Wednesday was a big day across the country in college football as programs announced their signing classes for the upcoming season.

Arizona coach Brent Brennan came to Tucson late last offseason, so this is officially his first full offseason as the Wildcats' coach. That means the 2025 class is the first he had a chance to put together from start to finish while at UA.

Brennan was able to recruit players both in the state of Arizona as well as across the country and even across the world.

Here are the top takeaways from Wednesday's press conference with Brennan going over the recruiting class as a whole for Arizona.

It was evident most weeks in conference play how much more physical other teams in the Big 12 were on both the offensive and defensive lines.

The Wildcats have five offensive linemen as part of their 2025 recruiting class.

"We felt like going through the season when we were going game in and game out, to compete at a high level in the Big 12, we are going to have to continue to put time and resources into the offensive and defensive front," Brennan said. "I felt like a lot of the teams we played were bigger than us, and physicality being such a hallmark of who we want to be and such an important thing in the game of football, that's something that we had to aggressively address with this recruiting class."

This also included 6-foot-7 defensive lineman Zac Siulepa out of New Zealand, who joined the class Wednesday.

Brennan added that he will continue to address both sides of the line in the transfer portal.

Arizona lost Jacob Cowing heading into this past season, which was already a big loss, and it'll now have even bigger shoes to fill heading into next year with the expected departure of star receiver Tetairoa McMillan.

Finding a replacement will likely occur in the transfer portal as well, but Brennan was able to bring in two big-time recruits at the receiver position in four-star Isaiah Mizell out of Florida and in-state three-star Gio Richardson.

"One of the elements we felt like we needed to add to our offense was some more speed and I think that part of it was answered with both of them," Brennan said. "They can both fly. I also like the toughness and the playmaking ability they bring with it.

"Both of those guys are really dynamic and we expect both of them to impact our football team this season. I'm excited because they'll be here for spring practice, so they'll have an advance on the learning. Coach (Bobby) Wade is one of the best wide receiver coaches I've ever been around, and I think I'm uniquely qualified to say that because I've been a receiver coach in college football my whole life."

It was a rough season when compared to the expectations for Arizona this year, and you could potentially point to it being a reason some commits ultimately decided to look elsewhere. Nonetheless, Brennan was still able to keep a majority of the class together as he looks to help turn the program back in the right direction moving forward.

Brennan has prioritized building relationships in the recruiting process, and he believes that matters as much as wins and losses.

"We continued to lean on the value of the University of Arizona education, on the quality of people here and on living in the city of Tucson," Brennan said. "Things that are easy for them to see and feel when they were either here on their official visit or here unofficially to see the crowds on gameday and what the gameday experience is like. Those things impact their decision process. ... When we weren't having success this season, there was still a lot of trust and a lot of history. They chose to come play for the coaches on this staff because they believe those coaches are going to help them develop into high-level NFL quality players."

College football is a results-oriented business as Brennan himself acknowledged, so that has led to a recent rise in focus on the transfer portal and a bit less focus on recruiting players out of high school.

Trying to find that balance is at the forefront for most college football coaches across the country.

"That's the nature of what we've chosen to do with our lives," Brennan said. "There is also a part that building consistent winning football program, there is a time element, a culture element and a talent element. You have to invest heavily into all three of those things to get the results you want on the field."

Smart. Tough. Love football.

Those are the three traits Brennan is focusing on when recruiting players to Arizona.

"That needs to come with the 6-7, 350 pound frame of (Zac Siulepa)," Brennan said. "He needs to love it because if he doesn't love it, he's not going to love practicing every day and he's not going to love the weight room."

The father of both Dajon Hinton and Swayde Griffin played under Duane Akina. Those past connections were in part what led them to Arizona.

"I think that speaks to the trust," Brennan said. "The trust that those parents had with coach Akina. It is obviously well-documented that Duane Akina is one of the best, if not the best secondary coach in the country. His track record speaks for itself.

"What Duane has done in this game coaching that position, it is no surprise that those parents want their sons to play for Duane. I think that's a really cool thing and that is trust and those parents, their experience with coach Akina was exceptional, so exceptional that they are trusting the development of their most important person in the world to them to play for Duane."

When looking at the list of recruits in this 2025 class, one of the more notable players was a 6-foot-7 defensive lineman out of New Zealand, Zac Siulepa.

"You noticed the size and the length of this young man," Brennan said. "That's part of it as we looked at this class and with the defensive linemen, adding people that we think we can impact the team right now. Zac is one of those guys. That was started from our recruiting staff and also from a relationship with coach Carter."

The past relationships coaches as recruiters draw from through high school and junior college coaches can help lead to future connections as well, which was part of how Siulepa ended up in Tucson.

"If we do right by a player, people are going to trust sending players to Akina or trust sending players to Carter or trust sending them to me provided I did a good job with the ones they sent before," Brennan said. "That's how Zac worked out because there has been some trust built, and I think that's got to be an absolute hallmark of our recruiting process because we are starting to recruit in some new areas. The good news is we have people on staff that have been in those places before and have a good track record in those places before. I think that will lead to more quality players coming to Arizona."

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