Arizona Football Talk: Latest on Wildcats Recruiting

Hutchison has been covering Arizona for the last seven years, all across with his coverage spanning all-across UA’s campus from football and men’s basketball to Title IX sports. Plus, with so many former Wildcats playing at the next level in their respective sports, there will be moments where he will take a deep dive into the Cats' excelling outside of Tucson.

Arizona wanted to get back on the right track after an underwhelming first season under Brent Brennan, where the team finished 4-8 and missed a bowl game despite preseason high expectations.

Well, after changes were made to the coaching staff and the roster, Brennan seems to have the Wildcats moving in the right direction with the team starting the year with 3-straight impressive wins over Hawaii, Weber State and Kansas State.

Arizona (3-0, 1-0 Big 12) faced off against Kansas State in the final non-conference game of the regular season. UA started off hot, jumping out to an impressive 17-3 lead over KSU but a few missed field goals and holding calls caused the team some points right before half.

Despite the great first half, Arizona saw its lead vanish fast with KSU (1-3, 0-2) breaking off a 75-yard touchdown run and then scoring another touchdown after a blocked punt. From that point on, it was a defensive grinder with UA prevailing 23-17 over Kansas State.

As Brennan and his staff continue to try to build Arizona and get the program back into bowl contention, recruiting becomes even more vital for the Wildcats, who have their 2026 recruiting class sitting at No. 42 nationally with 20 commitments according to the 24/7 Sports composite rankings.

As of right now, four-star quarterback Oscar Rios headlines the class and is the only four-star recruit who is committed to the Wildcats.

Recently, former Pac-12 foe UCLA fired head coach DeShaun Foster, who ended his Bruins career with an underwhelming 5-10 that was capped off with an embarrassing 35-10 loss to New Mexico.

When there is fallout with a football program there is usually fallout on the recruiting trail and that was the case for the Bruins with six decommitments, thus far.

Due to the misfortune of UCLA, Arizona has gotten back in the mix for a high-level recruit and has offered three-star linebacker Ramzak Fruean, who decommitted from the Bruins with the firing of Foster.

Fruean has a 6-foot-4, 215-pound frame as a linebacker out of Spanaway, Wash., from Bethel High School where he is listed as the No. 3 player in the state.

• “Fruean is an exciting linebacker prospect and one of the most versatile defensive players out West. Plays a lot of safety at the high school level, showing plenty of range and athleticism but projects as an outside ‘backer at the next level, said 

• “With an athletic 6-foot-4, 210 pound frame, Fruean actually looks lean and has a ton of room to grow and add good weight and it won’t shock us if he even plays some as an edge rusher in certain situations. His combination of size, athleticism and physicality jumps out and he's a true three-phase defender who can play in space, rush the passer and drop in coverage. He's a big hitter who flashes knock-back ability and we really like where his game is trending.”

Arizona still has a lot of work to do in order to land Fruean, but the Wildcats are now in the hunt and looking to add depth at the linebacking position.