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Virginia lands late-rising Nashville DE Michael Diatta

The recruiting process started later for Nashville (Tenn.) Cane Ridge defensive end Michael Diatta than most of his peers in the 2021 recruiting class, but the offers finally started to come in over the last week. His first Power Five offer came on Nov. 5 from Virginia, and Diatta wasted little time determining he wanted to continue his career with the Cavaliers.

“I chose UVa because I’ve been talking to their coaching staff since the summer and it’s a great academic school,” Diatta said. “It meant a lot because they were the first Power Five school to reach out to me.

“I’d been worried for the longest time, am I ever going to get a Power Five school? Would I ever get the opportunity to play at the Power Five level?

“Now that it finally came, it’s a big relief.”

VIRGINIA'S 2021 FOOTBALL COMMITMENT LIST | DISCUSS DIATTA'S COMMITMENT ON HOOS NEXT?

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Defensive line coach Clint Sintim was the first Virginia staffer to make contact with Diatta, but over the last few months he has also gotten to know head coach Bronco Mendenhall better.

“The reason they didn’t offer (earlier) is because I wasn’t able to go to the camp up there, and the second reason was because I didn’t have any season film yet,” Diatta said. “The metro public schools, we had a delayed season so we didn’t get a chance to play until late September. Once I got that early senior season film over to them, they offered.”

The communication between Diatta and Virginia started during the current dead period, so the Nashville native has not been able to see the Cavaliers’ Charlottesville campus in-person yet.

“I have been doing a lot of virtual tours with them and they have been sending me a lot of videos of how the campus looks,” Diatta said. “It’s rated as one of the (most) beautiful campuses in the country, so it’s a no-brainer. I don‘t have a problem with not visiting campus yet.”

Other offers that came in the last week included Georgia Southern, Memphis, Tulane and Vanderbilt. Shortly after receiving the offer from Virginia, though, Diatta was getting encouragement to join the Cavaliers’ 2021 class.

“Most of their committed guys reached out to me,” Diatta said. “I’ve been talking to them on social media. We all clicked really quickly. They are all nice guys and I’m looking forward to meeting them in-person.”

One of those Virginia commitments is fellow Nashville-area resident Noah Josey, who works out with Diatta through TeamDGA.

Virginia coaches like Diatta’s length and plan to utilize the three-star in a defensive end role. He started his senior season playing mostly offense, but has started taking more reps on defense and has three sacks in recent games.

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