6 feet. 5 inches. 238 pounds. 35-inch vertical leap. Aces the eyeball test in a way that very few prospects do for the Class of 2018.
Those are the immediate talking points for 3-star prospect Kayode (Kay-O-Day) Oladele. The Nigerian native didn’t even really pick up football until about 15 months ago.
He’s now rated as the nation’s No. 15 strongside defensive prospect by the 247Sports composite.
Oladele (Ola-del-ay) was committed to Florida State for a time but just finished a camp at Georgia.
The senior left Athens and headed to Alabama for another camp visit.
It was another good trip. He was in town for G-Day on April 22 shortly before he backed off his pledge to Florida State.
“Georgia is a top school for me,” he said. “Georgia is right up there with all my top schools for me when I will be ready to make my decision.”
The Champagnat Catholic (Miami) standout puts Georgia up there with Baylor, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee and Mississippi State as his top choices.
The Bulldogs saw him go through a lot of drills. He did all the 1-on-1s. Oladele said he did not lose any reps.
“I like that plan they have for me,” Oladele said. “I want to be a hybrid player who can play both positions for Georgia. They feel I can be at outside linebacker on the weak side and then also line up and play defensive end. Who wouldn’t want to be able to play two positions like that?”
He said Georgia coach Kirby Smart noticed his good work.
“Coach Smart was really excited,” Oladele said. “He said he [was] really happy about my pass rush, and then he asked me to come into his office and we did some talking. We had a good day there at Georgia.”
He said to look for him to take an official visit to Georgia this fall.
“This morning before I left, Coach Smart said he would really like for me to commit right now but he said he’s not rushing me,” Oladele told DawgNation on Sunday night. “He knows about my de-commitment and doesn’t want to make me do anything I don’t want to do right now. He said he really wants me, but wants me to take my time.”
Kayode Oladele worked out for Tray Scott
It was a two-day visit. He left on Sunday afternoon.
His favorite part of the trip was working out for first-year Georgia defensive line coach Tray Scott, he said.
“Coach Scott is a good guy,” Oladele said. “He’s really big about teaching technique, about the guys on his defensive line.”
Look for Oladele to make his decision sometime during his senior season or on Dec. 12, which is his 19th birthday. He said he plans to enroll at his new campus in January.
He’s transferred to play for the same high school program as former Georgia commit Donovan Georges for his senior year. That’s another big decision he had had to make of late.
The first was deciding to back off his commitment to Florida State.
“I felt the reason I de-committed was to see if Florida State was really the best school for me and to see whether or not these other schools had my best interests at heart and what was going to be the best fit for me to go to college. That’s what I de-committed. I wanted to see the other schools and see what they have got for me.”
Smart laid out why the Bulldogs were chasing after the former basketball player, Oladele said.
“Coach Smart told me how much interest he has in me and that I would be a perfect fit for their defense the way I could come in and play. They like my athletic ability and pass rush the best.”
Oladele ran a laser 4.87 time in the 40-yard dash at the Miami Opening regional. He didn’t pick up the invite to the national finals in Oregon, but he’s been invited to the 5-star Challenge this week in Indiana.
He hasn’t been a stranger to Georgia. Oladele also camped in Athens last summer.
Raw talents
Bulldog fans will see some similarities in his story to that of juggernaut OT Daniel Faalele. Faalele didn’t pick up football until last year. He relocated from Australia to learn to play football and already has a number of scholarship offers before playing in a high school game.
That’s the same story arc for Oladele. He moved to Miami from Nigeria in 2015. His elementary school days were reserved for soccer, and then he hit a growth spurt. That’s when the coaches reeled him in to play basketball, too.
“I didn’t even start practicing football until last February,” Oladele said. “My first game was back last May for my high school’s spring game.”
He said he feels that transition was made easier by the fact he played a lot of basketball in middle school.
“This has been a transition for me,” Oladele said. “I still have to work on my technique, but all these coaches tell me that once I perfect my technique then I am going to be a killer in the backfield.”
The sack-fumble combo is his favorite part of the game.
Oladele said he still has some research to do and more visits to take. But he said that his visits to Florida State and Georgia have been the best trips so far.
His academic path is highly interesting: Oladele said he plans to major in drama or mass communications. He aspires to be an actor after his playing days run their course. Liam Hemsworth is one of his favorite actors.
What else is there to know about Oladele? Well, his Americanization is almost complete. His favorite food is macaroni and cheese, and he said he already likes to play video games. His teammates call him “The Giant,” and he’d like to wear No. 6 or No. 99 on Saturdays.