Rich Rodriguez, Arizona Wildcats Star in 'Hard Edge II' Recruiting Video Sequel

Harder. Edgier. Two-ier.

Rich Rodriguez and the crew are back, guns blazing and ready to make your day with a sequel to one of the most involved videos ever put out by a major U.S. athletic program.

A month after releasing the original Hard Edge, Rodriguez and the Arizona football team have released Hard Edge II—a gutsy reboot of the college football recruiting video that first spawned the question “Is that man wearing a poncho?”

The sequel was spotted by Daniel Berk of the Arizona Daily Star, and it’s packed with everything you loved from the first video—grown men standing in cowboy outfits, crossing arms in cowboy outfits and more walking-through-saloon-doors than you can shake a stick at. 

Here’s the original Hard Edge, where the walking and standing began.

Like any good sequel, however, Hard Edge II doesn’t settle for the same old song and dance. Rodriguez’s “Quest for the Rose” continues, but new faces abound as players from the Arizona Wildcats team slip on the spurs and get into the act. 

Football highlights cut in and out as players walk through the saloon doors of their old haunt, the “Grand Palace Hotel and Saloon.” A crisp hip-hop instrumental plays as the athletes exit the building, led by Arizona linebacker Marquis Flowers and cornerback Shaquille Richardson. 

The players empty out the building, and the screen turns to black and tan still shots, because this is an old Western town. Scarves and cowboy hats flash on the screen, and the message is clear: These are hard men in a hard man’s world.

The season is about to begin, and Arizona is sticking to its guns, everyone. Are you hard edge?

It’s time for Twitter. Lets go, boys.

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