Fili getting closer on decision

Salt Lake City (Utah) Cottonwood defensive lineman Simi Fili was expected to be at Oklahoma State this past weekend on an official visit but a snow storm in Stillwater ruined those plans. The big lineman now looks very close to knowing where he'll be spending the next four years of his life although it will still be a few more weeks before he makes his announcement public.

Fili, 6-3, 340 pounds is one of the strongest players in the nation. The first time we saw the tackle was two years ago when participated in one of the Nike Combines in Los Angeles and wowed everyone by doing 45 reps on the bench. This past May at the NorCal NIKE Camp, Fili had a strong showing in the position drills and again showed his considerable strength with 41 reps on the bench.

On the recruiting front, Fili has already taken official visits to Oregon and Washington State and was planning to take two more but it appears he's all done with his trips at this time.

"Yeah, I was supposed to visit Oklahoma State last weekend but they had a huge snow storm," Fili said. "No flights were able to get in or out because they had like 15 inches of snow there. At this point, I don't have any plans to make up the visit. I was going to visit Arizona State the weekend of (Dec. 15) but with the coaching change there, I think I'm done with visits.

"Oregon is really the main school I'm looking at right now although Washington State is still in there as well. I've basically narrowed things down to those two schools and I'm close to figuring out what I want to do. I just need to talk things over with my family and I'm planning to wait until the Army All-American game before I go public with my choice.

"Oregon and Washington State both came over last Thursday for home visits and there are a lot of things I like about both schools. I was really comfortable at Oregon because of how many Polynesians they have there and I don't think I could find that comfort level I had there anywhere else. Washington State was nice and I liked Pullman, it was a small college town and I liked that. I also like Coach Akey a lot, he's a passionate guy and gets his guy to play hard.

"I'm taking the ACT this weekend and I'm really hoping I score well. Then I'll focus more on recruiting once I'm done with the test. In the meantime, I'm staying busy working out with the track team and getting myself ready for the Army game. I'm also getting ready for Rugby season and staying on top of my academics so I have a lot on my plate but that's how I like it."