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Blake Baumgartner, ESPN Staff Writer
Top 20 prospect Elijah Rushing committed to Arizona on Thursday.
Rushing (No. 20 overall in the 2024 ESPN 300), a four-star defensive end from Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, Arizona, becomes the highest-ranked player to commit to Arizona since ESPN began ranking players in 2006.
Rushing, the fifth-best defensive end in the class, plans on enrolling early in January 2024 and also considered Notre Dame, Oregon and Tennessee.
“I feel like they’re moving in the right direction,” Rushing told ESPN. “That was something important to me and it’s just unique to being a hometown guy. So that comes with perks in itself and my brother [freshman safety Cruz Rushing] is there.”
Cruz transferred from Florida, where he was a preferred walk-on, to Arizona after last season. Elijah is the first ESPN 300 prospect for the Wildcats’ 2024 class; the program signed a combined five ESPN 300 players over the past two recruiting cycles (four in 2022).
His pledge marks the biggest recruiting victory for a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2017, when a Rich Rodriguez-led team went 7-6. Jedd Fisch is entering his third year this fall with the Wildcats and led them to a 5-7 record in 2022, a year after going 1-11.
Arizona’s 2023 class ranked 36th overall (seventh in the Pac-12) and its 2022 class finished 25th overall (second in the Pac-12) in ESPN’s rankings. Rushing would provide a huge boost to a defense that surrendered 36.5 points a game in 2022 — 13th in the Pac-12 — while giving up 467.7 yards a game, which also ranked second to last in the conference.
Arizona’s defense collectively recorded 16 sacks last season, and Rushing’s presence could jump-start the entire unit, which lost defensive lineman Hunter Echols (4.5 sacks) and linebacker Jalen Harris (3.5 sacks) to graduation.
“Like a lot of people around the nation, [the Wildcats’ defensive system focus] is like the hybrid and outside ‘backers — that back end played with their hand on the ground,” Rushing said. “Also two-point [stance] and drop. I feel like that matches my skill set. So I feel like I fit right in.”
After taking official visits to all four schools last month, Rushing was impressed with the feedback he received enough to move up his decision after initially looking to wait until the first few games of the season to evaluate how teams were using their linebackers.
The 6-foot-5, 235-pound Rushing recorded 73 tackles (25 solo) with 13.5 TFLs and 11.5 sacks in 12 games for the Lancers in 2022.
He anticipates being able to operate either standing up or with his hand in the ground in a two-point stance.
“That hybrid that can drop [into coverage] and someone that can pass rush,” he said, describing his game. “So that just matches my skill set.”