J.T. Tuimoloau Recruitment Heats up Following Cancellation of Alabama Visit

The top remaining player in the country for 2021 has finished taking his official visits ahead of a decision.

Author:
Max Torres
Publish date:
Jun 25, 2021 3:41 PM EDT

Things just got interesting in the recruitment of 5-star J.T. Tuimoloau.

Like, really interesting.

The No. 2 player in the SI 99 for the 2021 class has cancelled his upcoming official visit to the University of Alabama, according to a report from 247Sports' Brandon Huffman. The trip was originally scheduled for June 25-27.

This is huge news for the Ducks seeing that the 6-foot-5, 280-pound defensive lineman just wrapped up his official visit to Oregon this week. He had a jam-packed June, filled with official visits to Washington, USC, and Ohio State, on top of graduating from high school.

"It’s just a feeling I’ve had for a while now and after getting back from my official visit to Oregon, we decided not to take the trip to Alabama," Tuimoloau told 247Sports.

The Ducks pulled out all the stops for his visit, and we know that former Ducks and NFL first-round picks DeForest Buckner and Arik Armstead were in Eugene for the visit last weekend. I'm sure that it was no coincidence seeing that Tuimoloau is the biggest visitor the Ducks have had since the end of the recruiting dead period.

Timing is a major factor in the recruiting game, and it's worth saying that the cancellation of the Alabama visit certainly strengthens Oregon's case and gives them some momentum heading into the decision. Any coach will tell you that they'd prefer to wait until as late as possible to host a recruit if they are making a decision in the near future.

Now Mario Cristobal has gotten the last visit, which means he and his staff had the last chance to leave a lasting impression on the 5-star defensive lineman. Was the impression so big that it directly led to him cancelling the trip to Alabama? Only he could tell you that himself, but it's a good sign for Oregon nonetheless.

You're probably wondering: what about the Ohio State visit?

I'm glad you asked.

According to our Andrew Lind of Buckeyes Now, the Ohio State visit went really well.

Here's what he told me about how trip to Columbus went:

"It went even better than they expected and the family continuously expressed how much they were taken aback by the airport gesture. Felt better coming out of it than going in."

You can read the full story here.

I was of the popular belief for a while that this was an Oregon, Ohio State and Alabama battle. This news could mean this is now a two team race between Oregon and Ohio State.

In a nutshell, Ohio State has the national championships and the unrivaled NFL development/production at Tuimoloau's position behind Larry Johnson, whereas Oregon has had recent success in the Pac-12 and the Rose Bowl, increasing NFL development/output, and also has playoff experience going for them.

The Ducks are continuing to bring in elite talent on the defensive side of the ball and have a rich history of Polynesian players achieving great success in Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota and Outland Trophy winner Penei Sewell.

JTT hasn't set a commitment date, but told Huffman he'll be focusing on Washington, Ohio State, Oregon and USC. We could be getting a decision in the very near future.

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