There’s no question Arizona upgraded its roster this offseason.

After a 1-11 campaign, the Wildcats went out and secured a top-25 recruiting class while gaining transfer commitments from one of the best Group of Five wideouts on the market and the Pac-12’s reigning Offensive Freshman of the Year. Quarterback Jayden de Laura and wideout Jacob Cowing serve as the headliners for a dramatic overhaul this offseason, and coaches around the Pac-12 seem to like the direction the program is headed as a result.

Athlon Sports got several anonymous coaches to open up about the Wildcats. Here’s what they had to say:

“This is the program that’s going to slowly build and stay out of the spotlight, but they could be one of those schools that benefits from the league being down and major schools being in transition.”

“They’re doing a good job in recruiting, but some of that might be overblown when you consider what an average Pac-12 class actually means right now. But compared to where [Kevin] Sumlin left it, they’ve definitely upgraded the roster, and you can clearly see what they want to do, even in the places where they can’t do it yet because of the personnel.”

“Jedd [Fisch] is such a seasoned veteran in the industry; he’s going to thrive in this phase where he can manage the boosters and the players and play the game.”

“They’ve got the Wazzu QB [Jayden de Laura], and he’ll bring a lot of toughness in immediately. He’s a competitive, physical player.”

“They’re starting to build out a name, image and likeness plan, and if there’s something different or unique there, that could really help them.”

“Overall, it’s gonna be another season of taking their lumps. This was and is a total from-scratch rebuild with less assets than most Pac-12 schools, but you’d still rather be here than at the other Arizona school. There’s no pressure, and they have no attention on them. They could be bowling in two years.”

Arizona opens the 2022 season with a tough test on the road against what was a very good San Diego State squad a year ago. The Aztecs went 12-2 and finished ranked in the final AP poll for just the third time in program history. After that, Arizona welcomes Mike Leach and the Mississippi State Bulldogs to Arizona Stadium on Sept. 10. The non-conference concludes with North Dakota State.

No rest for the weary.

But Arizona likes what it has on this roster now.

“I’ve heard a lot of coaches tell our recruits that we’re an offseason team,” head coach Jedd Fisch said at Pac-12 Media Day. “I would say this: we have had a great offseason, and I appreciate them recognizing that. I also believe that we’re going to be a really good in-season team. As we’re building our program, it was really important for all of us to make sure that on November 26th of last year, when our season ended, we needed to get better, we needed to get better in every way. … We believe that this year is the first year of the rebuild, and we’re really excited about how that’s going.”