MORGANTOWN -
What a difference a visit can make.
As this past weekend approached, Kingsley Opara was
considering visits to West Virginia University and the University of Maryland.
Prior to the weekend, he called WVU his leader.
Then he visited College Park, but was unable to make the
trip to Morgantown. And now?
"Right now it's a tie between [WVU] and Maryland," Opara
said Tuesday.
Opara, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound defensive lineman, has more
than 10 offers, but says the Mountaineers and the Terrapins each have a 50
percent chance of picking him up for the 2013 class.
The visit to Maryland's campus could help its staff in a way
West Virginia has not been afforded simply because he has not set foot on its
turf.
"Me visiting [Maryland] and talking to all the coaches in
person, that's one thing," Opara says of why the Terps have climbed to WVU's
level. "Seeing the school and all the gear and whatnot."
What the Mountaineers still have in their favor is their
relationship with Opara. It began with co-defensive coordinator Joe DeForest
visiting the Jacksonville, Fla. native and has continued with the man who would
be coaching Opara if he came to WVU, defensive line coach Erik Slaughter.
More recently, he had his first chance to speak with the
head coach himself, Dana Holgorsen.
But it could be the talks with some players he's become
familiar from the Jacksonville area or others on the team that pull him to West
Virginia the most.
"I haven't visited, but I know a couple players who go there
and they say a lot of good things about it and [freshman d-linemen] Imarjaye
[Albury] and Christian Brown have contacted me and told me some good things
about it. It seems like a very family-like atmosphere," says Opara.
Marcell Lazard, an offensive lineman who committed to WVU in
April, tweeted at Opara earlier this week, saying WVU "needs a DT like you to
help us excel in the Big 12."
Opara hears what these other players are telling him, but
clearly the decision is his in the end.
"They've been pushing me and it seems like everybody is in my ear that I should
go to West Virginia," he says.
July 20th looms as the date on which Opara
intends to make his commitment and while he says he doubts he will make it to
Morgantown before then, he insists that by no means rules out siding with WVU.
"I could probably commit without seeing some of the schools
I'm interested in," says Opara. "Maryland is the only school I've been to that
offered me. It's not really a problem. I talked to Coach DeForest in person and
he was just as genuine as he is on the phone."
That genuine nature could go a long way for a player who
lists family atmosphere along with education and playing time as the top determining
factors for his decision.
With interests in business, sports management and
criminology, Opara has plenty of choices left to make regarding his path in
college, but it begins with the school itself in just over a week's time.
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