Pitt FB Recruiting
Rising 2023 OL Nick Oliveira Picks Up Pitt Offer, Looking Into Official Visit
The Pitt football and recruiting staff have been extremely active over the last month plus extending offer to high school players across the country.
A majority of the offers have gone to sophomores, freshmen and in some rare cases to 8th graders but not all of them are going to underclassmen. Friday morning, Tiquan Underwood was in New Jersey and personally extended an offer to a rising junior offensive lineman.
2023 offensive tackle Nick Oliveria from Mullica Hill, New Jersey added Pitt to his rising list of offers that now includes Boston College, Vanderbilt, Duke, UConn, Oregon, Syracuse, Temple and a number of Ivy League schools. Following this news, Oliveria spoke with Pittsburgh Sports Now about his conversation with Underwood and about his interest in Pitt.
“Coach Underwood came into my school and I was walking to class, and I bumped into him,” said Oliveria. “He looked at me and said, ‘Wow, you’re a big kid’ and I said ‘Yes, sir’. I went to class, and I was in class, and I got a text message that I got the offer from Pitt, and I just thought that was crazy. I talked to him for a little bit and I’m going to talk to him again later tonight. Getting that offer from Pitt was awesome. Pitt is a great academic school and also a great football program, they’re the ACC Champions. I definitely think they’re going to be one of my official visits that I will set up soon.”
“I visited Pitt before with my friend Kahlil Ali, who also has a Pitt offer. That was the first real time that I had contact with the Pitt coaches. After that, I didn’t hear from them a lot but as my recruitment has started to blow up, I started hearing from them more and then today they pulled the trigger with the offer.”
Oliveira (6-foot-5, 285 pounds) is trying to digest all of the recent attention he’s receiving from Power Five program and realizes that more offers could be on the way as he’s been a standout at recent national prospect camps.
2/2 against a 4 ⭐️ All American pic.twitter.com/JPUcWFKFin
— Nick Oliveira (@nickoliveira101) May 12, 2022
“Before my junior season, I had one offer and I went out there and played my heart out and I’m now seeing that the hard work I’ve put it is paying off. My high school coaches have always told me that one day I’ll be a Power Five offensive tackle and now it’s coming true, which is so awesome. I’ve loving all the attention that I’m getting and all the coaches making me feel like I’m special. This is really turning into a cool experience,” said Oliveria.
While talking to these programs, Oliveria tells me that the coaches like his size and how lean he still is as a lineman. He believes the strengths of his game are the aggression in which he plays along with how quick his feet are.
“I’m now starting to look at the recruiting process. My mom is looking at every single school that offers me. She wants me to look at chemical engineering so we’re looking at majors for all of these schools and I’m looking at the football aspect and how good they are, the coaching staff treatment and who’s talking to me the most.”
In terms of his five official visits, Oliveria says that every Power Five school that’s offered him has a chance, but he’s already scheduled one to Vanderbilt and that he’ll likely take one to Boston College.
“I’m going to talk to Coach (Underwood) later tonight and talk more about the offer and what it brings,” said Oliveria. “We’re also going to talk about an official visit and what days I could possibly come out. I’m also going to talk to more members of the football staff.”
