We are just 12 days from the Feb. 3 signing day, and things naturally are heating up on the trail.
Donte' Williams has been all over the map — I'll post about that at some point this weekend — checking in on UA commits, visiting with targets for this and next year's class and helping make a last ditch effort on guys Arizona was thought to be out of the running for. He's not the only one, obviously, Rich Rodriguez has spent a lot of time in California recently, as have other assistants including Marcel Yates.
Anyway, this weekend the Wildcats will be hosting a handful of recruits on official visits. I had heard there would be possibly be 8-10 recruits in town, and my unofficial initial estimate has it seven as of Friday morning.
Here's a look at each of the seven and where they stand with Arizona, plus some other tidbits.
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- DB Chacho Ulloa, Centennial HS/Corona, Calif., 4-star: This is the big fish. Ulloa is a former Stanford commit that wasn't really considering Arizona before, but is now, and it sounds like staff anaylst Miguel Reveles has been leading the charge. He had an in-home visit with Oregon earlier this week and wasn't originally planning on coming to Arizona this weekend, but moved his visit up, which bodes very well for the Wildcats. He has a number of connections to Arizona, one being that he played at Centennial with UA RB commit J.J. Taylor and in 7-on-7 with LB Jacob Colacion. He also plays for the 7-on-7 team run by Armond Hawkins, who has a good relationship with Donte' Williams. I embedded his Hudl video at the bottom of the page.
- LB Kaelin Himphill, Liberty/Hillsboro, Oregon, 3-star: This is a guy that Arizona reaaaally likes. Apparently Oregon State pressured him to make a decision or they'd pull the scholarship, and he didn't verbal to OSU, and now is visiting Arizona's campus, so this is looking pretty good for the Wildcats. The previous defensive staff kicked off the recruitment of Himphill last month, and Williams has taken the lead now, visiting Himphill in-home earlier this week. He'll visit Utah next weekend then likely make a decision on signing day.
- DB Jarrius Wallace, John Ehret/Marrero, Louisiana, 3-star: Wallace recently narrowed his list down to just Colorado and Arizona. It seems like he's a Colorado lean, but he is taking his last official to UA this weekend so who knows what will happen.
- DB Tristan Cooper, Andress/El Paso, Texas, unrated: Before January, Cooper only had offers from New Mexico, Texas State and UTEP before Arizona entered the fray earlier this month. Now he's getting heavy interest from Illinios, Purdue and Texas Tech as well. He'll visit Illinois and Purdue next week.
- ATH DeVaughn Cooper, Nathaniel Narbonne/Harbor City, Calif., 3-star: Cooper has been a UA commit since July, but he's a guy the Wildcats have had to re-recruit quite a bit. Sean Riley, Cooper's HS teammate, recently decommitted from Arizona for Syracuse after both Cooper and Riley visited the Orange last week. He's talented enough, I think, that Arizona is letting that slide, and they're hoping his visit to campus this weekend reaffirms the commitment.
- DB Gavin Robertson, Auburn Mountainview/Auburn, Washington, 3-star: He's a UA commit, and solid with the Wildcats. At 6-foot-2, he'll be a welcome addition to the secondary, a position Arizona is recruiting rather heavily for this class.
- OL Bryson Cain, Great Oak/Temecula, Calif., 3-star: Cain is a solid UA commitment, with no intention of backing out. A likely redshirt candidate for this season with how many bodies the Wildcats are bringing in on the offensive line.
Some other tidbits....
- LB Emmanuel Beal (Lackawanna (Pa.) College) was originally scheduled to visit this weekend, but cancelled in favor of Oklahoma. I'd guess the Wildcats aren't quite as in on him anymore.
- I'm hearing one defensive recruit gave Arizona a silent verbal commitment to the Wildcats on Thursday night, but doesn't plan to announce until signing day, so I won't spoil the moment on here.
- Arizona is in the Top-Three for two-star WR Kee Whetzel (Countryside/Clearwater, Florida) but it sounds like he's leaning toward UCF. He's scheduled to visit UA next weekend as of now.
Chacho Ulloa's highlights
