the recruit: Sadiq Olanrewaju

Name: Sadiq Olanrewaju
Position: OT
Hometown: Rockville, MD
School: Salisbury School (CT)
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 280

24/7: 84; three stars; #76 OT; CT #5
ESPN: 75; three stars; #92 OT; CT# 3; Atlantic #115
Rivals: 5.7; three stars; #42 OT; CT# 3
Scout: three stars; #33 OT

Other offers: West Virginia, UConn, Rutgers, Temple

Less than a week after Brendan Marshall broke the ice on the 2013 class, Mike London "struck again" as they like to say in recruiting parlance.  London offered Sadiq Olanrewaju in early March; his recruitment began to really hit its upswing shortly after as other East Coast schools started rolling in.  Then, just as quickly as it started for Olanrewaju, it ended - it turns out that UVA was basically his dream school.  I quote from Rivals and Scout: "You can ask any of my friends. Since late in my freshman year, I've always talked about attending Virginia." ... "It was kind of my No. 1 going into the whole process."

Olanrewaju probably would also have gotten offers from at least Boston College and Maryland had he not cut it short, and more eventually.  He's got a prototypical tackle body that colleges covet, standing 6'5" or 6'6" depending on who you ask, and he carries his 280 pounds extremely well.  ESPN also notes his "superior arm length."  There's no question he's got the physical tools.

That scouting report goes on to emphasize Olanrewaju's "dominant" run blocking skills but implies that his pass blocking needs work - though he has the tools to make it happen.  He's quick on his feet and a pretty good pass rusher on defense (but don't get any ideas - he's too big for a DE in London's scheme.)  It's not a surprising scouting report - pass blocking is so much about technique while run blocking can be done in high school by outmuscling your man.

Part of the reason Olanrewaju was so high on the Hoos from the start is because he's actually much more local than Connecticut.  He's originally from Maryland, and upon his transfer to Salisbury he reclassified back a year; this discussion implies it was at least partially because he started high school very young.  A poster claims he entered his freshman year at age 13, so even though he'll be a fifth-year senior, it seems he's really just getting back to his age group.

This is a light year for offensive linemen in the recruiting class.  UVA will probably only take three.  As of now, Olanrewaju is the only one, but I expect one more tackle to be added.  All that said, Olanrewaju's path to playing time could be a short one.  As with every O-line recruit, a redshirt year is ideal, but chances are good that in 2013 we'll be breaking in two new starters, which also means two new backups.  Those starters will probably (hopefully) be some combination of Sean Cascarano, Kelby Johnson, and Jay Whitmire.  Depending on who settles in at guard and who at tackle, the freshmen of 2013 will be lurking just outside the depth chart.  But Cascarano graduates after that year.  So there's a real shot at early playing time for this class's freshmen, and Olanrewaju could appear on the depth chart as soon as his redshirt freshman year and probably not much later than the year following.