Steilacoom linebacker Fryar verbally commits to Arizona Wildcats
Like many high school football recruits these days, Steilacoom High School linebacker DJ Fryar hasn’t been able to take official visits to college campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic. But that didn’t stop him from making his verbal commitment to the University of Arizona to play for Kevin Sumlin’s Wildcats in the Pac-12 conference.
“I felt a good connection with the coaches and the coaching staff,” Fryar said. “We had a good vibe, a family vibe.”
Fryar, who is heading into his senior year at Steilacoom, is considered a three-star recruit by 247sports.com and picked Arizona over offers from Boise State, Fresno State, Washington State and others. For the Sentinels in his junior season, he racked up 87 tackles on the year and had a pair of interceptions in the postseason.
Arizona offered about a month ago, and Fryar made his decision shortly thereafter.
“The coaching staff, everyone was so natural around each other,” he said. “When we’d have meetings, everything would flow together, everything was family. The coaches would have fun, make jokes with each other, about each other. When you have that kind of coaching staff, you can make jokes but get down to business when it’s time.”
In many ways, Fryar will be playing a similar role at the next level on the Wildcats defense as the one he does now.
“They have a vision of me playing inside linebacker, pretty much being that hard hitter, free roamer type of guy,” he said. “It was a good thing to go to another place and do the same thing I’m doing now. … (The coaching staff) told me they like my size, my relentlessness, how I was able to get to places. Liked my tenacity, how I was aggressive.”
At one point, early on in his high school career, Fryar wasn’t sure football was going to pan out for him. He wasn’t drawing the attention of college coaches. So he focused on hitting the weight room, adding 40-plus pounds to his frame over his high school career.
“I started believing in myself,” he said. “I was doing everything I could, working out, performing at a high level. No college was reaching out. … During my sophomore summer, going into junior year, put in so much time in the weight room, I felt like I needed to do some extra to get a chance to get that look.”
Fryar said he’s on board with the vision Sumlin has for the Wildcats program and believes he’ll make the program a contender in the Pac-12.
“I think they’re a really good football program,” he said. “What he’s trying to build is honestly a great thing. There’s going to be a change within these next few years, things are going to be different.”
If a football season comes to fruition this fall — which right now, is in serious jeopardy — there’s one goal that towers above any individual accolades Fryar might be after.
“The main thing I’m focused on is winning a state championship,” Fryar said.
Steilacoom advanced to the Class 2A state championship game last year, falling to Tumwater, 48-34.
