Chaparral's Davonte' Neal celebrates his team's Division II football championship game victory over Cienega at Sun Devil Stadium in November. Photo by Pat Shannahan/The Arizona Republic
One of the state of Arizona’s top football prospects won’t be considering either of the state’s two major football schools.
New Arizona Wildcats assistant coaches tried to make an in-person pitch to Scottsdale Chaparral receiver/cornerback Devonte’ Neal on Tuesday, but no luck.
Neal wouldn’t even meet with them, telling our Gannett partner, the Arizona Republic, “I’m going out of state.”
New Arizona wide receivers coach Tony Dews has had success recruiting Chaparral before, signing four-star recruits Craig Roh and Taylor Lewan to play at Michigan after the 2008 season.
Neal is a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year for Arizona and is rated the 84th-best player in the state.
The Cats are moving forward elsewhere on the recruiting front with another player from the Phoenix area — quarterback Cody Sokol, from Scottsdale Community College. He was set to start an official recruiting visit to Arizona today, according to several reports.
Sokol passed for 3,807 yards and 43 touchdowns, with 10 interceptions, this season, according to Scout.com. He is expected to take an official visit to Iowa after his trip to Tucson.
UA coach Rich Rodriguez would like to bring in at least a couple of quarterbacks in this class, preferably at least one from junior college.
More recruiting from the Phoenix area: Defensive lineman Dwight Melvin, who committed to the previous Arizona coaching staff, was one of several players who took an official recruiting trip to UA last weekend.
He told WildcatSportsReport.com, one of our TucsonCitizen.com partners, that he is a “solid Wildcat” after his visit. Melvin is from Fairfax High School in Laveen.