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Jalen Shead was "surprised" by the offer from Colorado

Tight end Jalen Shead received his first Power-5 offer from Colorado last week.

The CU Buffs offered a tight end last week that came in as a bit of a surprise.

They were the first Power-5 offer for Jalen Shead, a big tight end out of Olive Branch (Miss.).

“I didn’t really have time to talk to Colorado,” Shead said. “They haven’t been (talking to me) for a very long time. But they saw my film one day and followed me (on Twitter). And then like two days later, I got on the phone with (tight ends) Coach (Taylor) Embree. I called and they wanted to offer me and it was my first Power-5 so it’s pretty exciting.”

Shead is now up to 10 offers but, despite living near a lot of big-time programs, has not been getting the attention from the ACC or SEC schools.

One day he was talking to one of his friends that was interested in going to Colorado for school and Shead decided to look up the tight ends coach to see if he could get some interest.

He followed Embree on Twitter and got followed back a day or so later. And from then on the communication started.

“I talked to him for about 25 or 30 minutes on the phone when they offered me and he talked about a lot of stuff,” Shead said. “He talked about his background, like where he’s coached at. He was the coach at San Francisco like last year. I think he coached George Kittle who is like the top tight end in the league right now. So that was pretty cool. And he was telling me all about the program.”

The 6-foot-4, 235-pounder admits he would have never guessed Colorado was going to be his first power conference option.

“Yeah, because I live in Mississippi,” Shead said on if he was surprised. “So it's not really like in my area. It’s often easy to get attention from Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Tennessee, the schools down south. But I knew that some Power-5 schools that were interested but I had no clue that Colorado was one of them.”

Shead started doing research right away and has liked what he sees. He wants to take a visit whenever he is able to.

“I can't really do too much because I can’t take any visits or anything,” Shead said. “But whenever the time comes around, I really want to get up there and see because I've never been to Colorado. I did a lot of research of the campus and stuff and it looks pretty cool. So I want to get up there and see everything.”

The big tight end has liked what he’s heard from Embree so far. The pedigree, of developing Kittle, speaks for itself. And he also likes how he’s young and more relatable.

If things do open up, Shead wants to visit Colorado first and foremost. And then UCF, Florida State and Louisville. He lives about 15 minutes from Memphis and has already been able to visit there.