In the past month the Wildcats have lost both coordinators and a tight end to the NFL draft. While Wildcat fans may be wondering “why us?”, they should be glad. Arizona fans got what they wanted.

Losing coordinators, losing players to the pros, welcome to “big boy football”.

Sonny Dykes/courtesy: WildcatSportsReport.com

Arizona brought in Mike Stoops to try to duplicate the success he had when he was a defensive coordinator at Oklahoma. While the rebuilding process has been slower than folks would like, and they have not had the successes as Stoops had at Oklahoma, it is clear the program is on the up swing.

The better the team plays, the more the coaches will be a hot commodity. The better players a team recruits, the more likely you are to lose them early to the draft.

Pete Carroll had three coaches get head coaching gigs. Bob Stoops has seen four of his coordinators leave for head coaching jobs (five if you count Bo Pelini who had a one-year stop at LSU before getting the Nebraska job).

Get the picture? While it would be great to have staff continuity, it just does not happen. It is a good thing. If coaches know you can move up from a place like Arizona, they will be drawn to the job. While some life-long coordinators have been great, don’t you want your coaches to be ambitious? While you don’t want to hire a bunch of mercenaries, you also don’t want coaches who no one else is interested in.

The same goes for players. Fans always lament that their teams can’t land five-star players, but then turn around and get mad when those talented players leave the program for the draft. You can’t have one, without the other.

Look at the programs that have the most players declaring for the draft, and I’ll show you programs that win football games. Washington State is not losing a ton of the guys early for the pros. Baylor does not see a rash of players declare for the draft. Duke coaches are not sweating out the declaration deadline.

The fact is, Arizona has had players declare early for the draft in three of the last four years and had to wait and see what Antoine Cason was going to do.

John Mackovic never lost a kid early. Dick Tomey lost just one.

Urban Meyer and Nick Sabin lose five a year.

Arizona is not in that elite level yet, but they are inching closer. They may never play for a national title, but a BCS bowl berth is not a possibility. The side effect to that success is that coaches and players move on.

Enjoy big boy football.

Arizona is quickly filling up their 2010 recruiting class. The Wildcats added their second defensive back in the past few days and have dipped back into the JC ranks to do so.

San Mateo college safety Eddie Elder decided to become a Wildcat.

Courtesy: San Mateo Football

“I committed last night and I am going to sign the paperwork tomorrow,” Elder said. He has three years to play two and can enroll in January and will be able to participate in spring ball.

Elder originally signed with Oregon out of Sacramento’s Burbank High School, but had to go to San Mateo due to grade issues.

The 6-0, 190 pounder chose the Wildcats over ASU, Utah, Tulsa and New Mexico State.  Elder had seven interceptions during 2009 at San Mateo, two of them for touchdowns.

Elder was recruited by Arizona assistant Jeff Hammerschmidt and dealt with Mark Stoops until he accepted a position at Florida State. He has already spoken with Mark Stoops’ replacement and has no worries.

“Coach (Greg) Brown said he was excited to coach me,” admitted Elder. “It doesn’t bother me at all that coach mark left and coach Brown is coming in, I like him and I know have faith in him and coach (Mike) Stoops and I can’t wait to get there.”

Elder is the 19^th known commitment and one of six junior college players to commit to the Wildcats.

He is the only true defensive back in the class, but it is believed that athletes Jourdon Grandon, J.J.Whitaker and Josh Robbins will all begin their careers as defensive backs.

EXTERNAL LINK1: WildcatSportsReport.com’s full interview with Elder

EXTERNAL LINK 2: San Mateo College’s Highlight Video of Elder

Thursday was a good night for the Wildcats. The team got a pair of verbal commitments that became public on Friday.

Dexter Ransom

The Cats have done well with Blinn College players the past few seasons and have added another. Wide receiver Dexter Ransom should give the Wildcats another big target. The 6-3, 215 pounder become the fourth Blinn player to commit in the past three years.

“I am happy with my decision,” Ransom said. “I knew it was the right time for me to make the decision to commit to Arizona. I just really like how I fit in with the offense at Arizona.”

Ransom was originally committed to Utah, but changed his mind.

“I like Utah but I am a better fit for Arizona and Arizona is a better fit for me,” said Ransom.

Ransom is due to graduate in May and has two to play two, but he is trying to get those classes done in Winter Session so that he can enrol in January.

Dominique Jones

The Cats also dipped into the high school ranks for Midwest City (Okl.) High School’s Dominique Jones.  Jones is a 6-2, 280 pounder, who has flown under the radar, but had interest from Nebraska, Kansas State and Missouri among others.

He committed to Arizona running backs Seth Littrell and had nothing but good things to say about Littrell.

“Coach Seth is a real good dude,” Jones said.

Jones is rated as ESPN’s No. 45 defensive tackle and is a three-star recruit with a 78 rating.

In not so good news, the Wildcats will apparently lose defensive coordinator Mark Stoops to Florida State. NoleInsider.com is reporting that Stoops will take the position on Jimbo Fisher’s first staff at FSU.

EXTERNAL LINK: Longer interview with Ransom