Boston College DL pledge Nigel Tate weighing all options after ASU offer
Nigel Tate still says he’s 100 percent committed to Boston College. The three-star defensive tackle from Maryland announced back in May that he planned on wearing the Golden Eagles’ maroon and gold during his college career.
Over recent weeks, though, Tate has been feverishly pitched on thrusting his 6-foot-3, 315-pound frame in a different maroon and gold. Arizona State’s late offer doesn’t mean Tate is back to testing the recruiting waters, but it does signify some wiggle room in his 100-percent certainty, leaving a possible percent or two for the Sun Devils to knock his socks off and earn a late flip.
“If other opportunities do arise, I’ll have to look at them. But if I had to go to college tomorrow, I’d definitely go to Boston College,” Tate said. “I haven’t done much research into Arizona State yet, but my father and I agreed like, ‘Why not? Let’s take all the opportunities we can because you never know.’
“There could be something that Arizona State has to offer that Boston College doesn’t have. We’re looking into every opportunity.”
The Arizona State opportunity came to Tate less than a week ago. Defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez, who was hired by the Sun Devils in the winter after serving as the assistant defensive line coach with Minnesota Vikings, sent a Twitter direct message to the three-star tackle.
His message was simple. Come to Tempe and let me turn you into an NFL defensive lineman.
“He Facetimed me and gave the whole rundown about how he turns down four stars and five stars because he was like, ‘Sometimes stars and rankings, kids can get caught up in it. I like the ‘Dawg mentality,’” Tate said Rodriguez told him. “He said that when he watched my film, he said, “We’ve got to get this kid.’”
Tate has heard recruiting spiels in the past. Most recently from Arizona State. Prior to that, from more than a dozen colleges, including Boston College. And two years ago, from a Bullis High School recruiter who caught a glimpse of a big high schooler waiting for a hospital elevator.
Greg Leonard, a man in charge of filling the roster with talented bodies for one of Maryland’s top private schools, spotted Tate in the hallway of a DMV hospital. Leonard was there to visit his father, and Tate was checking up on his grandfather as he recovered from a broken rib.
But recruiting never stops. So Leonard hollered out the youngster with imposing size and invited him out to a workout at Bullis. What’s the worst that could come of it, Tate and his father thought.
A week later, they went to Bullis. It was Tate’s first time playing football. Drooling over his potential, the Bullis’ coaches either couldn’t tell or didn’t care, offering him a full-ride scholarship soon after.
Tate always laughs because he had been denied from some of the top private schools in the Washington D.C. area years prior. Then he became a football player, and all those same schools begged him to attend. Just like that, Tate received a crash course in the opportunities football affords.
“I have five brothers -- three older, two younger -- and they’re all slim,” Tate said. “They would be playing wide receiver or DB. In order for me to have fun when I was younger playing with my brothers when we weren’t playing basketball, I had to learn to catch and do all the things that usually linemen don’t know.
“You wouldn’t expect a man my size to move as well as I do.”
Bullis surely didn’t. They tried him at offensive line during his sophomore season, but it didn’t fit him. He wanted to toss people to the ground, have the ability to hit a quarterback in the pocket or a running back breaking through the gap. And at 315 pounds, gaps shrink pretty quickly when Tate is there.
“(Offensive linemen) think I’m going to bullrush them. That’s their first thought. Then I give them a quick move. I can go to the C-gap then the A-gap,” Tate said. “A lot of people are scared to go one-on-one with me so a lot of times I get double-teamed. That helps my teammates.”
Double-teams don’t come often in college when seemingly every offensive lineman is tipping the scales over 300 pounds, but Tate’s versatility is something colleges covet.
And, for now, Boston College is where Tate is likely headed. He has extended family members who were once Golden Eagles and loves their business program. But, even if an inch, he left the door open for the Sun Devils, a place that has sold itself as a gateway to the NFL.
“That’s a big thing. That’s a really big thing,” Tate said. “They can tell you what guys are doing in the NFL, and you can start doing that in high school and college. By the time you get to the NFL, you’ll start developing new tactics.”
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