ASU and Arizona strike out with local state football prospects

PHOENIX - Senior high school football players announced their decisions this past Wednesday about where they’ve decided to play college football and remarkably, ASU and the University of Arizona missed out on a lot of outstanding in-state players.

In fact, ASU signed just three in-state kids (four if you count Auburn transfer Christian Westerman) while Arizona signed five. The trouble is, we have a lot more than just eight talented high school football players in this state! Heck, we have more than eight in Chandler alone!

But for some reason, a number of our best players continue to take their talents to other states. That’s troubling to me!

Take UCLA for example. Three of our top prospects signed with the Bruins: Centennial running back Jalen Ortiz, Mountain Pointe offensive lineman Kenny Lacy and Marcos de Niza defensive back Priest Willis. They join last years top players, Brett Hundley, Kody Innes and Paul Perkins.

Brophy quarterback Tyler Bruggman chose Washington State over ASU, while Hamilton’s Cole Luke chose Notre Dame. And the list goes on and on.

When it comes to ranking this year's recruiting classes, ESPN has Arizona at #39 while ASU comes in at #42. Rivals.com has each school ranked a little higher, with ASU at 32 and Arizona at 36.

But remember those kids I just mentioned that are going to UCLA? Rivals.com has the Bruins recruiting class ranked at number 11, while ESPN has them at 12.

What does that tell you? It tells me that if ASU and Arizona paid more attention to the kids in their own backyards, they probably would have been ranked higher in terms of their recruiting classes. Which, by the way, translates to wins on the field in the fall.

In fact, both ESPN and Rivals.com have five Pac-12 schools ranked higher that Arizona State and Arizona. I think it’s time for the Sun Devils and the Wildcats to start recruiting Arizona kids! Don’t you?

That’s Fouhy on Sports!