Arizona football signing day hangover: Stars aren't there, athleticism is

There's a reason to find concern over the Arizona Wildcats' first recruiting class under Rich Rodriguez. Most national recruiting services and media outlets would call the 2012 signing class one of the worst, if not the worst, in the Pac-12 Conference.

Considering Rodriguez had only a few months to hit the recruiting trail for the Wildcats, it's not too far fetched to believe the following classes will have more literal star power. But what's interesting to note about this one is how Rodriguez went about it.

He targeted players with tons of athleticism that would help fill positions of need. With an spread-option attack, the beginning and end to success is getting the pure athletes to present problems for opposing defenses.

While we don't know these guys as people, we can assume some of them are coachable, and Rodriguez and his staff will mold them from athletes into football players. And while highlight clips are meant to sell athletes, there's still optimism from what I see to believe there could be some hidden gems here.

Of course, landing Davonte' Neal next week could totally take RichRod's first class from mediocre to mightily successful, but there's definitely some athletes that could turn into good football players here. Stars aren't everything.

Another surprise of the group was Bryan Harper, an athlete that actually could turn out to be yet another option as a dual-threat quarterback behind Matt Scott. If the Oregon Ducks are recruiting a player as an athlete, chances are they're a legitimate game-changing athlete.

And of course, having a Griffey in the mix doesn't hurt.