* Arizona head coach Brent Brennan opened up Wednesday’s press conference by thanking over a dozen people that were involved with signing this year’s class. The people involved were necessary considering the stress of portal recruiting.

“What we joke about as a staff is that portal recruiting is like speed dating, but at the end of it you’re getting married,” Brennan said. “The identification process of these people in the portal and how quickly those decisions had to be made was amazing and insane at the same time. When you think about our own recruiting process for a high school player, you’re thinking about 12, 18, 24, months? Well, this was sometimes five hours. It was a seven day a week process. It wasn’t like we took a day off in the middle of it.”

* One of Arizona’s top priorities was to add size and Brennan believes the coaching staff was able to address that successfully.

“When we went through the tape and even on game day, I just felt like we were not quite as big,” he said. “Some of our guys were, but in terms of depth and consistency of it was just not as much and that was something we had to address. I do believed games are won up front. Obviously bringing Coach Salave’a here was a big part of that and his ability to develop players at a high level and recruit at a high level. If he is in the building, you know he is in the building. He brings incredible energy to the environment. I think the players are excited to get to know him and you are already seeing those connections bearing fruit on the recruiting trail or getting us into some conversations with players that are high level.”

* The Wildcats took 19 players with only one year of eligibility remaining and it can be difficult at times balancing the fact that Arizona needs to win now while also building for the future.

“I think we can be developmental, and also have to recruit for the immediate team,” Brennan said. “That was Coach Tomey’s thing. He always said, we are recruiting for this year’s team. That was a huge thing for him. As we put this roster again, it was such a big changeover. In years past, before the portal, it depended on how many kids you graduated. So if you’ve got a young team, you might sign 17 kids. Now, if you’re looking at 40, 50, 60 players, you’re going to have to sign some players in that group that are developmental and then also ready to play. And you’re hoping that the guys that are ready to play help push the younger guys and accelerate their development.”

* With Arizona now in the Big 12, Texas has become one of the top recruiting states for the coaching staff.

“I think it’s natural because there are multiple teams in our conference that play in Texas,” Brennan said. “For us to be able to go into that state, there are several coaching members on our staff that have deep ties to Texas, which is really important. There’s also a lot of really good high school football players there. The state of Arizona is always going to be our priority in recruiting. Absolutely, number one. We’re going to have to fill out other pieces of that and given the proximity of Texas and high level of high school football there and on top of that how many games we’re going to be playing there, that makes lot a super easy choice for us.”

* For as much attention as the transfer portal gets, Arizona has also chosen to be active with junior college players as well.

“We are looking for people that best fit for us,” Brennan said. “That’s what we talked about so much. We were looking for players that are tough, love football, and want to be here at the University of Arizona. There are a handful of junior college players that fit that and at positions of need. We were measuring that against what was available in the portal, a high school player, and a junior college player. Every program is going to be different that way and every program has different needs.

“I think it is going to be interesting to see what this looks like after this cycle because I am anticipating people turning over 40 to 60 percent of their roster every year. Where are you going to get those players? Knowing you’re recruiting from junior colleges that play at a high level where you trust the coaching staff and you know those players have already had a good year, two years, three years of development, those are great places for us to recruit.”