When Michael Diatta makes the trip west with the Virginia football team for the season opener in Nashville on Saturday, it will be far more familiar than the reverse direction that brought him to Charlottesville. The junior defensive lineman had never made the journey to his college home, after all, when he committed to UVA sight unseen back in 2020.

Even so, the Diatta family recognized a good opportunity when they saw one. His parents asked professor friends around Nashville about the school and the University’s academic reputation made it a ‘no brainer’ to many advisers. Diatta eventually had offers from a bit of a blue ribbon list of academic schools with Tulane, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt among them.

Still, Virginia had been the first Power 5 school to reach out and Clint Sintim built a strong connection with the family. Between all of that and some virtual tours to see Grounds and the athletic venues, Diatta made the call for the Cavaliers.

“I was getting recruited by UVA during Covid so that was one major factor why I couldn’t come up here – I couldn’t have any official, but honestly I didn’t visit any school during my whole recruiting process,” Diatta said. “The relationship I built with Coach Sintim, he was our defensive line coach, he built a great relationship with my parents – my parents trusted Coach Sintim, they knew he was a great guy and they trusted they could send me to him and I’d be in great hands. And UVA is a great academic school. My parents are really big on academics. I graduated with a 4.2 GPA so I really take academic seriously. The combination of all of that … was everything I was looking for.”

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