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Tuimoloau to Reveal his Football Destination on the Fourth of July

Washington, Ohio State, Oregon or USC will gain the edge rusher's long-awaited commitment.
Dan Raley|
Tuimoloau to Reveal his Football Destination on the Fourth of July
Tuimoloau to Reveal his Football Destination on the Fourth of July

One of the longest recruitments that anyone recall — the active pursuit of J.T. Tuimoloau — will come to an end on the holiday.

Whoever gets him among Ohio State, Oregon, USC and Washington will likely consider renaming the Fourth of July to Being First with J.T. and light off some afternoon fireworks just for this occasion.

Tuimoloau, who has said very little about his college preferences, will reveal his destination the same way Husky commit Emeka Megwa did this past week, on a live stream with CBS Sports HQ at 4 p.m. PST.

It will come a good year after most of the prospects in his class, some of whom already have participated in collegiate spring football.

The 6-foot-4, 277-pound edge rusher from Eastside Catholic High School in the Seattle suburb of Sammamish, Washington, has long been considered a 5-star recruit and the nation's top defensive player of his class of 2021.

Tuimoloau's decision has been delayed by the restrictions put on campus visits by the pandemic and his insistence on touring each of the schools he has strongly considered.

The recruiting analysts, while left to guess what he will do, have given Ohio State the edge in gaining his commitment. They've done this for no other reason than two other Northwest players, wide receivers Emeka Egbuka of Steilacoom and Gee Scott of East Catholic and a Tuimoloau teammate, have picked the Buckeyes. 

Yet Washington, Oregon and USC all seem to have as good a chance as anyone at landing the fast and well-built defender, who is so athletic he also has received basketball scholarship offers from the Huskies and the Ducks to sweeten the pot.

 Tuimoloau took some of the suspense out of the process by eliminating Alabama from his final choices and canceling his official visit. Previously, he had gone to Tuscaloosa for an unofficial look well before the pandemic broke out.

He toured each of the other four remaining schools in June, beginning with Washington. He also showed up for a Saturday afternoon scrimmage in April during the Huskies' spring practice. 

Yet no one in any of the four fan bases is treating this in an overconfident manner because Tuimoloau has revealed virtually nothing about what he's going to do.

Until now. Until tomorrow on CBS Sports. Stay tuned. Tune in.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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