Dwight Melvin is rated a three-star recruit by 247Sports and Rivals.com. Photo by Deirdre Hamill/The Arizona Republic
The Arizona Republic, one of our Gannett partners, held a day-long recruiting chat — an impressive endeavor that included participation from local high school players.
Included in the mix was defensive lineman Dwight Melvin from Betty H. Fairfax High School in Laveen. Melvin committed in July to the former Arizona coaching staff, when he also held offers from UCLA and Arizona State.
Melvin stayed with the Cats through the coaching change to Rich Rodriguez, who says Melvin (6-1, 265) can play inside or outside on the line … and Melvin said in the chat that he might also dabble on offense.
Culled from the chat (his comments begin at the 1:50 p.m. mark if you follow the link above), here is what Melvin said of his recruitment, his thoughts on Arizona and how he had to show Rodriguez around campus on his official visit:
(I have cleaned up the typos, but otherwise have not altered any of Melvin’s comments.)
ALL RIGHT, DWIGHT MELVIN HERE. Today was a great experience for a teenager such as me. Growing up wishing you can play in the NFL and the college level. When you actually get to play in the college level, it’s a great experience because you watch people who are actually playing and wish it was you on the field.
I chose University of Arizona because when I first met coach Stoops, he was a defensive coach, he was obsessed with defense. When I went to camp, he was obsessed with my great handwork and my great footwork. A few days later after that, he called my house and offered me. When he got fired I was devastated because he was the reason I chose UofA.
A week after coach Rod got hired, I went down to take my official. He really didn’t know too much about the campus and he only had three coaches and didn’t know any of the players. haha.
So on the visit, I ended up showing him the campus because I knew the campus so well. My sister went there for two years. He was asking me what is this building? What is that building? I told him what building they were.
He told me what vision he had for me. He told me I would be playing “Iron Man.” Basically playing defense and offense. I won’t be playing offense as much as defense. Mostly in goal line on offense. On defense, I’ll be playing defensive tackle, defensive end and possibly linebacker.
It was a hard decision. Because I loved UCLA and the California weather. That was in my top 5. UA, UCLA, ASU, Boise State, NAU. But UCLA fired coach Neuheisel.
I took a regular visit to UCLA, liked the campus. I was going to come back a month later in a bye week of our season for an official. But Neuheisel got fired. And they didn’t have a coach in place. So UofA was my No. 1 choice. I went with them.