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The kind of fighting that involves mixed martial arts inside of an octagon-shaped cage. 

The Arizona tight end's father is Steve Rusk, a former standout wrestler at Illinois, who formerly trained UFC fighters. Rusk was a coach at Miletich Fighting Systems, an MMA organization founded by UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich. 

Some of the fighters the older Rusk coached included Tim Sylvia, Matt Hughes, Robbie Lawlar and Jens Pulver, among others, "so I grew up in the fighting gym," Cole Rusk said.

"Some of those guys are legends," he added. "I grew up watching every fight. It was definitely fun." 

Once Rusk turned 9 years old, his father "quit pursuing that, because those guys fly all over the country — all over the world now — to go to those places and fights. He moved on from that to be involved with me and my sports," Rusk said.

Rusk entertained a wrestling and MMA career at an early age, in addition to football, but "I got so tall that I started playing basketball and pursued basketball. 'Why is the Rusk kid playing basketball?'"

"I kind of went the soft route," he joked. 

Rusk was a wide receiver at Rock Island High School in Rock Island, Illinois, which is right on the Iowa border in northern Illinois. But when he converted to tight end, he took his father's "just trying to whoop somebody" mindset from his days training UFC and applied it to blocking and running with the football.

Rusk could potentially be Arizona's starting tight end this fall after transferring from Illinois in the spring. 

Rusk started his college career at Eastern Michigan in 2021 before transferring to Murray State for a year and Illinois, where he played the last two seasons. Rusk had 19 catches for 217 yards and a touchdown last season at Illinois. 

After losing tight ends Cameron Barmore, Sam Olson and Keyan Burnett, "we needed to get longer" at tight end, said Arizona tight ends coach Josh Miller. 

In addition to the 6-5, 250-pound Rusk, the Wildcats also signed Southern Miss tight end Shane King (6-3, 236 pounds) and San Diego State tight end Arthur Ban (6-4, 245 pounds) from the transfer portal — adding to the returners in redshirt senior Tyler Powell, who's rehabbing a season-ending knee injury he suffered in the season opener, and redshirt freshman Kellan Ford. 

"Collectively as a room, we weren't as long as I felt like we needed," Miller said. "The depth from the athleticism wasn't there holistically from the room either. I felt like Cole, Shane, Art exemplify that." 

'Keeping the main thing the main thing'

Miller pored over hours of film on tight ends in the transfer portal while the Wildcats were preparing for the Holiday Bowl. The transfer portal officially opened for business the day of the Holiday Bowl loss to SMU. Miller described the week of managing bowl prep and the transfer portal as "quite tiresome." 

Miller handled coaching duties until 10 p.m. every day, then watched film of prospects until 1 or 2 a.m.   

"Within that process, the organization — specifically the recruiting department — did a great job with the evaluation of guys," Miller said. "I think through that process, you have to be really honest with yourself with what you can budget and what's realistic in your ballpark."

Wait, budget? Yes, in today's revenue-sharing era of college athletics, Arizona is aware it can't financially compete with, say, Ohio State for the best available tight end in the transfer portal. Arizona doesn't have Ohio State football money. 

College football is a business. It always has been. But now players are being compensated for their playing careers. Miller had to explain the reality of college football to his old college coach, Kevin Donley, at Saint Francis (Indiana). Donley met Miller at Cincinnati for the Wildcats' win over the Bearcats in November. 

Donley "was a little disappointed in me and told me that I seemed a little calloused and I wasn't in it for the player development," Miller said.

"I was like, 'Well, coach, that's not completely true. I hear what you're saying.' But in the industry now and what it is, they truly are employees," Miller said. "It has so changed so much of it. What (Arizona head coach Brent Brennan) has done from an organizational standpoint, is put the belief in the development of the players.

"You guys see that with the high school classes that we've put together and how many kids we're taking. Our philosophy is that we want to build it through high school (and) complement it in the portal, because we still believe in development."

Added Miller: "You gotta learn to adapt to it or you're going to be left behind, and I think we've done an exceptional job of adapting to college football and the landscape that it is while keeping the main thing the main thing, which is player development." 

The Illinois transfer "was a priority because he showed that he had the athletic ability to do what we wanted in the throw game," Miller said. Illinois quarterback Luke Altmeyer played for ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV offensive coordinator Seth Doege at Ole Miss, and gave the UA play caller a ringing endorsement. 

"That was a guy I trusted," Rusk said of Altmeyer. "I went off my gut feeling and that opinion that this might be a good place for me. ... It's not a secret, I've done this a few times." 

About 24 hours after Arizona lost to SMU in the Holiday Bowl, Rusk landed in Tucson for his official visit and Miller picked him up from the airport and started the "rapid fire, speed dating." 

Rusk "was the one we (identified) through our thorough process and felt good about the price range," Miller said.

"Even with the price range, he had double the amount of offers," added Arizona's tight ends coach. "It came down to that he believed in our vision and our trust in him to develop him in his last year." 

The 'babies in the room'

The youth movement in Arizona's tight ends room is made up by King and early enrollee Henry Gabalis, a 6-6, 232-pound Seattle-area native. 

King was recruited by Doege and Miller at Marshall. The tight end signed with the Thundering Herd, but followed former Marshall head coach Charles Huff, who's now the head coach at Memphis, following one season at Southern Miss. 

King "is the right fit for me because I know how he's made up and how he's wired," Miller said.

"He's super competitive. Athletically, he's different," said Miller. "The two babies in the room, if you ask any of the old heads, once they figure out — to me, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when — they're truly different."

Miller compared King to Barmore, who converted from receiver to tight end during his college career, "and has the ability to be an elusive receiver, and he's got naturally gifted hands," Miller said.

"The way he's able to stretch the field vertically while maintaining his speed and changing direction is different," Miller said of King. 

The 6-6, 232-pound Gabalis is one of three four-star signees in Arizona's 2026 recruiting class, along with wide receiver RJ Mosley and quarterback Oscar Rios. 

Gabalis "is the most athletically gifted" tight end of the bunch, Miller said. Gabalis is already running 21 miles per hour in practice, per Miller. At Archbishop Murphy in Duvall, Washington, Gabalis played in a "Wing T" offense and "now he's playing in a modern system, so some of the moving parts and teaching has been a lot for him to handle," Miller said.

"These last two or three practices, you're starting to see the system settle down for him and he's starting to understand what to do in the offense," Miller said. "Once again, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when it all clicks for him." 

Powell said Gabalis "has incredible athletic ability and he's just super fluid in his motion and he's just really natural." 

"The biggest thing with him is that he's really young," Powell said. "He's got a lot to learn and grow from. But comparing myself to him when I was a freshman, he's way more natural than I was when I was a freshman, and I think he's going to be an outstanding player."