Arizona has made another late addition to its roster as the summer gets set to begin. The Wildcats will be bringing home yet another Arizona native as New Mexico State linebacker Rashie Hodge Jr. has decided to join UA's program after one season with the Aggies. The Phoenix native played his high school football at Mountain Pointe before moving on to play at Glendale Community College.

During his first season at NMSU the 6-foot linebacker racked up 90 tackles, which was good enough for second on the team, to go with a team-high 10 tackles for loss. Hodge made starts in 11 of 12 games in the 2019 season.

He entered the transfer portal last fall after NMSU had to forgo the 2020 season with only a pair of games in the spring taking place.

Now the Arizona native will get an opportunity to make an impact for a group that could use some more experience and depth. Hodge could play some different roles for the Wildcats, but his experience is as an outside linebacker.

Hodge, who will join the program as a walk-on, is just the latest Arizona native head coach Jedd Fisch and his staff have been able to bring home this offseason. Other standout transfers who are native to the state including incoming freshman linebacker Malik Reed (Chandler High/Wisconsin), safety Gunner Maldonado (Chandler High/Northwestern), running back Drake Anderson (Chandler High/Northwestern), defensive end Jason Harris (Gilbert-Higley/Colorado) and quarterback Gunner Cruz (Queen Creek-Casteel/Washington State).

Prioritizing in-state recruiting has been at the top of the list for the new coaching staff, and the addition of Hodge for the upcoming season only continues to push that trend forward for the Wildcats.

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