Jedd Fisch explains mindset on roster building, transfer portal usage

After being picked eighth in the Pac-12 preseason poll, Arizona now finds itself bowl eligible after nine games with a 6-3 record. In the era of the transfer portal, the Wildcats are getting some big contributions from young players — and that’s by design, according to Jedd Fisch.

Arizona’s leading rusher, receiver and tackler were all part of the Wildcats’ 2022 recruiting class. Jonah Coleman leads the Wildcats with 565 rushing yards, Tetairoa McMillan has a team-high 753 receiving yards and Jacob Manu’s 75 tackles is the most on the roster.

But it’s more than just those players standing out, as Fisch told Andy Staples. Six of Arizona’s listed starters on its depth chart against UCLA were from the 2022 class, and Noah Fifita takes that number to seven. It’s part of Fisch’s plan to recruit and develop talent.

That doesn’t mean the portal isn’t a good resource, though.

“I just believe you build your team through the draft in the NFL and you build your team through high school recruiting and college, and then you supplement your team through the transfer portal,” Fisch said on Andy Staples On3. “When you start trying to do it otherwise, I think, is when you get into significant culture problems.

“Now, that’s not to say that what they’re doing in Colorado is wrong. I mean, they’ve done their deal and Coach Prime is really good at what he does, and he knows exactly what he was looking for. For us, we didn’t have that same opportunity, so we made the best of our opportunity. But in the end, I just felt as if, like, I just want to build it with young kids and get them and make them older.”

When Fisch took over the Arizona program, the Wildcats were in turmoil. Kevin Sumlin’s final year at the helm saw an 0-5 record, and Fisch’s first season resulted in a 1-11 mark. But he has picked up recruiting over the last couple years. That 2022 class ranked No. 29 in the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Ranking, and the 2023 class ranked in the top 50.

The secret to his success, Fisch said, was quite simply telling coaches what the goal of the program is.

“We went to programs and we just sold our vision,” Fisch said. “Our vision was, very simply put, we’re going to do everything we can to help you become a professional in life. If that means an NFL pro, great. If that means a professional with a graduate degree, great. But we are going to fight to make you a pro, and we’re going to give you more access to the NFL than any other program in the country, and we stuck with that.”

Jedd Fisch on what he looks for in recruits at Arizona: ‘No high school kids with losing records’

As Fisch worked to build up the program, he wanted to instill a culture of winning. That started on the recruiting trail and going to the best high schools to get players. It’s also where the portal came in as he landed former Washington State quarterback Jayden de Laura, who had a decorated high school career before winning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year at Wazzu, out of the portal.

Fisch’s message to his assistants was simple as they hit the trail.

“I told our coaches, no high school kids with losing records,” Fisch said. “We needed to bring winners into the locker room. … That was our goal. Because you needed to bring in players that knew what it felt like to win games so when you’re in the locker room, they could hold the other players accountable for how you work to win.”

As far as star ratings, Arizona hasn’t necessarily landed five-star talent. McMillan was the highest-rated recruit of Fisch’s tenure, coming in as a four-star prospect and the No. 41-ranked player from the 2022 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Fisch gave credit to his staff for finding diamonds in the rough and players who can come in and contribute right away, even if they’re not the highest-rated recruits.

“I would say that they’ve done a marvelous job at finding — and it wasn’t like we sign all five-star players, you know what I mean?” Fisch said. “You’re able to sign guys that you saw or our staff saw had a certain talent, and they felt really comfortable with it. They said, ‘We don’t care who else has offered them. This is a type of running back that can help us win.’ ‘We don’t care who else offered them. This is the type of quarterback that could help us win.’ And that’s what we went with.

And it wasn’t hard to evaluate T-Mac, right? But when you go and you say, I’m going to take Jonah Coleman, and Jonah’s offers I think at the time, were Fresno State and us. We were able to find a way to keep Jonah when people started saying, ‘Oh, this guy’s a pretty good back.'”