COMMITMENT ANALYSIS: Taking A Deeper Look At Taliese Fuaga

For Tacoma (WA) offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga, things stayed pretty quiet.

After picking up four offers from Nevada, Oregon State, Oregon and USC in a span of 16 days, Fuaga never gave too many indicators of which way he was leaning.

The interest remained constant from Oregon State, who eventually earned an official visit from Taliese and did what they do best while the six-foot-six, 330-pound lineman was on campus.

One day was all Fuaga needed to make his announcement as an Oregon State commit, supplementing a well-rounded recruiting class that featured one other offensive lineman in Gilbert (AZ) Cooper Darling.

In terms of the future prospects of the offensive line, securing Fuaga’s commitment was big for Oregon State and offensive line coach Jim Michalczik.

With the Beavers losing Blake Brandel, Gus Lavaka, and Clay Cordasco (all starters) to graduation this offseason, Oregon State needed to get talented reinforcements in the pipeline. While the Beavers already boasted OL Cooper Darling in the 2020 cycle, the Beavers really needed another marquee piece to go along with 2019 greyshirt Jacob Ferenczi to balance out the offensive line numbers and Fuaga fits the bill perfectly.

At 6-foot-6, 329 pounds, Fuaga already boasts the physique and build to compete at the power five level. While he may need a year or two of seasoning before he cracks the rotation, he oozes big-time potential and could be a force up front by the time his career is all said and done.

With Darling, Ferenczi, and Fuaga now in the fold, the Beavers boast three incoming freshman lineman that have the size and potential to be game-changers within a few seasons. With the trio all being 6-foot-5 or above and all three weighing 285 +, Smith and Co. have placed a premium on getting tall, strong, and athletic linemen which should only benefit the team in the coming years.

Michalczik has been known to be an ace recruiter and he’s backed that up this off-season with three (four if you count Korbin Sorenson) high-impact newcomers.