4* DE Chidi Okonya

May 13, 2015, 4:25 PM

Anyone with details to his recruitment? Decision pushed up to Friday due to pressure from his coaches to finalize his decision. Sounds like a UT lean to me, or $EC biased reporting. Here's the article...

RIVERDALE, Ga. — Chidi Okonya once thought he might announce his college choice sometime this summer after taking at least a few more visits.

He recently decided he didn’t need to wait that long.

The four-star junior defensive end from Riverdale High School in suburban Atlanta said he’s planning to make his college decision known Friday following his team’s spring game, and he will be choosing between Duke, Stanford, Tennessee, Clemson and Ole Miss.

Okonya said the idea of ending his recruitment a bit sooner than expected “was pitched out to me by a couple coaches.” While he previously had planned to wait until this summer, he said he realized he was ready to make up his mind.

“The question was continuously thrown out: Is there anything out there that would make you not commit to one of these schools out here? And the (answer) I kept coming up with was no,” said Okonya, who’s ranked by 247Sports as the nation’s No. 262 overall prospect and No. 15 strongside defensive end in the 2016 class.

“I felt comfortable with those schools that I put out, and I decided that it’d be best to make a decision on the 15th at the spring game. The idea was pitched out to me by a couple coaches, so I went with it.”

The 6-foot-6.5, 230-pound Okonya said has visited Clemson, Stanford and Tennessee over the past few months, most recently traveling to Tennessee less than a month ago. But he said he has yet to visit Ole Miss, and he hasn’t “gotten a good look at Duke yet.”

Still, he said all five of his finalists have caught his attention for different reasons.

“Duke (was) the first school that offered me,” said Okonya, who claims scholarship offers from more than 25 teams. “It’s a great academic school. Just hearing the name Duke, they’re prestigious for their academics, and they had a great football season last year, so they’re taking big steps forward as well. That’s one of the reasons I like them.

“Stanford is another big academic school. They’ve always done big things football-wise on the West Coast, as far as getting players drafted, finishing out their year in top-ranked spots.

“Clemson is another great school that develops players like myself to their best potential, especially on the D-line, so Clemson stood out to me for a long time.

“Tennessee was another school that stood out. Tennessee has a lot of great intangibles, as well as how they develop players and their business college. I sat down and got further in-depth with their academics.

“Ole Miss is another good school. They have a great fan base, which is why they made it into my top five. I mean, they just have so much history in football. They’re just a football-dominant team.”

Okonya traveled to Tennessee’s campus for the first time in early March and returned there two more times in a span of 10 days last month. He said he likes what he has seen and heard from the Vols since he received an offer from them last year.

“I’ve been able to develop a great relationship with the coaching staff, so I’ve been down there a couple times just to see how practice would go and things like that,” Okonya said. “I watched practice a couple times and saw how Coach Strip’ (defensive line coach Steve Stripling) practices.”

He said Friday’s announcement will bring “closure to a good amount of things” in the recruiting process.

“I’m sure a couple schools are still going to be recruiting me, which I'm fine with,” Okonya said. “But I’ll try to make sure of my decision and stand firm with my decision.”

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4* DE Chidi Okonya

"Ole Miss a football dominant team"???

He just misspelled "cheatinsomebeeches"***

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