Wallow glad to have new Arizona offer that he's 'been waiting on'

Arizona’s staff has a slower week this week with spring ball on a break, so it has given that group some extra time to focus on recruiting and that means offers going out early in the 2017 recruiting cycle. The Wildcats were busy with that Monday as numerous new offers went out all over the country.

One recruit who the Wildcats made a move on Monday is safety prospect Garret Wallow from River Ridge (La.) John Curtis. The Wildcats have connections at the school and with his 6-foot-3 frame the junior fits what the program is now looking for with its safety group. Wallow picked up an Arkansas offer Tuesday and he continues to see his offer list grow.

“I mean it’s all coming in fast, but it’s definitely been exciting,” Wallow said. “I knew at some point they were going to come in, but once they started it was kind of shocking and it’s been exciting. It makes me feel good and makes me want to work harder.”

Even though it is early in the process the big safety recruit was happy to see an offer from the Wildcats come in Monday.

“Starting off that is a big offer coming in from a good school in the Pac-12,” he said. “So, I’ve been talking to a coach (Calvin Magee) from there, so I’ve definitely been waiting on that. ... He was saying that they like how I play, so I’ll definitely be talking with him.”

In addition to his two newest offers there are a number of other programs that have already jumped in the race as well with Cincinnati, Colorado State, Iowa State, TCU and Toledo all being part of the dozen offers Wallow holds at this stage.

“They like how physical I am,” Wallow said of what he’s hearing from coaches in the early going. “They like the type of player because I like to hit a lot and they like seeing that.”

Now that Arizona has a new defensive staff in place it has been looking for taller, more physical safeties and at 6-foot-3 Wallow fits into that mold.

“I’ve been playing it since seventh grade and my coach always told me that I was going to be a safety,” he said. “They wanted me to go to d-end but I stayed at safety and I kept working at it and it just kind of came to me. ... I feel like at safety I have really nice size.”

Wallow said he is visiting Memphis this weekend and he plans on seeing a number of schools over the course of the spring as things get rolling in his recruitment.

As a junior Wallow finished the year with 72 tackles including six tackles for loss as well as two sacks and five pass breakups.