Arkansas offensive line coach Sam Pittman and the Razorback fans have highly regarded junior college offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor saying there's an 80 percent chance he makes an official visit to Fayetteville.
Eluemunor, 6-5 1/2, 315 pounds of Scranton (Pa.) Lackawanna Community College now has 14 scholarship offers including Arkansas, Alabama, Ohio State, Texas A&M and Penn State. He said Pittman likes his aggression.
"He said he liked the way I play," said Eluemunor, who reports a 420 pound bench press and 395 squat. "I play until the whistle."
Pittman also gave a glowing review of Fayetteville.
"He said it's amazing," said Eluemunor, who plans to graduate in January and will have three years to play two. "He said it's one of the best towns he's been to. He loves it."
Seeking a better life, Eluemunor and his family moved to the United States from London, England in 2008. He hopes to go beyond college and play in the NFL to help his family and allow his father not to work.
"I'm going to work harder than anyone," said Eluemunor, who has set up official visits to Ohio State and Texas A&M. "As soon as I get on campus in January I want to be stronger and faster and I want to earn the starting spot. When I get it, no one is taking it away from me. I'm going to work harder than anyone."
Lackawanna offensive coordinator Josh Pardini said Eluemunor's size and great feet make him a tremendous player.
"He has been offered by a plethora of schools and will be starting his visits over spring break," Pardini said. "He works his tail off in the weight room and strives every day to get stronger. He just recently turned 18 so he is a young kid who is still maturing and has a very high ceiling. He is also an ideal student with very good grades. He works just as hard in the class room as he does on the field because he knows his grades will have just as big of an impact on where he goes as his ability."
Eluemunor attended Morris Knolls high school in Rockaway, New Jersey and is forever grateful for the support he received from Coach Bill Regan and assistant coach Ryan Ezdale. He plans to major in education so he can return the favor to others.
"After football I want to be able to inspire people to reach their full potential," Eluemunor said. "Some people don't know like me until my coach he told me."
He's weighing 315 pounds but plans to get back down to 300 in the near future. The Christmas holidays and his mother's cooking packed on the extra weight.
"My mom's cooking is like really good," Eluemunor said. "I love my mom's cooking. The food at the school isn't like my mom's cooking so when I go home and get my mom's cooking I'm like Ooooh. I worked out but it was hard to resist the food because it was so good. So I may be put on a little bit of weight but I'm going to get back down to 300."
His mother's spaghetti bolognese that includes ground beef, chucky bacon and tomato sauce is too tempting.
"It's all over," said Eluemunor, who also craves his mother's shepherd's pie. "I have to do 200 pushups by the end of the night."