Steve Rivera and Jaden Solens they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports
Station Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to what I'm about here
on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Jagon's ass, and
I'm hoping you have some brickaty. You know, I gotta tell you,
I really don't. I've been flapping today. I'm gonna played the thing anyways.
But you know, not much news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty Okay,
I do. I do have a quiz for you. Why in the world
is Britney Spears trending on sports Twitter Feed. It's so funny because I saw
this story and I'm thinking, I'm thinking, the only way She's gonna go
up to him and say, kay, mister whatever, mister wimban Yama.
Can I get some autographs from my kids? That's the only thing, right,
I have no nothing else. Why would you smack unless she was beating
up knocked just but what I then not realizing who it is. Yeah,
I mean they knocked her to the ground. I thought they just hit her
with a I saw things said it knocked her to the ground, knocked her
glasses off, and then she had to get up off the ground. And
now it may have just been that, you know, in the in the
instant, you know, a strong guy, right, you know, you
know, kind of like get away. But basically the way she reported it
and the way she's wore you watch, listen to New York just various websites.
You know, the police report that she filed. She is saying she
got she got hit with a backhanded slap and knocked her to the ground.
And she she said she was walking up to behind so I'm at a restaurant,
walked up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder and got smacked alone.
God, you know what the house? What's the world? Timber two?
I mean, what the hell? This is in Vegas? Right?
This is yeah in Vegas. Yeah, because that's where he's at right now,
playing for those You ever see Britney in Vegas? Who sees Britney in
Vegas? Who goes to I don't know. I've never been one of a
concert. I had to go to the Backstreet Boys once, but I never
had to go see uh Britney spears. Although Dan Patrick famously talks about going
by himself. Britney to a Britney Spears concert in Vegas at the at the
MGM Grant Arena because he just wanted to. He just wanted He likes her
music and he wanted to go see her, and he went all by himself.
I think that would seem a little creepy. Well, you know,
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do that, but I've also been the guy,
you know, stop stop. I wouldn't have done that, but he did,
so apparently that was that was one of the things. Um uh,
well, I don't have Steve. I really don't have anything else. Um.
I will say, you know a lot of things being posted about about
the recruiting thing today. UM twenty four seven Sports posted the top ten recruits
in the Arizona football history. And you look at this list, and this
is where you where you're if your Arizona you go. It's so hard for
us to have good things. Okay, Elijah Rushing now jumps up to number
one. T mac who's here number two? But just that, you go,
Jetfish is just killing it. And anybody, you know, guys,
people who are still out there thinking Jetfish can't do this. Sorry, he's
got the top two recruits in Arizona football. His see Devin Ross is number
three. I do even remember him, Yeah, I mean I know he
was a defensive back, but he was I mean he played right, but
he wasn't great as I recall. Yeah, I mean, you know.
And then Mike Bell, who I didn't realize was was ranked that high,
you know, played played under stoops. He was good, he was never
spectacular. I always remember him break going to run against as a SU,
pointing his finger up in the air like he was gonna score to the touchdown,
and then he got run down from behind. So that's what I remember
about him. Nick Costa from Portland who was recorded recruited by h Macavic,
Right, yeah, he was a Macavic guy. Yeah, by to Portland.
I remember him being like a quarter quarterback. Round was like a five
foot eight quarterback, right, he could run like run like the wind.
But well it's like you guy from the Ramble guy from LSU could throw it
a mile yep. Well if there's no receiver in a mile a mile,
what the what's the point. Then Gronk Gronk comes in at number six.
Now these are they're they're they're recruiting ratings as as done by by two four
seven sports or twenty four seventh Award, and we'll ask him to know some
of these things. Number seven is Robert Golden, who's had a nice career
in the NFL. So who's Robert Golden? Ok? Really good player,
not spectacular even nondescripting of point of how did he have a good career in
the NFL? But he has? Yeah, Keenan Walker who I have never
heard of. Who is that? I don't remember? No, I don't
know who that is. Marquis Flowers um who had again nice career, yeah,
uh with uh with remember him? Yeah, really good player? Um.
And then Cam Denson right stop point kids out a stop point went to
Was he the one that went to order Dane back? No, No,
he went to he came here kind of phased out, fizzled out, and
he went to NUKA. Yeah I'm thinking of no, No, yeah,
No, he's the one that he's he's the one that got in Trouble Boys.
He got in trouble is now in the prison for killing somebody. Yeah.
He's the one that went with with Regel two two Boys boys, one
of those squirres. Yeah, but it was those are the top ten now
like you look at that list, you go top ten recruits, and how
many of those guys are actually really good? Right? Right? And we
had a guy who just passed away the defensive end um during our time,
not our time, but twenty years ago. Uh he drove the hummer,
drove the hummer. Oh uh he was a Jap. But yeah again he
was good. Was never great, right, just did materialize? Yeah,
okay, we'll talk to We'll talk to him. Know what some of these
things. You know, I know you don't have much, but what's up
with the live and the golf? Now? Some filing suit and chicking?
Does it really matter anymore? Aren't they together? I thought they were together
there a lot or yesterday some kind of stuff going out live and lawsuits,
and I have no I've not seen anything related to that because I thought,
as he said, I thought this whole thing was everything was kind of uh
kind of settled, and uh, you know, there's nothing to do nothing
golf all of a sudden about drama, drama, drama, drama, women.
I'm a place tomorrow, I guess, starts his debut at in Vegas
tomorrow. Um. Yeah, well, you know, if you can stop
slapping you know, and your guy, your guy, your guy that you
didn't really uh think much of last year's number one guy has played fairly well.
Yeah, it's a skinny guy league now it is. And you know
what, and it is right A guy like DeAndre Ayton's built like a brick,
you know what. Um, it's kind of like too big. Yeah,
too big, can't he can't he can't do enough things. You know.
It's kind of crazy when you when you when you think about all that.
But um uh, where is this list? Yeah? I know there's
we could go past we could go past ten on the walk out authority has
the list. Gabe long Well, I don't remember remember h A. P.
Juey Hallamaka Nope nope. Solomon Peeler Nope nope. Wait, Michael Elatt's
that name sounds from it. Remember the Weird Brothers are the were brothers.
They didn't materialize at all. Yep. Lewis Holmes, JaMarcus Webb, Willie
to Atama, Jalen Curry, Cols Tate, jamar Ja Cobb. Um,
that's at twenty one. I've been trying to think you guys were you know
Adam Hall number twenty four key On Burnett a couple of years ago. He's
still here. Um Ephesians Prisot Class of twenty two. Nick Wilson, he
was had a great year, yeah right, I was right after the after
codem right, yeah, yeah, Well he was the running back on the
twenty fourteen team that got Richard cole Check. That's a name that just brings
back nightmares. Not because of him, because of the time that he was
here. It wasn't that under Macavic, and then he was still the core
back when when Stoops was here, But he was. I think he was
a guy who was the starter when Willie to Automa took over. If my
memory serves me correct, Matt Scott had one great year playing his senior year
under h under Uh. These are still to some of the best recruits.
You know, we're probably up to now number fifty, the top fifty recruits
as rated by twenty four seventh Sports. So, I don't know, it's
just there's still so much uncertainty, right. You'd like to think Elijah Russian
is gonna be really damn good, But until he's really damn good, you
don't know if he's gonna be really damn good. Right, You got you
gotta prove herself first. You do, you do, you do, And
it's not gonna happen right away, you know. And again, you know,
he may come in and if if he's if he's ready to play,
he's ready to play. And if he's not, he's not. But you'd
like to think that a guy at this level of well, you know,
in terms of being you know, as a recruit, was ready to be
close to ready to play by the time. Yeah, but there's so much
pressure on these kids to do that. It's not like basketball where you play
in the NAAAU ball and you're you know, in this competition and you're seventeen
eighteen. You come on the scene and play one year and you're gone,
not like the Aaron Gordon's of the world or whatever. Yeah, yeah,
yea. So I you know, it's just I'm sitting here. Time to
go through Twitter and find more, you know, breaking news. Nine out
of ten ten you don't remember the tweets, No, nine out of ten
tweets on my thread or about Elijah Russian Everyone's while I guess I know,
somebody sprinkles in a baseball Oh, um, Arizona's hired and you and you
assistant assistant baseball coach. Um he was promoted, So I guessing he was
the grad assistant Toby de Mellow. Um, he's been the Wildcat's hitting coordinaty
he'll be the third third base coach. But he is uh entering his third
year with the season. He was a Sacramento State Um he was, you
know, the hitting guy. Think he must have been a grad assistant or
something, or a volunteer coach. We also missed and I don't know the
name. Um, you a golfer will be playing in the Oh, yes,
yes, yes, I want to get him. I want to try
and get him on the show. He's gonna be playing in the British Open
in a couple of weeks. Um, Tiger Christians. Right. God,
didn't the women have somebody like that going somewhere on the women's team. No,
there was something going on. Um, and I thought I heard something
like that. I don't know, Okay, So, yes, this is
a funny moment. I don't know if you saw the highlight of it.
So uh uh Alie Dela Cruz. Since then a red skuy okay gets a
base hit, he gets a triple or something like that, and Dave Martin,
as the manager of the of the Washington Nationals, comes out and has
his bat check, you know, for the white number leg a legit bat.
So as next time up Dela Cruz, it's a four hundred and fifty
five home run, and as he's going down first base, he's pointing to
his bat and then he flips it to the side and then Dave Martinez had
a good response to look, this guy's been in the major leagues for two
weeks. He's got to get a grip on himself. But the whole,
that whole little exchange is actually kind of and you think, here's this whispy
guy. He's I don't know how tall he's, but he's another one of
those bo Yama guys who just has some power. He looks like he's about
six four and like one ninety yeah, you know, and has power because
he's hid. Now does he end him runs? He has someone runs really
far um and uh and and then he just you know, he plays defensive,
could do all the things. Just that guy that they was born with
all the tools and is I'm making the most of them now. So he's
he's fun to watch. I hate the fact that he's excuse he's with the
Reds. But he has been fun to watch because after all of a sudden,
become a fan of him and he might have to go put some money
on him. But yeah, you know that's not a bad idea. You
know, I think they're like they think like twenty one and seven since the
last three weeks, yeah whatever, a few weeks, whatever, however many
weeks that is. It's a big number that they that they are. But
you know it's, yeah, what's going on in baseball? I really don't.
I mean, the Dodgers a little bit behind the Diamondbacks. Diamondbacks keep
winning games and you think they're gonna stop. They won the lost last night,
the Diamondbacks Dodgers one. They blew one on on on Wednesday night.
But they did you she did she the game with Saint Louis and all the
way that ended. Yeah, where they grew the ball into the outfit.
I mean just a picture. It was just the picture. Yeah, ball
up, just a little dribbler up in the infield and he throws it into
the aufha, two runs score and they walk lose the game. Happens a
little legue all the time. Well, yeah, but not even they don't
get paid millions to do this. Oh god, so no, you just
excuse me. It's it's been. It's it's just nuts right now. With
what's going on in baseball. They All Star Game next week, they've got
the they've got the eight guys who are gonna be in the h the home
runs. Everybody like watching? I did, I do, and I did?
I like you. Have you ever wateen the Olden time? Oh?
That black and white one? Yeah? Oh yeah, I love those.
Yeah yeah, I used to watch those lots yea with Willie May's making man,
you Mollie McCovey. All, I just don't have drama to it.
I mean I like it. I watched it, I guess just for the
curiosity, but no other reason. Yeah, no, I did. I
did watch just like a half hour program. And it would be two fifteen
minutes, right, two guys against each other and just getting home runs.
It's some ballpark to look like it was in the middle of a neighborhood or
something. Yeah, I remember all that. I remember all that. So
anyways, all right, let's go take our break. We're gonna have a
met Mournano gonna come on and talks a little bit about more about what this
all means from a recruiting standpoint for Arizona. You know they got their guy.
You know, is Arizona getting in getting up there with the big boys
to recruit Matt Mournano from arrivals and uh go easycast dot com. You'll be
here to talk about all that's happened today, so we'll stick around. For
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Hardworks Concrete dot com. We'll put the work in for you. Steve Rivera
and Jake and Salis they have their eye on the ball on two Palms Sports
Big Jef Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean iHeartRadio wam Hey,
welcome back to the ball here at Fox sportsporteen. Cookie, I'm Steve Rivera
he's jakinsows no and if on we have no more to go agcats dot com.
How are you great, guys? How are you fine? Thank you?
A busy day. I'm sure every day's busy day, but has it
pretends to Arizona football been pretty good? Yeah, it's you know it round
me a lot of you know, a couple Decembers ago and we kind of
felt like, all right, Arizona is going to be in the in the
works for a really big day and land you know, a five star recruit
and one of the top wreakers they've ever landed and kept throw McMillan, and
sure nothing happened, and it was a big day. And today it feels
very similar. Our whole front page is Elijah Rushing and obviously for good reason,
you know, a big deal for Arizona to land a local guy like
that who has so much acclaim and I had so many other schools after him.
Just a really, really really nice day for Arizona that maybe even pops
that day when they picked up Tetrow McMillan in a lot of ways. So
as a number of people were hearing as we were talking hot Fair or we
thought we were off fair. Um, you know the meaning of this for
Arizona. I mean this is a big deal from the standpoint of you know,
you know, Notre Dame get guys like this all the time. Oregon
gets guys like this all the time, even Tennessee. The three those were
the three schools a rout that we're partly in the hunt for Russian. But
Arizona doesn't get guys like these all the all the time. Now they've gotten
a couple hundred jead fish. What is there? What's the long term impact,
long term meaning of this to get a guy like Rushing, Yeah,
it's huge. I mean, it cannot be understated how important it is to
land someone like Elijah Russian, who had opportunities to go to pretty much every
conference, every major conference, go to any pretty much. If I wrote
it today, if you could name a top school, he probably had an
offer to go there. Um, he had over three dozen offers. He
had opportunities to play across the country. Like I said, So to have
someone like that keep them in Tucson, I think that's the most important part,
more so than just based all landing at a high level of recruit and
somebody who is highly ranked highly sought after. It's landing, landing a player
from a school that has been difficult for Arizona to land players from in recent
history. And to keep an instan player, a top instate player home.
Um, that is that is maybe more meaningful than anything else other than,
you know, more than just the rankings and who he is as a player,
is just that it's a local guy. The trend for a lot of
the top in state prospects, and Elijah Rushian at Rivals is the top instate
prospects of the twenty twenty four class has been to leave Arizona and go play
somewhere else. And Arizona's seen that obviously. People in Tucson has seen that.
You hate to see a player like, you know, be John Robinson
end up at school like Texas and become who he's become and what everyone saw
on two son and expected her to be. You'd love, if you're Arizona
to have that guy at home and have him you know running, you know,
running the ball, uh, you know, at Arizona and so um
to land him, like Elijah Rushian has a very very very promising future.
To keep him home says a lot. And I think it is only going
to influence other top talent within the state to say we need to take a
stronger look at playing at home. Um, obviously a lot of it.
The talent is kind of centralized in the Phoenix area. It's gonna say a
lot of those guys and say, maybe we need to take a stronger look
at what's going on down in Tucson as opposed to what's going on right down
the street in Tempee, which is obviously important. And then you're gonna have,
you know, just recruits across the country and especially across the West coast
saying what what did they do to keep this recruit who had every opportunity to
go to you know, these schools that are that we know are giving out
you know and are leading to big nil deals, And to see Oregon in
particular, and what did Arizona due to land a player like that and keep
him home. Something had to go right. And obviously the fact that the
Oregan side is saying it's all nil, it's not that you talk to him
and you get a field for him. And there was more to it than
any potential nil deals that could be coming his way. It was a lot
about the people that Arizona had and I think that says a lot about what
brought it together and what could help Arizona in the future and what Jet Fish
is trying to build. No, I was just going to ask you that,
so you kind of asked the ques solve my question of how did this
happen? And then you're talking about and coach, it's about billion relationships.
You're staying at home, things that you have to prove, you know whatever.
It's all local, local, local, which is great, which is
great. Um uh, well, you know, just real quick, because
I you know there errors. Arizone goes the hanger had on that he was
the number eight rank. Um uh player on twenty four seven sports. You
you work for rivals, Rivals, He's rated in the fifties, he's a
fourth star. What what's the gap there? Why is there? Why is
there a gap like that? It's just how it goes. And I think
if you if you ask the different evaluators. I don't have a hand in
making the rankings. I don't have I can discuss what I've seen and give
my input, but I don't have any say in the final ranking. So
I'm not in those conversations. And then I'm not in those conversations with other
company companies obviously, but based on my vantage point, I think what you're
when you look at someone like Elijah Rushing, you see you see potential,
and that's really what it's about. And if you're one company versus another,
you say, we believe his potential is this. We are going to rank
him based on what we believe his potential to be if it is fully realized.
Right. I think at rivals, I think the conversation is what is
the ceiling? And yes, there's the potential for that, and we think
he could be that. But I think for a lot of the mantra is,
you know, we need to project what he truly is going to be
and what we think he's going to be. And right now, I think
the feeling is like there's some work to be done and there's some development to
be done for him to be what he feels like he can be. Right,
that's no slight to him. I think that. I think anybody that
has watched him work can see him play. I see that he's not what
he is today is what he's not what he could potentially be down the line.
And I think there's just that discrepancy there of saying do you give him
the ranking now and say, look, we had him highly ranked because we
knew he was going to be this, or do you hold back a little
bit and go, Okay, we know there's some more room for improvement.
We want to see that first, right, And so I think that's pree
You see the discrepancy is I think for Rivals as a company, it's it's
temper moore, Okay, what can we see right now and what can we
see as potential in the future, and you kind of figure out, okay,
where does he lie with matt range where I think some companies say,
look, we think this is what he's going to be, and that's what
we think. Let's rank and where where we think you'll end up eventually.
And so I think it's just two methods of doing things, and all of
it is based on potential and projection and that's difficult and obviously that happens at
all levels. And you look at the NFL draft, you look at the
NBA draft, you look at it anywhere, and it's you're trying to project
somebody you know, based on what you think they're going to be, and
it's it's not science. I mean there's a lot of things that can play
into it. And so I think that's where you see the discrepancy in the
rankings. And you know, I think where he's ranked with rivals, it
still tells you he's a very very raal good player right now, and we
think he could be he could potentially be a very very good player when he's
just find about that finding that middle ground of where you rank him closer to
what he is now versus what do you think he's going to be in the
end. So if when we go see him on a Friday night here in
two sun in September, what are we going to see from him? I
mean, I think there will be some people go, he isn't making every
single play, and I think that's where the discrepancy is. And he's gonna
make a lot of plays. He's going to demand a lot of double teams,
and that's where the difficulty comes. At the high school levels, you
can kind of tailor everything. When you're not you know, a college team
with players across the board and my little players across the board, you can
tailor your you know, your your schemes to you know, eliminate a player
like that and or limit him at the very least. And um, I
think what you'll see is that, um, you know, there's a lot
there to work with, and there are going to be moments where you go,
Okay, there's flashes of like, I can see he's different than everybody
else in the field. And I think that's the first thing you look at.
And you know, he tweeted out the lightning and thunder thing with him
and kan and will Hike, um where you know he is the speed guy.
He is the kind of a flash guy and the one who's gonna try
and get past, you know, the offensive tackle to get to the quarterback.
And so they're gonna see a lot of players he's made. I mean,
there's there's no doubt about that. He's gonna make plays. He's gonna
get to the quarterback. Um. Is he completely dominant yet? And if
he you know the guy that you're like, oh, this guy's going to
be in the NFL based on what I'm looking at right now, probably not.
But I think there's flashes of that, and you can see as long
as he continues on the same path, he's going to be eventually one of
those guys. And so I think right now what you see is, you
know, again a lot of speed, a lot of technique that I think
is really hard to teach, and you know, it'll be up to him
and I think he talked about it today and we'll continue talk about it.
Is just getting bigger. That's all you want to see from him, is
that you want to see him grow into that that position of being you know,
true outside linebacker defensive end type where you go, Okay, he looks
like what the addressers look like in college and the NFL, because ultimately,
when you look at someone like him and with the size that he has and
stills that he has, you're talking about someone who has the potential you know,
to play on Sundays eventually, and you want to see him kind of
grow into that, you know, over these next few years. So I
don't know if you saw it. We talked about this quite a bit of
the last couple of days, this article that ran in The Athletic talking about
how the entire airs on the coaching staff was on the south Point campus at
six o'clock in the morning, the first day the coaches could be on campuses.
I know, I talked to a former South Point assistant several years ago
ask him about how did you're not not so much Bjohn Robinson, Lake and
Ransom, but how did John Feenis kid go to UCLA? And he said
they were first in your in your you know experience talking to all these recruits
over all this time. Is that sort of like you know, item one
in terms of what you gotta do to get a guy, you gotta be
on him early and often. Um. Yeah, I mean, especially if
you're a local school, especially if you come from quote unquote college town.
I mean, the recruits in that college seohn expect that the coaches in that
city know who they are and know what they can be and understand what they
can be. And I'm sure being told by a lot of coaches within the
city, Hey, pay attention to this guy. He's going to be something.
That's your evaluations. Look at him. He's going to be a player.
And I think a lot of times with previous stabs that got overlooked and
it was, hey, we'll eventually come around to them. We'll see,
we'll give it some time and wait to see what happens. And I think
to some of their credit too, is you know, they don't want to
hand out an offer and go, we don't want to pull it later on
when he doesn't become what we think he's going to become. But you know
a lot of these players, Lafin and Bijon, you look at them as
freshman, you go, I know they're gonna be very very good. You
look at Elijah Russian, you know they're going to be very very good and
at least have a chance to be a Power five player. And so it's
worth it, I think at that point to take a chance and you know,
give them an offer. And obviously nothing is binding until the official offers
come out later this year, and so you know, right before their senior
year begins. And so the reality is, yes, you could pull those
offers later on, and it is probably honestly benefits the coaching staff to just
hand out a bunch offers very early on. And if there's guys that you
think could potentially be a Power five level player and you maybe pull it later
on or I have that discussion later on, I'm like, hey, we're
not in that same big mindset anymore. But I mean it does come down
to something as simple as that. And you heard that a lot with the
previous staff at Arizona was that the recruiters didn't feel like they were wanted because
they didn't get on him on them early and they didn't show that early interest.
And they remembered that. And really recruits that have ended up in Arizona
have not in Upiter Zona. A lot that I talked to you asked them,
do you remember your first offer? And they remember the exact moment,
what they were doing, who they were with, the day that it came
in, sometimes the time that it came in. Um, they remember that
first offer in a lot of cases. And that's why you see a school
like Arizona. We'll try and get out as many early offers as they can
to recruits, and UM, it does matter. And maybe it doesn't get
you that commitment in the end, but at least doesn't keep you from keeping
that commitment. And that's what it felt like a lot, you know,
with the last with the last staff at Arizona. So Arizona gets this kid
and got a couple of great ones out of South Point. What does it
all mean? Long long? It's not long term, but in this grand
scheme of things, issue I guess is doing very well. Does this moving
past a issue? Right now. Yeah, I mean, Glannie, Elijah
Russia just moved Arizona up eighteen spots and the team rankings. I mean,
that's that's the kind of impact it has. And now they're, you know,
on the cusp of being inside of the top thirty and they were number
fifty you know when this morning started. So um, it's it's big,
it's huge, it's it's everything that you that you'd want if you're a program.
And to me, it almost doesn't matter what happens the rest of the
way. And I would have said this, and I did say this weeks
ago. If they're able to land Elijah Rushing, nothing else really matters in
this class because you've got the guy that you wanted. I was at the
top of your board that you had to have. There's always those must have
recruits, and Arizona has been pretty good about getting a lot of them,
you know, under Jetfish Tetsuro McMillan's was one of those. Raymond Polido was
one of those last year along the offensive line where they said, we want
this guys at the top of the board, we have to have him.
They go out and get him. Elijah Russian was in that same category and
so to me, it's almost like the rest of the class is kind of
a wash no matter what happens. There's honestly some momentum building for them now
and they can potentially land the more top guys down the road. But it's
it's a big deal for a lot of reasons. They're gonna, you know,
continue to stay right where they want to be in terms of the team
recruiting ranking. They move up a little bit more, but it's a big
deal because they is going to start focusing a lot more on instate recruiting than
they did under her Edwards, where they kind of just kind of dispatched it
all and let those guys go wherever they wanted and not necessarily tried to keep
them home. So, um, it's a big deal for instate recreating.
It's a big deal for again, the point is going to continue to have
talent. There's going to be players there for Arizona, and you want to
have that relationship, you want to have that pipeline, and so to rekindle
that is very very big for the staff. And again I think it just
shows i think one point than anything that Jetfish continues to not be afraid to
go up against the big boys, whether you have in IL or lack NL
or whatever you're reasoning. Jet Fish is not afraid to go against top programs.
And now he's showing you can win against those stop programs. And that's
a really really big deal. And you know, when you when you beat
out Oregon for Oregon, Notre Dame in Tennessee for Elijah Russian, you beat
out Oregon for and USC was pushing hard for Tetro McMillan, When you beat
out Alabama for someone like Rayon Polido, a lot of the other programs across
the less coastal on him. I mean, that's that says a lot,
and I think it just shows you that Jetfish continues to be the higher that
I think Arizona fans wanted. And it's all it's a lot, a lot
of it is about just effort and wanting to do the job and wanting to
be good at Arizona and recruit at a high level. And I think he's
got all the pieces in place with his staff to do it, and I
think he's got the right mindset. So you know, recruit at this level
at a place like Arizona, well that's where I wanted to go with that
because you mean you mentioned effort. I mean I I don't recall a staff
that any staff let's put this much effort or emphasis on recruiting, not only
from the standpoint of recruiting, but also being very public and visible with their
recruiting and who they're going after and as you said, not being afraid to
go after guys. I mean, this is different from what Arizona has ever
had, don't you think? Absolutely? And I think that's the biggest thing
is you just you just have to try. And it's a tireless effort.
It's a tireless, you know, work ethic that you have to have because
it is as much as Arizona fans and people who went to the school love
the program and say, why wouldn't you want to be here, it can
be a difficult cell at times, especially for some of these areas that are
that Arizona wants to bring recruits in from. It's difficult to pull them out
of Southern California. It's difficult to pull them out of different areas, and
so you know, I think the effort has to be at a high level,
and I think you've seen that reflected in the staff. And also there's
kind of an intangible thing that goes with us of where I always just subscribed
as either get it or they don't, and and some head coaches just don't
get it. Jetfish gets it. He understands who needs to be on his
staff, what they need to be doing, how they need to approach it.
And I think if you look up and down even just some of the
recruiting staffers that he's brought in, people that are dealing with these recruits on
a regular basis when they come on campus and being kind of that first initial
line of contacts, maybe guys that aren't known by the common Arizona fan.
On this coaching staff, even those guys are getting the job done and doing
it at a high level, and you hear about them being talked about a
lot. M Brett Arcy is someone that comes comes up quite a bit.
He's, you know, just a staffer on the team, an analysts on
the team, and his name comes up a lot. And so, you
know, just Jetfish just gets it, and he understands a job and how
it needs to be done. And I think whether that was other previous coaches
just not understanding it fully thinking they are who they are, and they have
the big name, and recruits are just going to follow them just because of
who they are. I think there is some of that going on where you
just don't have to put in maximum effort. But at Arizona you have to
put a maximum effort. And I think that's what we're really seeing. If
there's one underlying team to all of this, it's that Arizona understands the job
under Jetfish and Stoff understands how much work they have to put in. And
I think you're seeing the kind of fruits of that labor right now. Great,
Matt, thanks a bunch of stuff. Matt has always appreciated. You
know, you've got a lot, a lot of stuff going on over there,
so we thank you for taking the time. Yeah, absolutely, anytime,
guys, Matt bodneral bisycatch dot com. We went a little over so
we'll be right back. Yeah, thank our break. If you're an Arizona
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security dot net, Dreamy Live, I mean my heart Radio Act. This
is I on the Ball with Steve Ribera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports Sport
Team fifty. Then welcome back, joining about here Fox Sports fourteen fifty M
Steve or Jake. Do you have about fifteen minutes and dobody want to call
us? What is this all new to you? With Asia Russian? Yeah,
you know, I've got a friend of mine texted me and said within
minutes, within minutes of I'm announcing the commitment, you got a call from
them Kale ticket offer. So hopefully they're doing their job too, right,
right, right right. The one thing that I was just paying attention to
the Twitter and everybody's on it. It's the best all time recruit right in
the history of the program in any sport. No, no, no,
no no. It has to be a local. It happens to be a
local, to be a local kid, right, happens to be a local.
And maybe that's how it starts, right, Well, yeah, and
it's and that, and that's I mean, you want to talk about somebody
calling somebody's already called him a wauking billboard right for for local players to stay,
top ranked players to stay and and and and and not go to Notre
Dame or Ohio State or Michigan just because they come calling for them to open
the door at South Point, right, which is going to continue to put
put players out there. Look, CDO's got players, Ciannega's got players.
You know, Ironwood Ridge has players. But over the last however many years,
South Points had players players, right, And I was just gonna say
that, I don't know. And this is maybe Hperbbly um once in a
generational player, because he's been it's been forever. Right, although Bjean was
fantastic, and obviously in Ransom was fantastic. All these kids were fantastic.
Um, all right, I don't know, I don't know. I'm one
of those guys gonna show me and blah blah blah. And so there's that,
at least I think that's And we'll know when we know, Yeah,
like what we will. And I love what Dick told me, used to
say about that. It's a great Dick and this was by Michael Bates.
After you know, they got him the whole bearings. Okay, how good
is he? And he goes, we'll find out the first time he gets
hit them out right, right, right? And so Mike Tyson, Yeah,
the first time he gets hit in the mouth, we'll know, he
said. We don't know today. We think he's good. He was worth
the effort we went to get him. But let's let him get hit in
the mouth and see what he what what what what he looks like after that?
Right? And that's and that's you know, when when Elijah Russian lines
up as a freshman against a senior you know, offensive tackle or or or
a tight end, you know, who's the size of Rob Gronkowski? What's
that gonna look like? Right? Right? Know? Who? The kids?
Who the brothers? Uh? Who are the brothers? Are just the
brothers the son of the former the former player in our time, Sean Sean.
The kids his kids are Harris. Harris, I mean, very imposing,
very impressive. They looked apart, they looked apart, and they just
they were good but not great. Uh yeah, I mean yeah they were
good, but they weren't you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't even call him
special. But they're good starters. They looked they looked at it. But
you know, so again you don't know, I don't until you line up
and do it. But um, and that and that's the kind of the
inexact science of all the recruiting stuff. As I told him on the way
in UM listening to listening to the show that preceded, uh the announcement.
You know, they had a guy and they were just running through they were
running through their their list, their feet and people saying what about this player?
What about that player? And every player that they talked about. It
was gonna be an NFL superstar. If you listen to what they were saying,
I'm gonna I'm gonna guess at half of these guys that you're talking about,
there's gonna be any good. Or they may be good, but they're
not going to be great, right because it is such an inexact science.
Sure, and there's work that has to be put in, a lot of
work. Had you had you talked about Stefan Stefan Curry back in the day,
Oh, he played a Davidson. You know, he's that guy.
He's an undersized kid. He looks like twelve years old and then he turns
into this guy and he went and did the work and made himself exactly.
He did the work that he became and that's you know, and that's what
that's what guys do. Again, you know, is Elija Rushing in the
end going to be better than Teddy Bruski. Yeah, I mean that's a
lot of weights to place on him, But that's what I'm saying though.
Right right now, we're talking about Elijah Rushing in a way that nobody ever
talked about Teddy Bruski. Right, Teddy Brusky is the college Football Hall of
Fame. Yeah, right, in the same position I'm the poop poo guy.
Put No, I didn't say that he's not going to I just said
that might just said put it in context. Right, Eliza Rushing, who's
a freshman, is going to be as a senior at not even well technically
a SE's gonna be senior at South Point High School. We're talking about him
in a way that he's going to be the greatest player Arizona has ever had
yet a guy that played his position. Teddy Bruski barely got recruited and came
to Arizona became that player and wound up in the College Football Hall of Fame.
At one point held held the career nc double, a career record for
sacks. That's the that's the bara, right, well, yeah, that's
a bar. That's a bar. Not the bar. It's a bar.
But it's something that you think about when you think about what we're all.
Our whole show has been by the lives of rushing today. And yet there's
the Teddy Bruski is out there as a mark for him. Yeah, of
course, of course, No, he's just gonna find that market kind and
can he get there? And you'd like to think that he can. He's
got you know, he's certainly got the body, the potentially he's had the
coaching from you know, Eric Rodgers and his staff, the training from Carla
Garrett who was there their strength coach over at that point. You know,
all these people who have had a hand, his parents, who have had
had a hand in getting him to hear there's still a ton of work to
do. Back to his dad. Uh And someone's just sending another note,
but I've seen this on the YouTube that his dad says, there's gonna be
more. There'll be more coming, he'd be the pipe piper of and the
pipe piper of any and again getting him to the bigger picture of that's what
happens because of this, Let's say down the road and Liza Rushing turns out
to be average, but because he attracted a whole bunch more players and turned
a change the image basically of a program. I'm happy. I'm happy with
him, yeah, but I still want to be really good. Of of
course, that's a lot of us me, a lot of pressure. I
mean, that's part and I'm not you know, I'm not saying that to
put pressure on, and I'm just saying, of course, but it's gonna
be certain. You know, people are gonna come. He's gonna get here,
and they're gonna start comparing you. Yeah, right, they're gonna compare.
You're gonna compare and do to Ricky uh no, no, the defensive
man Allison. Oh well yeah, yeah, yeah, Bndy Brunny Ricky Ricky
Alison. Yeah, you know, yeah, he played in the Pro the
pros. Oh no, Brooks Reid, Oh, Brooks Alison played too,
you know, and Brooks Reid, who you know, went in went into
the NFL. A guy like Ricky Hanley, as he said, you want
to talk about a guy who changed the face of a program right as as
a as a as a linebacker at Arizona, you know, and then again
you get to the Teddy Bruskies and those guys who played during Desert Swarm?
Does he have that kind of impact, uh, you know on this program?
And then and and as he said, is he does he become the
pie piper you know, to Arizona. That's the thing that I'm hoping for
more than anything. Yeah, the thing is a tu son is two son,
and we love two someone with CLU. But the number of kids that
are this good is limited. And here here, right here, which is
why it's so important to get to get him, to get him here,
because there are so few. Right. You can't miss on the locals,
but you can't miss on the loan. You can't give him away. You
know. Well, I think what he does, what he does for me,
and he proves me wrong, not so wrong, but that there is
another theory of and I mentioned this with the Ransoms and the Bijeans and the
guys who leave. You can't blame them. And you understand why Bijean would
not be the mustard guy if he stayed here. But the Russian you can
you could, you could do it another way, right, you could skin
a cat in a different way, right, and you can still become that
guy. You know. I'm a look at the careers that some of these
guys have had. Look at the career that Crockett, that grond right here,
right, I played here really one year right right? Well that that
kind of shows the player that he is. Yeah, right, But that's
what I'm saying. If you're you hope he's kind of that level of player,
right, But again, you're Bruskie. You know all these you know,
super Bowl championships, playing with the Patriots all those years he was he
came ready to play though he was. He looked apart. He played the
part he acted, you know, he wanted somebody's you know what, and
he wanted it. Now, it's like the kids, the Aden's, the
Gordons and the one one and Dons. They didn't get better here. They
were already putty good. They rented time here, that's a good way to
put it. And it just six months of time because you know what,
they didn't want to be here. They knew they didn't have. They had
to be here, so let's go. He still say that Tom Tiber didn't
attend a class after January here in nineteen eighty eight, well after the Christmas
break, and he didn't attend another class. Whether that's true or not,
I would have to ask Tom, and I don't know if he would admit
it. But did you read this chapter? I haven't read. His chapter
on how he got here was fantastic. I'm gonna read that. Read you
know, he's a funny dude. You would have to do with that book?
You know? Would I have to do with it? Put it in
a can, put in my bathroom. Yeah, you'll finish it in two
Put it in my bathroom. I will, I will. You. You
gotta put it. Read the chapter. It's the reason I haven't sitting there
in my office, sitting on you know, like on my table in my
office. But I don't know, I don't pick it. I'm gonna You're
right, I'm gonna put it in. Put it on. It's a perfect
place for it. In a month, you'll be done twenty five chapters and
then we'll have a show about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll
get some more guys. October. It was you know, Tober's being Tober
funny guy. I love that guy, You'll love you love. We all
know that he was going to go somewhere else to be, but the circumstances
of that happening, we're fantastic. And I hadn't known about the circumstances.
I gotta read that. I can't even read that to night. Yeah he's
funny, he was funny. Yeah, okay, well thanks. We had
maybe a chance for one call if anybody wants to give us a call,
just your thoughts on what happens. But um, again, we keep saying
that this is Bill, this is bigger than getting a really good play.
Yeah, Bill, if you want to call please do I know you've been
texting us a time or two giving your thoughts that give you some We I
don't think we can we can reiterate that more, that this is getting this
guy is more than just getting a good player. It's it's what it means
over to it's a trend center and what you know, you ten Yeah,
Arizone's getting all kinds of attention on on on social media because they got this
guy getting national attention. You know, Aaron Torres is talking about him,
you know, all two sons trending. Now these guys so two sons trendy.
So it's brittany so brittle. Yeah, gosh, all right, Oh
here we go quick one higher on there and I on the ball. Hey
this is Bill, Hey, Bill, make it quick. We got about
a minute, so Bill, real quick, go ahead. So Bill.
Bill texts me like at two o'clock, I'm in the doctors and he says,
what's gonna happen? I'm thinking, Bill, you're an old man,
come out, relax. What do you think I'm I'm excited about the big
picture. I think he's gonna bring other people, like no, like our
quarterbacks of Difta did he brought Ko and you know those other guys. I'm
expecting him to bring other people help us with that pipeline at a south point.
So I think, you know, it's important that he does well in
the field, but it's just important that he's here. And it opened the
door for other people for us, right, and that's just a south point,
but all the local kids, right, look at this. Okay,
that guy stayed. You know I can and now now we need to squeak
some people out of Phoenix. Yeah, yeah, I think that's gonna happen.
I think that's gonna happen. So we'll see. Yeah, relax,
relax, Bill, enjoy opinion and go Dodgers. I feel better for five
minutes, and then I'll start worry about somebody. All right, Bill,
thanks so much. All right, thank you. That's about right. You
know you're on to the next worry. Oh yeah, and you do it.
Yeah, you are going to start worrying. Okay, who's gonna try
and flip this kid? But no, this was a you know, a
great gat. It's a way better feeling than if they didn't get him right.
And now now you go, uh, now you go see you'll see
what you know, what happens. A good show today. Thank you,
mister Rushing yea, thank you, yeah, thank you for giving us something.
Thank you Eric Rogers for coming on the show and talking about talking about
Elijah and how all that came down. And we'll we'll try and get we'll
try and get Elijah later. Um, we know it's a big day for
him, and uh, I'm trying to hit I guess I got two years
and then uh care we go and then uh we're we'll be talking about this
some more. Because there's there's a lot more to come in terms of what
all this means. Be sure to stick around you around tomorrow we'll be back
with some more stop