Arizona acquired a dedication on Thursday from 2024 five-star EDGE Elijah Dashing, marking arguably the most important recruiting win in program historical past. Dashing, who’s ranked No. 8 within the 247Sports rankings, is the primary 5 star the Wildcats have landed within the star system period. It bumps up this system from fiftieth to forty first within the 2024 247Sports class rankings.
Dashing performs highschool soccer at Salpointe Catholic in Tucson, Ariz., which is situated simply 5 miles from the College of Arizona campus. The Wildcats beat out Notre Dame, Oregon and Tennessee, amongst others, for his companies. Elijah’s brother, Cruz, can be a member of the Wildcats after transferring from Florida.
“It [being close to home] was an enormous issue, and it was one of the best state of affairs for me,” Dashing informed 247Sports. “For me it was vital to place us on the map and present who we’re.”
The Wildcats are ranked third amongst Pac-12 groups within the 2024 class behind Oregon and Stanford. Arizona completed sixth within the 2023 recruiting cycle amongst Pac-12 staff groups.
This system’s highest-ranked dedication earlier than Dashing was four-star WR Tetaiora McMillian, who was ranked thirty seventh total within the 2022 class. McMillan made an instantaneous influence as a freshman and racked up 39 catches for 702 yards and eight touchdowns.
Fisch’s rebuild paying dividends
The Wildcats program has gone by means of a full rebuild beneath head coach Jedd Fisch, who was employed after the 2020 season to rebuild this system. Although the staff completed with an abysmal 1-11 document in Fisch’s debut, it confirmed vital enchancment final season by going 5-7 and almost securing a bowl berth for the primary time since 2017.
Dashing’s dedication indicators the rebuild is near being on the opposite aspect of the horizon. Arizona already landed former five-star linebacker Justin Flowe from Oregon and Colorado WR Montana Lemonious-Craig through the switch portal.
Dashing may have an opportunity to obtain vital taking part in time as a real freshman. Arizona ranked 125 out of 131 FBS groups in whole protection final season, and that unit might want to enhance to take the following step. Dashing offers the Wildcats a difference-maker on that aspect of the ball.
An enormous in-state recruiting win
Dashing is the No. 1 edge rusher within the class, and he simply so occurred to be situated in Arizona’s yard. A number of marquee packages have been vying for Dashing, however Arizona was in a position to beat out among the elite packages from the Pac-12 and SEC.
Dashing is the highest-ranked participant to return out of the state of Arizona since Kelee Ringo, who dedicated to Georgia from the 2020 cycle and was ranked No. 7 total in his class. The best-ranked participant earlier than Dashing to decide to this system from the state of Arizona was Mike Bell in 2021.
Arizona is not going to compete for a Pac-12 title this season, however including a constructing block to this system like Dashing for the longer term is a optimistic signal for Fisch and the Wildcats program going ahead.