Less than a week after Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez solidified his coaching staff, the first-year coach is hot on the recruiting trail after pulling in three more verbal commitments following the UA’s biggest recruiting weekend of the offseason.
Prosper (Texas) High School quarterback, Javelle Allen, Pittsburgh linebacker Dakota Conwell, and Temecula, Calif., linebacker C.J. Dozier have decided to join the Wildcat program after campus visits this past weekend.
Allen will enter the Arizona program as starting quarterback Matt Scott’s immediate backup after former Arizona signal-callers Tom Savage and Daxx Garman announced their intentions to transfer in December. There are several candidates on Arizona’s roster to move to quarterback to provide depth.
As a dual-threat quarterback, Allen should be a good fit in the fast-paced spread option offense that Rodriguez will employ. In his senior season at Prosper High School, Allen threw for 2,347 yards and 30 touchdowns while rushing for 1,539 yards and 22 touchdowns.
Conwell enters the program as Rodriguez’s top-rated recruit since taking over at Arizona. He had originally committed to Pitt last summer, but decided against it after head coach Todd Graham left to take the job at Arizona State.
Dozier, who verbally committed on Sunday night, had originally committed to Dennis Erickson and ASU over the summer, but, like Conwell, changed his mind after Erickson was fired.
At Chaparral High School, the 6-foot-1-inch, 210-pound starter managed to rack up 58 tackles his senior season.
Conwell and Dozier are the second and third Arizona linebacker commits in less than two weeks.
Brian Wagner, a former Akron linebacker, has already enrolled in graduate school at Arizona and will be allowed to play immediately due to an NCAA rule that states athletes who are pursuing a graduate degree not offered at their previous school will not have to sit out a season if they decide to transfer.
Wagner comes to the Wildcat program fresh off as good a season as any linebacker in America, finishing the 2011 campaign as the nation’s second-best tackler, averaging 13.36 tackles per game for the Zips last year.
Wagner also was named to the all-MAC conference first team at the end of the year.
As of now the Wildcats have 15 players committed for the 2012 class, but look for Rodriguez to continue to push that number up before national signing day on Feb. 1.
