Wednesdays was one of the major days in Arizona’s offseason as the Wildcats welcomed their first recruiting class under head coach Brent Brennan.
Here is what Brennan had to say about the 2025 class:
Brennan’s overall thoughts on Early Signing Day: “Today is about these players, and I want today to be a celebration of the young people that chose The University of Arizona and to be a part of our football program. We’re really excited about all of them, and I really think they all have a chance to really contribute in meaningful ways. Some of them this next year, then some of them down the road. I feel like we answered some real areas of need, and we’re going to be very, very active in the transfer portal, which opens up on Monday. So there’s all kinds of work to be done for our football program, and we are excited about where we’re going, and we’ve made some great progress with the retention of our current roster.”
On recruiting both sides of the line: “We felt like going through the season when we were going game in and game out, to compete at a high level in the Big 12, we are going to have to continue to put time and resources into the offense and the defensive front. I felt like a lot of teams that we played were bigger than us, and physicality being such a hallmark of who we want to be and such an important thing in the game of football, that’s something that we had to aggressively address with this recruiting class.”
On receivers Isaiah Mizell and Gio Richardson: “First of all, we are really excited about Isaiah Mizell and Gio Richardson. One of the elements that we felt like we needed to add to our offense was some more speed, and I think that part of it is answered with both of them. Obviously, they can both fly, but I also like the toughness and the play making ability they bring. Sometimes when you’re evaluating prospects, they can have speed, but maybe they’re not natural pass catchers, or they have speed but they’re not dynamic with the ball in their hands. Both of those guys can do both. Both of those guys are really, really dynamic, and we expect both of them to impact our football team this season. I’m excited because they’ll be here for spring practice, so they’ll have an advance on the learning.”
On JUCO defensive lineman Zac Siulepa: “So you notice the size and the length of this young man. I think that’s part of it, as we looked at this class and with the defensive line. Just kind of adding people that we think can impact the team right now, and Zac is one of those guys. That was started from our recruiting staff, and also from a relationship from Coach (Alonzo) Carter.”
On recruits from within the state of Arizona: “That’s always gonna be such an important thing for us, recruiting the state of Arizona. Having recruited down here over the years some of my previous stops, the more time I spend down here the more I’m impressed with the quality of high school football in this state. There’s extremely well coached teams so there’s high caliber competition, and then there’s high level talent. We’re excited about these kids that are coming to join us. I think as we continue to build our program here, as we continue to find ways to get better and improve and have success at University of Arizona and build relationships with these high school coaches, they’re going to be excited about sending their players here, because they know they’re gonna have a good experience.”
On RB Wesley Yarbrough: “He runs with power, he’s got speed, and he ran all over everybody this fall. I think he rushed for 1,700 yards. He was a player of the year in their district. We feel like we’re adding a guy that can be a real game changer for us.”
On QB Luke Haugo: “We’re excited. The emphasis on recruiting the state of Arizona to get the highest-rated quarterbacks in this class, in state, is a big thing for us. He’s an athletic kid, he’s a big-time basketball player. He’s an early enrollee, which we’re excited about. For us to be able to get that done, he came here and worked out spring camp, did a great job, and we were building that relationship over the last, six, seven months. So we’re excited about him coming.”
On the overall recruiting approach: “There’s a baseline for us that we want to make sure that we identify. High school football players we were looking for: smart, tough, loves football. Smart, tough, loves football. That needs to come with the 6-7, 350-pound frame of Zac. That he needs to love it. If he doesn’t love it, he’s not going to love practicing every day. He’s not going to love the weight room. So just identifying those kinds of intangibles. Smart, tough, loves football is really part of our evaluation process. With the amount of time we spend talking to coaches, talking to the kids, talking to their teammates, talking to other coaches in the area, Then spending time with them in the evaluation process. Lots of time, when we have a player coming to camp, we’re trying to find out, does he love it? Does he take it every rep? Is he competing? That kind of thing, but the length, the speed, all that stuff, we’re looking for high level players, and they have to have those things for us to be a high level program in the Big 12.”
On recruits who are multi-sport athletes: “We love multi-sport athletes. I think you’re seeing more and more specialization these days. A lot of these kids play one on one sports. You see a lot of football and basketball, football and track, football and baseball. We think that helps them develop their overall athleticism and also gives us an opportunity, as coaches and evaluators, to see them compete in a sport other than football. You know, sometimes you notice maybe a little bit more athleticism on a basketball court, like, “Oh, I didn’t know he could do that.” Big Josh, today, showed me a video of one of our offensive line commits throwing down a reverse two hand dunk. I was like, “Okay, let’s go.” So we’re always trying to find those things. We’re also looking for players that come from high quality high school programs so that they’re used to high level expectations of performance and dedication and commitment.”
On DB Dajon Hinton: “The thing I love about him is he’s explosive on both sides of the ball, and he plays with an edge of the toughness that I think we’re going to like when he lines up for us here.”
On TE Kellan Ford: “Our families literally grew up together, and Kellan was always a special athlete. He just kind of played everything, and he was naturally good at it. I will say, the day he was born, my wife, Courtney and I went to the hospital, and I brought him an offer letter. At the time, I was an assistant at San Jose State. I brought him an offer letter the day he was born. I handed his parents an offer letter, and I said, ‘When he’s ready, I want him.’ So we’ve had a couple special moments with them this morning, with our staff, and the celebration of it. We’re really excited about Kellen Ford. I’m glad I got that letter to the hospital the day he was born. It’s going to pay off big time for the Arizona Wildcats.”