi and Harris is “going to be a delicate thing,” Brennan said.

“Not knowing the eligibility status of those guys, we have to be smart about how we rep them,” Brennan said. “At the same time, both of those guys have played a lot of football. That’s one of the benefits of them being as old as they are. … There’s some trust there, also, because they’ve played a lot of football, they know our scheme, so I think that makes the transition a little bit easier.”