All indications are that Arizona's big weekend of official visits is going to lead to a wave of commitments for the Wildcats, and that continued Monday afternoon as local three-star defensive end Keona Wilhite announced his pledge.

Wilhite, from right down the road at Salpointe High School, was obviously familiar with the school and campus already, but his official visit gave him some deeper perspective on the coaching staff's plan to develop him as well as valuable insight from some current Arizona players -- especially those who have played at multiple schools already.

"Their experiences at other schools, especially schools I wanted to go to like UCLA and Washington, they told me about their experiences and the differences [at Arizona] and just hearing that made it clear and easy for me to make this decision," Wilhite told GOAZCATS.com

Wilhite already liked the program, but the weekend visit sealed it "because I got to see everything."

This has been a long work in progress, though, as Arizona edge rushers coach Jason Kaufusi was the first coach to offer Wilhite a scholarship early in his junior season.

"At this point, it's just talking to a friend, really. It doesn't seem like business -- it just seems friends because I've talked to him so many times," Wilhite said. "He saw me during my first game of my junior year and he was like, 'Yeah, I want you.' It means a lot, actually."

Wilhite came on the official visit with his parents and siblings and the Wildcats staff made sure the whole family left feeling on board with the commitment decision.

"My parents just fell in love with it," Wilhite said.

The 6-foot-5 prospect took official visits to UCLA and Oregon State before heading to UA over the weekend, and he had planned to make an official visit to Washington next week.

Arizona is not yet finished targeting prospects at Salpointe with the coaching staff still set on adding a commitment from Wilhite's defensive line running mate at the school, defensive end Elijah Rushing. The Rivals100 prospect is in the middle of a string of visits that has taken him to UCLA, Notre Dame and Oregon. The Wildcats hosted Rushing for an official visit earlier this month.

Wilhite is the eighth commitment for Arizona in the 2024 class and the fourth over the last month.

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