UVa has received a verbal commitment from 6’6″, 280-pound offensive tackle Sadiq Olanrewaju. The Salisbury School (Salisbury, CT) junior pledged the Hoos over offers from Connecticut, Rutgers, Temple and West Virginia.
Olanrewaju’s decision comes just days after he took an unofficial visit to UVa. He informed Mike London of his decision earlier this evening.
“It was just a perfect fit for me,” Olanrewaju wrote in a Facebook message to TheSabre.com.
“UVA has always been a place I wanted to go to since I was a freshman in high school.”
A Rockville (MD) native, Olanrewaju transferred to the Connecticut private school for his junior and senior years. He played on both sides of the line last season as a junior, impressing in particular at offensive tackle despite the fact that he had never previously played on the offensive line on the high school level.
“Before he came here, his only experience was at defensive end. We’re not a deep team, so guys have to play both ways,” Salisbury head coach Chris Phelps said in the earlier interview.
“He’s around 6’5″ or 6’6″. He’s 280 pounds and he looks like he is 230. Offensive tackle was a position he had never played before, but I think it’s his natural position. He has good feet in pass-blocking. He pulls well. He keeps his feet moving. The biggest transition for him was learning how to be an offensive lineman. He has only really played 10 weeks of offensive line. But I think he’s excited about it.”
Discussing his play at offensive tackle, Olanrewaju wrote: “Coming into the season, I just wanted to win and help the team anyway they wanted me to. [Offensive line] was it and I really liked it because of the camaraderie among the five guys and I love the fact that you always have someone to hit.”
Olanrewaju will play on the offensive line at Virginia, and he’s excited to play for offensive line coach Scott Wachenheim. Coach Wachenheim, Coach London, and the rest of the staff helped seal the deal for the talented prospect.
“That coaches worried about the welfare of the player and making the player a better student and man before talking about athletics,” Olanrewaju wrote when asked what impressed him most about the UVa football program. “And I clicked with [Wachenheim]. He was more of a teacher than a coach. He was clear with what he wanted from me and I really just understood the scheme the O-line will be running.”
In one week’s time, Virginia has scored a quarterback (Good Counsel’s Brendan Marshall ) and an offensive lineman to block for him. Marshall and Olanrewaju are the first two class of 2013 prospects to commit to the Cavaliers.
