Every time Arizona State or Arizona brings in a new football coach, he inevitably talks about the importance of keeping the top in-state players home.
More often than not, it seemed like lip service, and neither program has done a particularly good job of nailing down local recruits.
But despite Corona del Sol standout lineman Andrus Peat passing on ASU, there still might be some bark to the bite with Rich Rodriguez and Todd Graham.
Hamilton defensive tackle Jaxon Hood didn’t have an in-state offer from either school under the old regimes, and …

It’s the classic “caught between a rock and a hard place.”
Last week, an NCAA committee offered support of a proposal to prohibit college coaches (except football) from making scholarship offers to recruits before July 1 between their junior and senior years in high school. Coaches also would have to receive high school transcripts documenting at least five semesters or seven quarters worth of academic work before they can offer a scholarship.
Yet, during this attempt to clamp down on an out-of-control system, the NCAA would still allow coaches to contact recruits …

Although it’s not yet a done deal, if the rumored ‘Pac-16’ does come to fruition — with Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State joining the conference — it would be interesting to see the domino effect with local recruits.
In the past few years, several of the elite in-state recruits — Devon Kennard, Everson Griffen, Kris O’Dowd — have opted for USC because of its tradition-rich program.
But now, Texas and Oklahoma have been thrown into the mix. Those two teams have not historically recruited from Arizona, but …