MaxPreps 2017 Arizona Football National Signing Day recap

By Jason Skoda Feb 2, 2017, 12:15am

Austin Jackson, Isaiah Pola-Mao, Tyler Johnson lead Arizona recruits on National Signing Day.

Video: Isaiah Pola-Mao Ultimate Highlights
The Mountain Pointe safety committed to USC.

The activity and suspense from the day has just about wrapped up and Arizona can lay claim to 32 recruits who signed National Letters of Intent. There are also 11 more who are still committed but have not signed.

Visit our Arizona National Signing Day page to see the names, rankings and high schools of all the Arizona players who signed or did not sign Wednesday. You can sort by division as well, breaking things down to even smaller levels.

Here are some fun facts from what went down on National Signing Day in Arizona:

* The state has three 4-star recruits with two of them – North Canyon (Phoenix) lineman Austin Jackson and Mountain Pointe (Phoenix) safety Isaiah Pola-Mao – chose Southern California. Highland (Gilbert) tight end Tyler Johnson is the third one and he chose Arizona State.



* Air Force had the biggest number of recruits from an out-of-state program with five players: Williams Field (Gilbert) cornerback Tre' Bugg, Tempe cornerback Deandre Hughes, Chandler linebacker Sam Pepper, Desert Vista (Phoenix) quarterback Nick Thomas and Chaparral (Scottsdale) linebacker Parker Walton.

* UCLA had the biggest haul for out of state Pac-12 programs in St. Mary's (Phoenix, Ariz.) defensive end Odua Isibor, Corona del Sol/Michigan St. defensive end Cassius Peat, Saguaro (Scottsdale) offensive linemen Jax Wacaser and Sean Seawards.

* Saguaro had the most signees with seven, while Chandler had four and a fifth if junior college transfer Dionte Sykes is included.

* While tight end is a possession that has been reduced in most college offenses, eight Arizona signees are listed as tight end.

* This is the year of the switcheroo as several Arizona players committed early, but signed with another school in the final days with the biggest names being Williams Field kicker Brandon Ruiz (Alabama to Arizona St.), Basha (Chandler) quarterback Ryan Kelley (Oregon to Arizona St.), Chandler running back TJ Green (Oregon St. to Utah) and Saguaro tight end Jared Poplawski (Arizona St. to Colorado).

* Arizona is the land of the long snapper as Desert Ridge's (Mesa) Adam Bay (Wisconsin), Pinnacle's (Phoenix) Alexander Maxey (Vanderbilt), Boulder Creek's (Anthem) James Carolan (Bowling Green), and Perry's (Gilbert) Adam Higuera (Tulsa) all found a home.



* Arizona St. signed eight of the recruits from the MaxPrep's list, while Arizona signed five.
Tyler Johnson, Highland
Tyler Johnson, Highland
Photo by Kevin Abele


Jason P. Skoda, a former Arizona Republic sports writer and current Prep Sports Director for Times Publications, is a 20-year sports writing veteran. Contact him at jskoda1024@aol.com.