Over the next 16 days, the Star’s Zack Rosenblatt will feature each of Arizona’s verbal commitments leading up to signing day. Arizona’s 2016 class currently has 14 commitments, but there is expected to be a lot movement over the next couple of weeks leading up to Feb. 3. Next up: offensive lineman Michael Eletise
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Good luck trying to find Michael Eletise without a smile, especially when he’s around football.
The 6-foot-3-inch, 302-pound offensive lineman, and the highest-rated recruit of Arizona’s 2016 class, just loves football — talking about it, playing it, everything.
It’s what made his senior season at Kaiser High School in Honolulu so difficult.
The Cougars went 4-5 just two seasons after finishing 13-1 and winning a state title.
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“Yeah,” Eletise said, “I don’t like losing. I hate losing more than I love winning, so when I lose, I get really mad.”
So Eletise uses that as fuel.
“It pushes me,” he said. It gives me that sense of — I know what losing is, I know I have to work hard enough so I can win and I don’t have to lose. I think that’s what this season taught me.”
It wasn’t all bad, though — with Eletise leading the way, Kaiser rushed for 240.1 yards per game and 23 touchdowns.
Arizona is expected to be deep on the offensive line next season with Eletise, Keenan Walker, Harper Sherman and Bryson Cain coming in, along with the return of four players with starting experience, but Eletise is highly regarded enough that he might just force his way into the starting lineup.
“It’s going to be a fun four years, five years,” he said, “however long I have.”
Here’s a closer look at Eletise’s path to Arizona.
Michael Eletise
The file: Offensive lineman, 6 feet 3, 302 pounds. From Kaiser High School (Honolulu).
Recruiting trail: Eletise committed to the Wildcats on a live local television news broadcast back in July, picking Arizona over Arizona State, Nebraska, Mississippi and Washington. A four-star recruit and the No. 1-rated guard on the West Coast, Eletise has resisted overtures from other top-tier programs since, such as LSU, Michigan and UCLA.
The numbers: As a senior, Kaiser averaged 240.1 rushing yards per game, with 23 touchdowns.
He said it: “ I feel that it was a good season. I feel like, we tried with what we had, we tried as hard as we could, and that’s all I ever want from a team. For them to do the best we can. I feel like we did that this year. Next year, they’ll do even better. I feel like this was a good year. Even though we didn’t make it as far as we wanted, we did as much as we could with the guys that we had.” — Eletise on Kaiser’s struggles in 2015.
Zack Rosenblatt
