Arizona football just keeps plugging away at its 2017 recruiting class.
Tuesday, the Wildcats added a verbal commitment from four-star athlete Nathan Tilford from Colony High School in Ontario, Calif.
He's the sixth player to verbally commit to Arizona's 2017 class, jumping in on the wave of momentum the Wildcats have experienced with recent commitments.
Tilford, listed at 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, is just the highly-touted Southern California recruit that the Wildcats have stolen from the grips of that area's powers, USC and UCLA, both of which Tilford had offers from. He also picked Arizona over offers from Nebraska, Arizona State and Michigan.
With his addition, the Wildcats now have the No. 1 and No. 3 athletes in the West, according to Scout.com, as UA commit Greg Johnson, from Hawkins HS in Los Angeles, is rated the top athlete in the region. Tilford joins Johnson, tight end Bryce Wolma, linebacker Kylan Wilborn, defensive lineman Kurtis Brown and quarterback Rhett Rodriguez in Arizona's fast-rising 2017 class.
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Scout also rates Tilford the No. 186 overall recruit in the nation, and the No. 13 athlete. He is expected to play running back at Arizona, which is a position of need going forward with Nick Wilson set to run out of eligibility in 2017 and not much depth at the position.
While much of the attention paid toward Arizona's 2017 class has been touting the efforts of the UA's new defensive coaches, it was actually offensive coordinator/running backs coach Calvin Magee who led the charge for Tilford. UA was also helped along by staff analyst Miguel Reveles, who was an assistant coach at Colony for two seasons before joining Rich Rodriguez's staff a few years ago. UA receiver Samajie Grant also attended Colony.
Scout.com's Greg Biggins had this to say about Tilford...
Been watching Tilford since he was in 8th grade, multi-position player who could end up at RB, WR, LB or safety, very nice pickup for #UA
— Greg Biggins (@GregBiggins) April 12, 2016
