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For Rich Rodriguez's first batch of recruits at Arizona, the group was taking the Wildcat head coach for his word when the recruits decided to sign their name on a National Letter of Intent back in February.
Rodriguez had of course been out of coaching for a short time, but he was able to sell the class on what his vision was for the future of Wildcats football. Now that the UA head coach and his staff are able to work with their team during spring practice, a few signed recruits have stopped by to see their future program and coaches.
One such prospect is three-star wide receiver Trey Griffey of Orlando (Fla.) Dr. Phillips. The 2012 signee made a trip to Tucson last week and he was able to get a glimpse of what he will be doing in just a few short months.
"It was a great thing," Griffey said. "It was my first time getting to see the coaching staff that will be teaching me really coach in person, so it was exciting."
The 6-foot-2 recruit said one thing that stood out to him about the coaching staff's approach is way in which the coaches interact with the players. Anyone who has the opportunity to see the staff in action quickly finds out that there will be quite a bit of yelling going on, but it is usually not in a negative way.
"They yell, but it's not really in a way that's personally attacking them (the players)," Griffey said. "It's really more about coaching them up."
Much like his future teammate Bryan Harper did the previous week, Griffey spent the majority of his time shadowing receivers coach Tony Dews to see what he needs to work on before arriving at UA.
"I was really just trying to get a heads-up on everything," Griffey said. "He said he's going back to the basics, as far as coaching right now, but they're going to be picking it up as the season starts to progress."
Rodriguez has previously mentioned that he believes freshmen will have an opportunity to play in their first year in the program, but Griffey is taking a wait-and-see approach before making any declarations when it comes to playing as a true freshman.
"We'll see once the season starts up," he said.
Griffey said that while he was in Tucson he had the opportunity to speak with Dews, Rodriguez and co-offensive coordinator Rod Smith to learn more about how he would be used in the offense. He added that his place in the offense will become much more clear once he can get into fall camp and begin practicing with the team.
The tempo of the Wildcats' practice something that has been brought up quite a bit to the players so far during spring practice, but Griffey said it's something that he doesn't think will bother him once he's able to start practicing in a few months.
"The practice was pretty similar to my high school," he said. "There's not really that many breaks and it's fast paced, but that's what you have to do when you run a hurry-up offense."
Griffey said that he continues to run and lift weights "every single day" to prepare himself for life at the next level.
Click Here to view this Link.Matt Moreno
GOAZCATS.com Senior Recruiting Editor