Arizona’s 2024 season will come to an end with the Territorial Cup, which means the offseason—and the opportunity to start building toward 2025—is less than a week away.
Without a bowl game to prepare, the Wildcats will get a head start on crafting its next roster. The first step comes Dec. 4 when the early signing period begins for high school and junior college recruits, arriving more than two weeks earlier than in previous years, and five days later on Dec. 9 the NCAA transfer portal opens for 30 days.
Who it adds in both areas, as well as which members of the current team it’s able to retain, will go a long way toward determining if Arizona can quickly bounce back from the disappointment of 2024.
Arizona currently has 19 known commitments in its 2025 recruiting class, down a couple from a week ago. In the past few days the Wildcats have since two prospects flip to other schools, as 3-star cornerback Josh Tuchek plans to sign with UNLV and 3-star receiver Muizz Tounkara committed to Florida.
That’s on top of the UA losing its top recruit, 4-star receiver Terry Shelton, earlier in November. Shelton has since committed to TCU, the team that officially ended Arizona’s hopes of making a bowl this season.
The recent losses have dropped Arizona’s class rank to 51st nationally, per 247Sports, as well as ninth in the Big 12. Other decommits could happen between now and Dec. 4, but Arizona is also actively trying to flip players from other schools.
“We are recruiting our tails off every day, UA coach Brent Brennan said Monday. “There’s not a day that goes by where we’re not actively on the phone, FaceTime and text. Just staying in contact with those guys every way you can. A lot of these players that we’re recruiting are going to be the foundation of what we’re building here.”
The players who have backed away from Arizona may have done so due to the struggles during Brennan’s first season, but money may have also been a factor.
“You can get outbid,” Brennan said. “And that’s a reality of the new world that we’re talking about. That’s the challenge that I think every program in America is facing is, how does that come down to it. Because every school is going to have a certain amount of resources to spend on their team. But I’m optimistic about the future here.”
The pending NCAA settlement over player compensation is expected to result in Arizona and other schools disbursing more than $20 million annually to student-athletes in the form of revenue sharing. Football is expected to get the vast majority of that money, as Brennan said athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois has pledged to make sure the program has the most resources it can get.
“I think Desiree’s been really aggressive in that space, and I’m excited about our plan going forward,” he said. “The rules are what they are. Let’s pay the kids. Let’s do everything we can to keep the best players at the University of Arizona. Like, let’s find every way possible to do that.”
As for the transfer market, Arizona is likely to see some key contributors from 2024 enter the portal. That was the case on multiple occasions last year, both during the initial portal window and the supplemental one following Jedd Fisch’s departure to Washington, with 10 players following Fisch to Seattle.
But this time around the current UA staff will have access to the entire portal from which to pull players. By the time Brennan was hired in late January most of the top transfers had already found a new home, and he and his staff’s main focus was trying to retain as many current Wildcats as possible.
Expect Arizona to be very active in the portal, possibly signing more transfers than prep prospects and focusing heavily on the offensive and defensive lines as well as the offensive skill positions. The secondary will also need some reinforcements depending on whether Gunner Maldonado and Treydan Stukes use their redshirts and return for their sixth seasons of college football.