Sammamish (Wash.) Eastside Catholic defensive lineman J.T. Tuimoloau (6-5, 265), played in a sporting event the final weekend before the NCAA dead period was hastily scheduled, the state of Washington started to shut down schools and the spring as we know it was completely changed.
Tuimoloau was playing with the Crusaders basketball team in the state basketball tournament (they would finish third in the state), and with his hoops season drawing to an end, several anticipated recruiting visits were being brainstormed.
But now, all of those trips are on hold.
“We wanted to check out Ohio State, Stanford and USC if we could cover it,” said Tuimoloau. “But whatever was planned, got thrown out. We didn’t have anything set in stone, just throwing out names and potential dates.”
The No. 1 player in the 2021 class by 247Sports, Tuimoloau always had to work recruiting around his football season but then also added a busy basketball schedule to the mix, so this spring was going to be focused largely on recruiting.
The last time he was on a college campus was in late January, when he visited Washington for their local Junior Day.
Since then, though, his sights were set on winning a state championship in basketball to match his football title. But for the third consecutive year, the Crusaders came up short in the state semifinals.
With his season winding down, Tuimoloau was gearing up for a busy spring set to see schools who had been on him for some time.
Now, he has been ‘seeing’ those schools via Zoom, FaceTime or virtual tours.
Washington, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, USC, Oregon and Oklahoma are some of their more recent Zoom’s.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day got on Zoom with Tuimoloau.
“We did Ohio State and it was with coach (Ryan) Day,” said Tuimoloau. “I text with all three of them, coach Day, coach (Brian) Hartline and coach (Larry) Johnson, but the Zoom was with coach Day.”
Washington got on the computer with him too, with Pete Kwiatkowski, the Huskies’ defensive coordinator, running point, but also joined by head coach Jimmy Lake and defensive line coach Ikaika Malloe.
“We had been planning to go up to a spring practice at Washington and check them out but we can’t do that now,” said Tuimoloau.
Oregon had head coach Mario Cristobal on with Tuimoloau while USC had head coach Clay Helton, new defensive line coach Vic So’oto, new defensive coordinator Todd Orlando and receivers coach Keary Colbert, who goes back with Tuimoloau’s family in Ventura County.
Michigan brought on defensive line coach Shaun Nua and head coach Jim Harbaugh plus defensive coordinator Don Brown, Oklahoma had defensive line coach Calvin Thibodeaux and Alabama had offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian get online with Tuimoloau.
While visits were put on hold, Tuimoloau said he’s been able to use this time to stay in touch with schools digitally.
“With the quarantine, it gives me time to make calls to those colleges,” said Tuimoloau. “During the school day, I don’t really text. I still have a lot of school work to handle, so at night, we’ll do a call with the family, so all three of us could talk to the colleges.”
If there is a college season, Tuimoloau has a couple of games he knows he wants to take in.
“I know we were planning to go see Michigan play Washington and then Ohio State play Oregon for sure,” said Tuimoloau.
He’s also starting to prepare for an entire spring and summer without basketball, which he plays with Seattle Rotary AAU.
“We pretty much had all of our out-of-state tourneys cancelled and I don’t know if they’re going to reschedule EYBL,” said Tuimoloau.
With visits postponed for the time being, so too is any plans to narrow his list down.
“We’ll probably do that later on, we’ll just continue to proceed to narrow list as we talk to schools,” said Tuimoloau.
Tuimoloau doesn’t plan to sign in December, or decide by then, he’s looking at February more realistically.
“I’ve always kind of targeted deciding as late as possible because I want to take all of my officials after my season, but then also do it around basketball,” said Tuimoloau. “So I’ll decide more likely in February.”
With invitations to play in both the All-American Bowl in San Antonio and Polynesian Bowl in Hawaii in January, Tuimoloau has those to navigate around too, but he’s not giving up basketball- he’s too good at it and he’s too driven to get a ring.
“Paolo (Banchero, a top 10 basketball player and Tuimoloau’s close friend) has one for both basketball and football, so I won’t stop playing until I get one for both,” said Tuimoloau.
In the meantime, Tuimoloau is staying busy at his house in preparation for his senior season and his aim for a third straight state football title.
“I’ve been working out on our weight set in the garage then I get outside in front of the house and push our Tahoe,” said Tuimoloau. “I used to get up to FSP (Ford Sports Performance), three days a week, so now I’m just working out at home and watching some old games on television. I’ve been watching some Laker games, watched the 2006 USC-Texas game and the 2013 Georgia-LSU game too.
And coaches aren’t the only people Tuimoloau has been on Zoom with.
“Some of our teachers are teaching us on Zoom and we’re still doing school work and learning from them,” said Tuimoloau. “We were one of the last schools to start going at home. Academics are important to me and my family though, so we focus on that during the day and about recruiting later.”
Sammamish (Wash.) Eastside Catholic defensive lineman J.T. Tuimoloau (6-5, 265), played in a sporting event the final weekend before the NCAA dead period was hastily scheduled, the state of Washington started to shut down schools and the spring as we know it was completely changed.
Tuimoloau was playing with the Crusaders basketball team in the state basketball tournament (they would finish third in the state), and with his hoops season drawing to an end, several anticipated recruiting visits were being brainstormed.
But now, all of those trips are on hold.
“We wanted to check out Ohio State, Stanford and USC if we could cover it,” said Tuimoloau. “But whatever was planned, got thrown out. We didn’t have anything set in stone, just throwing out names and potential dates.”
The No. 1 player in the 2021 class by 247Sports, Tuimoloau always had to work recruiting around his football season but then also added a busy basketball schedule to the mix, so this spring was going to be focused largely on recruiting.
The last time he was on a college campus was in late January, when he visited Washington for their local Junior Day.
Since then, though, his sights were set on winning a state championship in basketball to match his football title. But for the third consecutive year, the Crusaders came up short in the state semifinals.
With his season winding down, Tuimoloau was gearing up for a busy spring set to see schools who had been on him for some time.
Now, he has been ‘seeing’ those schools via Zoom, FaceTime or virtual tours.
Washington, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, USC, Oregon and Oklahoma are some of their more recent Zoom’s.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day got on Zoom with Tuimoloau.
“We did Ohio State and it was with coach (Ryan) Day,” said Tuimoloau. “I text with all three of them, coach Day, coach (Brian) Hartline and coach (Larry) Johnson, but the Zoom was with coach Day.”
Washington got on the computer with him too, with Pete Kwiatkowski, the Huskies’ defensive coordinator, running point, but also joined by head coach Jimmy Lake and defensive line coach Ikaika Malloe.
“We had been planning to go up to a spring practice at Washington and check them out but we can’t do that now,” said Tuimoloau.
Oregon had head coach Mario Cristobal on with Tuimoloau while USC had head coach Clay Helton, new defensive line coach Vic So’oto, new defensive coordinator Todd Orlando and receivers coach Keary Colbert, who goes back with Tuimoloau’s family in Ventura County.
Michigan brought on defensive line coach Shaun Nua and head coach Jim Harbaugh plus defensive coordinator Don Brown, Oklahoma had defensive line coach Calvin Thibodeaux and Alabama had offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian get online with Tuimoloau.
While visits were put on hold, Tuimoloau said he’s been able to use this time to stay in touch with schools digitally.
“With the quarantine, it gives me time to make calls to those colleges,” said Tuimoloau. “During the school day, I don’t really text. I still have a lot of school work to handle, so at night, we’ll do a call with the family, so all three of us could talk to the colleges.”
If there is a college season, Tuimoloau has a couple of games he knows he wants to take in.
“I know we were planning to go see Michigan play Washington and then Ohio State play Oregon for sure,” said Tuimoloau.
He’s also starting to prepare for an entire spring and summer without basketball, which he plays with Seattle Rotary AAU.
“We pretty much had all of our out-of-state tourneys cancelled and I don’t know if they’re going to reschedule EYBL,” said Tuimoloau.
With visits postponed for the time being, so too is any plans to narrow his list down.
“We’ll probably do that later on, we’ll just continue to proceed to narrow list as we talk to schools,” said Tuimoloau.
Tuimoloau doesn’t plan to sign in December, or decide by then, he’s looking at February more realistically.
“I’ve always kind of targeted deciding as late as possible because I want to take all of my officials after my season, but then also do it around basketball,” said Tuimoloau. “So I’ll decide more likely in February.”
With invitations to play in both the All-American Bowl in San Antonio and Polynesian Bowl in Hawaii in January, Tuimoloau has those to navigate around too, but he’s not giving up basketball- he’s too good at it and he’s too driven to get a ring.
“Paolo (Banchero, a top 10 basketball player and Tuimoloau’s close friend) has one for both basketball and football, so I won’t stop playing until I get one for both,” said Tuimoloau.
In the meantime, Tuimoloau is staying busy at his house in preparation for his senior season and his aim for a third straight state football title.
“I’ve been working out on our weight set in the garage then I get outside in front of the house and push our Tahoe,” said Tuimoloau. “I used to get up to FSP (Ford Sports Performance), three days a week, so now I’m just working out at home and watching some old games on television. I’ve been watching some Laker games, watched the 2006 USC-Texas game and the 2013 Georgia-LSU game too.
And coaches aren’t the only people Tuimoloau has been on Zoom with.
“Some of our teachers are teaching us on Zoom and we’re still doing school work and learning from them,” said Tuimoloau. “We were one of the last schools to start going at home. Academics are important to me and my family though, so we focus on that during the day and about recruiting later.”
A mildly interesting development. In the last few days, USC has picked up a ton of crystal dongs for 3 different defensive linemen (specifically SDE's) not named JTT (Foreman,Mobley, and Armitage). They already have another 4* d lineman committed.
I'm sure they would still take JTT but it could be a sign that they are willing to take other guys that want to commit now
A mildly interesting development. In the last few days, USC has picked up a ton of crystal dongs for 3 different defensive linemen (specifically SDE's) not named JTT (Foreman,Mobley, and Armitage). They already have another 4* d lineman committed.
I'm sure they would still take JTT but it could be a sign that they are willing to take other guys that want to commit now
Now let us doog...
SC has never been afraid to cut commits to open space for someone they like better. With Clay (and subsequently everyone else on staff) in survival mode, I can't imagine this is the year that changes.
A mildly interesting development. In the last few days, USC has picked up a ton of crystal dongs for 3 different defensive linemen (specifically SDE's) not named JTT (Foreman,Mobley, and Armitage). They already have another 4* d lineman committed.
I'm sure they would still take JTT but it could be a sign that they are willing to take other guys that want to commit now
A mildly interesting development. In the last few days, USC has picked up a ton of crystal dongs for 3 different defensive linemen (specifically SDE's) not named JTT (Foreman,Mobley, and Armitage). They already have another 4* d lineman committed.
I'm sure they would still take JTT but it could be a sign that they are willing to take other guys that want to commit now
A mildly interesting development. In the last few days, USC has picked up a ton of crystal dongs for 3 different defensive linemen (specifically SDE's) not named JTT (Foreman,Mobley, and Armitage). They already have another 4* d lineman committed.
I'm sure they would still take JTT but it could be a sign that they are willing to take other guys that want to commit now
A mildly interesting development. In the last few days, USC has picked up a ton of crystal dongs for 3 different defensive linemen (specifically SDE's) not named JTT (Foreman,Mobley, and Armitage). They already have another 4* d lineman committed.
I'm sure they would still take JTT but it could be a sign that they are willing to take other guys that want to commit now
I like this, although I expect the bb offers from tOSU, SC, and Oregon will roll in soon
Being FIRST in both sports has to help.
He's coming here.
Yeah, it's a smart move that a school that's serious about recruiting would make (hopefully this is a sign that Jimmy will start to get more serious about it as HC). The basketball scholarship offer is meaningless since he's playing football but it's good to stroke the kid's ego.
Comments
I'm sure they would still take JTT but it could be a sign that they are willing to take other guys that want to commit now
Now let us doog...
Irregardless it’s a mute poont. He’s coming here.
Hopefully that doesnt hurt our case
He's coming here.