3/22/2021 football Edit

2022 commitment: In-state DE Tristan Monday staying home to play at Arizona

Matt Moreno • GOAZCATS

Senior Editor

Matt Moreno is the senior editor at GOAZCATS.com. He joined the staff in August of 2011 and began as senior recruiting editor with the site before becoming senior editor in June of 2014.

Arizona has struggled to pull talent from in-state powerhouse high school program Saguaro in Scottsdale. New head coach Jedd Fisch and his staff are hoping to change that trend, and their efforts received a boost to begin the week as three-star defensive end Tristan Monday gave the Wildcats his commitment over offers from Florida State, Baylor, Colorado, Iowa State and others.

The 6-foot-4 prospect continues a string of impressive work for Fisch and his staff with in-state prospects. The Wildcats have been dedicated to either keeping players home or bringing them back since the new coaches arrived in January.

Since that time the program has added several transfers who left Arizona to begin their careers but have since returned to finish with the Wildcats.

Fisch has previous said the plan is to never have those prospects leave the state in the first place, so landing a commitment from someone like Monday is important since he had offers to play in other parts of the country.

Monday is a multi-sport, multi-position recruit who is expected to come in on the defensive side of the ball where he could line up at defensive end or outside linebacker. He has plenty of athleticism with a background in basketball in addition to football, and he will give new defensive coordinator Don Brown some flexibility in the defensive front.

The three-star prospect is the fourth 2022 commitment for Arizona in the last month and the third on the defensive side of the ball joining California defensive back Tacario Davis and Massachusetts defensive end Jemaine Wiggins Jr. who just committed last week.

Monday was credited with 98 tackles over the last two seasons to go with 44 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks as a sophomore and junior.

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