Rivals Most Wanted: Griffith, Gaoteote, Culpepper
Each week, Rivals.com looks at three players who saw their offer list lengthen considerably over a seven-day stretch. This week's group includes rising West Coast prospects from the 2017 and 2018 classes and a talented athlete from Florida.
This week’s offers: Notre Dame, Tennessee, Purdue
Status report: Griffith took four visits last week and three of them resulted in the offers above. Look for this trend to continue for Griffith, who is one of the top 2018 athletes in the country. He is already planning to be an early enrollee at his chosen school, so as of right now, he hopes to makes a decision before his senior season.
In his words: “It feels good and shows my hard work is paying off. People are starting to notice now nationally that I can play this game.”
Visit plans: After visiting Ohio State Monday, Griffith will continue his busy visit schedule with a stop at Penn State Tuesday, then “possibly Pitt” on Thursday, Indiana on Friday and finally Iowa on Saturday to finish the week. More visits will follow, but he is focusing on the next few days.
This week’s offers: Ohio State, Notre Dame, Utah
Status report: Moving from Hawaii a little less than a year ago, Gaoteote arrived in Las Vegas hoping to burst onto the recruiting scene. With three offers during the last week, everyone in the recruiting world is now well aware of the 2018 linebacker. Aside from the offers he currently has, Gaoteote mentioned he would love to add USC, UCLA, Washington, Auburn, Texas A&M and Michigan to his growing list.
In his words: “Man it's incredible and a blessing first off to receive offers from those kind of schools! Especially as a sophomore it's crazy for me to have offers in general. But man to have Ohio State, Utah and Notre Dame is mind blowing for me to have at a young age.”
Visit plans: His only visit to at this point was to Hawaii before he moved to the mainland. He hopes to visit every school that offers him, but at this point has no firm plans scheduled.
This week’s offers: USC, Florida, Colorado
Status report: It would be difficult to find a 2018 recruit in the country who has had a bigger rise in recruiting prominence over the last few weeks than Culpepper. Syracuse, home to his older brother, Rex Culpepper, became his first offer and after that point the floodgates opened up. As a 2018 recruit, Culpepper has no decision timeline figured out, but he did mention that he would likely make up his mind when “the feeling hits me.” A large part of Culpepper’s draw to college coaches is his athleticism, size and versatility. While he has seen action at several positions at Plant, the majority of schools are currently recruiting him at tight end.
In his words: “It feels amazing, but the more offers I get, the more I think that I have to work even harder to live up to the expectations and be the best high school football player I can be. I think the only offer that surprised me was my first offer from Syracuse, because that let me know that I had something special and that I should really try to pursue this and be great. I'm just really trying to stay humble through this whole process.”
Visit plans: Culpepper’s most recent visit was to Michigan, which he called “an amazing trip.” A local visit to Florida may be coming soon, which is where both of his parents graduated from, along with a visit to Syracuse for their spring game to check out his brother in action. Additional visits will definitely happen, but at this time nothing else is scheduled.