New UA coach Heupel among Stoops' first recruits at Oklahoma
In 1999, one of the first players Arizona head football coach Mike Stoops recruited in his first year as defensive coordinator at Oklahoma was quarterback Josh Heupel.
The Sooners were coming off a 5-6 season and Mike's brother Bob had just taken over the reins of the OU program.
Two years later, Oklahoma finished 12-0 and won the national title.
The cornerstone of that team? Josh Heupel.
It was apparent then what a highly touted recruit can do for a program that was down.
Today, Mike Stoops hopes he can get some similar impact players for his Wildcat squad when high school and junior college players have their first chance to sign a letter of intent.
Arizona has already received 17 verbal commitments according to Scouts.com, a recruiting Web site. However, none of those commitments are official until athletes sign a National Letter of Intent.
Arizona's recruiting class is ranked No. 12 in the nation by Scouts.com, but these rankings are all projections on how well players will do at the college level, so Mike Stoops brought in a reinforcement.
Stoops added Heupel to his staff last Thursday as the team's new tight ends coach in hopes the former All-American can have a similar effect on his coaching staff that he had five years ago as the quarterback of the Sooners.
"Having both played and coached at Oklahoma, he is familiar with our system and what we want to do on the field," said Stoops in a press release. "He's won a national championship as a player and coached in the national championship game this past year. He knows what it takes to be successful on a high level and how to teach that to our players."
Heupel hopes he can use his experiences in Norman, Okla., to try and convince Wildcat players a quick turn around is possible.
"Talent alone is not what wins national championships," he said. "(It is) the intangibles, knowing how to compete, playing together as a football team and believing you can be successful and more importantly having paid the price to be successful during the off season."
Although Heupel has been with the Arizona program less than a week, he said he is impressed with the athleticism of the potential recruits that have vowed to come to Tucson next fall.
"This football team is more athletic than it was last season and more athletic than it was two years ago," he said. "Athletically we are making the strides with the people coming in here. We'll continue to get better athletes in here."
According to Rivals.com, another recruiting Web site, the Wildcats have four four-star athletes and four more who are listed as possible commitments for today.
Tight end Jermicheal Finley heads the list of players who have yet to decide on a school, but lists Arizona as an option.
Finley is a two-sport athlete out of Diboll, Texas, and could possibly play basketball at Arizona.
One four-star quarterback that could play the Josh Heupel role for the Wildcats is Willie Tuitama out of Stockton, Calif.
The 6-foot-3 right-hander threw five touchdowns in the Northern California section championship game for St. Mary's High School and ended the season with 2,734 passing yards.
Another area where the UA football team has made big strides in recruiting is with the local players.
Arizona is expected to get four players out of its own state.
Running back Terry Longbons, out of Peoria, Ariz., leads the Arizona prep class with a No. 15 ranking by Rivals.com.
He is joined by high school teammate offensive lineman Jordan Lowe, and Tucson products Xavier Smith, who played running back at Sunnyside, and offensive lineman Daniel Borg of Ironwood Ridge.
In anticipation of one of the best recruiting classes in the program's history, the athletic department is hosting a reception at 5:30 tonight at the Jim Click Hall of Champions to introduce all the players who sign with the Wildcats. Tickets are $10 with food and drinks provided and a presentation by Stoops and the coaching staff talking about the players.