Texas battle shaping up for OL

Junior to Watch: Adam Ulatoski

School: Southlake (Texas) Carroll

Position: Offensive tackle

Size and speed: Ulatoski is 6-foot-6 and 270 pounds. He has been clocked at 5.1 seconds in the 40-yard dash by his coach, plus he has a 300-pound bench-press, can do 17 repetitions of 185 pounds and has a squat of 400 pounds.

Honors: As a junior, Ulatoski was a first-team all-district pick, first-team all-Northeast Tarrant County pick, second-team all-state selection by the Associated Press and a first-team honoree by the Texas Sports Writers Association.

Statistics: Ulatoski, as an offensive lineman, didn’t have any major stats.

Favorite Schools: Ulatoski lists Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, UCLA, Colorado and Iowa in order as his top teams. He has scholarship offers from LSU, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

Skinny: Year in and year out, Southlake (Texas) Carroll is one of the top teams in the state of Texas and in the Dallas Metroplex. And along with those good teams come good players. This year’s Class of 2004 from Carroll has quite a few players that will be heavily recruited but 6-foot-6, 270-pound offensive tackle Adam Ulatoski has taken a step above the rest and established himself as a major impact recruit.

With offers on the table from LSU and Oklahoma already, Ulatoski lists teams like Texas, A&M, UCLA, Colorado and Iowa also on his early wish list. So what type of player are these teams going after?

“He one of the best pure athletes for an offensive lineman that I’ve coached,” Carroll coach Todd Dodge said. “He can about do it all for us both in passing and running situations.”

Ulatoski said he considers himself to be a technician.

“I try to use my technique and size to my advantage when passing and run blocking,” he said. “I graded out at 94 percent and allowed no sacks. As you can see, I take pride in my blocking.”

This summer, Ulatoski plans on camping at Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M and he said he would prefer to play in state or at a school close to it. So that would likely put teams like UT, A&M, LSU and Oklahoma in good positions.

Either way, Ulatoski would like to continue to play for a winner – Carroll went 16-0 this past season and won a state championship.

“The overall strength of the football program will be key,” he said. “I’m also going to look at things like academics and location. I’m not really sure what I want to major in quite yet, but I’ll figure that out.”