Odeyingbo planning a return to Waco

The Baylor coaches are aggressively pursuing defensive line targets early in this 2017 recruiting class and one of the newer targets for the Bears' coaching staff is Carrollton (Texas) Ranchview defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo.

"Coach (Jim) Gush and I started talking in January and he invited me to their junior day," Odeyingbo said. "I went to visit and it was pretty cool, then a week later they called to offer me. The coaches like my upside and potential, and see me becoming a great player within their defense."

The 6-foot-5, 245-pound prospect shared his thoughts from the junior day visit in late January.

"From what I could tell, it seemed that everyone on campus was very excited about the football program," Odeyingbo said. "I could tell they were doing a lot of updates and reinvesting back into the football program. We also learned a little bit about the education provided at Baylor.

"I will have to look into it and learn more, but I know it's a very good school academically. Education is very important to me and my parents, and it's a very important factor in my college decision."

Odeyingbo and some of the other recruits in attendance also spent time reviewing tape with Baylor defensive line coach Cris Achuff during the visit.

"We had a quick meeting with Coach Achuff too," Odeyingbo said. "We watched some film as a group for about 5-10 minutes and it was pretty cool to see how they break down the film and how all of the plays worked."

The standout prospect now holds eight offers and is beginning to receive interest from several other programs lately.

"I added a few more offers from SMU and Houston recently," Odeyingbo said. "Coaches from Oregon, Tulane, Texas, and Duke have been talking with me lately as well. I'm looking to setup visits to SMU, Tulane, and possibly Vanderbilt and Northwestern during this off-season. I'm also going back to Baylor for their Friday Night Lights event on March 18th."

Rated a three-star prospect, Odeyingbo is the No. 1o0 overall prospect on the Rivals.com Texas Postseason Top 100 for the 2017 class. He earned District 6-4A All-District First Team Defense this season.

Odeyingbo will compete at the Rivals Camp in Dallas on March 19th.