Umerah making the rounds as defensive line prospect

After all the travel Tobe Umerah put in this summer, he’s more than ready to settle into the structure of the football season.

Umerah, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound junior defensive lineman, put himself on the recruiting radar last year as Stratford went deep into the Class 1A private school playoffs. He led the Eagles defensively with 128 tackles, including 11 for loss and six sacks.

The son of doctors, Umerah made the rounds on the college football camp circuit this summer. It was more or less a tour of SEC programs, with a little bit of ACC and Pac-12 thrown in.

And, yes, a stop in Athens was on his itinerary.

“My first one was Georgia,” Umerah said. “From there, I went to Tennessee and Duke, then Stanford. In July, I went to Alabama, FSU, Auburn, Florida. A bunch of them.

“I’ve always wanted to play college football, so I wanted to get noticed. I wanted to get on their radar. But I also wanted to develop skills and take those back to high school ball so that I can be better than I was last year.”

Making the college recruiting process a bit easier for Umerah was the experience he saw his former teammate, Quintez Cephus, go through.

Cephus, the talented receiver and defensive back, has joined Wisconsin’s football roster after originally committing to the Furman basketball program. While Cephus’ recruiting process was compressed — he didn’t get any serious football looks until the start of his senior season — Umerah learned a thing or two from the experience.

“I got to see what kind of training and dedication it takes to play at that level,” Umerah said. “He kind of paved the way for me in a sense. He was a role model. I looked up to him.”

While the Eagles lost quite a bit to graduation on offense, they have key leadership back on the defensive side.

In addition to Umerah, the Eagles have some experience at linebacker, where Justin Griffin moves in from defensive end, and Larson McDaniel, who had 101 tackles last season, returns. Josh Davis is another returning linebacker.

“We’re really excited, especially on defense,” Griffin said. “On defense, the whole team is pumped up. We’re fired up because we have a lot of different people coming back. We’re ready to take people on this season.”

Offensively, Stratford returns two of its three main running backs in Kasey Sanders and Tyler Jordan, who accounted for nearly 1,800 yards and 23 touchdowns last year. And Noah Hill, who backed up Cephus and Sim Patrick the past two seasons at quarterback while seeing plenty of time at defensive back, is set to get his turn under center.

“(Hill) has taken a lot of snaps, and he’s gotten into some games,” Stratford head coach Mark Farriba said. “He knows what we’re doing. He’s a very smart guy. He’ll do fine at quarterback. Having Tyler and Kasey in the backfield and having that comfort and experience, that’s a good thing, also.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2016 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Umerah making the rounds as defensive line prospect."