TRANSFER NEWS: Arizona adds USC OLB Hunter Echols for 2022 season

Arizona's recruiting success in Southern California continued Monday after USC outside linebacker Hunter Echols announced his plans to join the Wildcats for his final college season. Echols has played in over 20 games with the Trojans throughout his career racking up 50 tackles, four tackles for loss and 1 1/2 sacks during his five years with the team.

Echols, who was once rated the 68th-best prospect in the 2017 class, decided to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal back in early December. New Arizona defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen played a big part in recruiting Echols to USC and also coached the 6-foot-5 outside linebacker while with the Trojans.

That Echols will play part of his career at Arizona should not come as a shock as the schools was once one of the programs the California edge rusher was once focused on early in his recruitment as a high school recruit.

Echols visited Arizona back in the spring in 2016 and came away with a positive feeling about the school.

"That was a really great trip," he told GOAZCATS.com at the time. "That was one of the best trips I ever took and had so far. I already liked Arizona ... so that was a real cool trip. Everything, I liked it."

The Wildcats are going through changes this offseason at the linebacker spots with several of the key contributors at the positions exhausting their eligibility in the 2021 season.

Echols will help provide experience to what is going to be a young group in 2022.

He has played in 37 games in his career with a handful of starts throughout that time. This season he finished with 20 tackles with six of those tackles coming against UCLA. He came up with two tackles and a tackle for loss against Arizona this season.

Injuries have played a part in Echols' career up to this point as he had surgery to repair a hip infection as a freshman before needing season-ending shoulder surgery in 2019. He played in all six games during the 2020 season with two starts.

Echols is the second transfer addition from the Pac-12 South this offseason after UA landed a commitment from UCLA transfer safety DJ Warnell last month. The Wildcats plan to add several transfers this offseason to help supplement the 2022 recruiting class that currently checks in 24th overall in the Rivals.com team recruiting rankings.

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