Arizona’s recruiting experiencing ‘uptick’ during recent surge|Arizona Hot Topics|Team BattleGround|College BattleGround

Of all the things Rich Rodriguez thinks about during the season, the amount of national exposure his program receives isn’t one of them.

“It’s not on the list of the things that I worry about on a regular basis,” he said.

But…

“Exposure is good for all programs, particularly if you think it’s going to be good exposure,” he continued.

Indeed, and the newly-ranked Arizona Wildcats are already reaping the benefits of being in the national spotlight.

Arizona has won four straight behind the electrifying quarterback play of Khalil Tate, becoming must-watch TV, and high school recruits are taking notice.

Rodriguez said there has been an “uptick” in Arizona’s recruiting during UA’s four-game winning streak.

“From guys answering their phones quicker to texting us,” he said. “Certainly there’s guys in Southern California that know Khalil Tate. That’s helped a little bit, but we had some outstanding guys here this past weekend.”

Arizona has landed several 2018 recruits lately (I urge you to go to our recruiting section for all the updates), now sitting with 16 commits in its class, which is ranked 63rd nationally.

It’s not a super impressive class, but that could certainly change if the Wildcats keep winning.

“I don’t know how many we’re going to sign, but we’re going to have a lot more interest all of a sudden,” Rodriguez said. “It was going well anyway. We thought recruiting well last year and that’s showing up a little bit, and we think it’s going well this year, too.”

The UA even added its first 2019 commit recently, and a good one at that: four-star athlete Casey Kline.

Whether or not that can directly be attributed to Arizona’s recent success — and the exposure that comes along with it — is unclear, but it should only help the Wildcats moving forward.

Follow Ryan Kelapire on Twitter at @RKelapire