Like The Ralphie Report said when the news broke, it seemed Nosa Eguae and the Colorado Buffaloes were a virtual lock to be together. it sounds like the Buffs really pulled out the stops to get this kid, providing him both with official (West Virginia Mountaineers game) and unofficial (training camp with WR Jarrod Darden) visits.
Eguae, a 6'3" 240 lbs three star defensive end from Mansfield, Texas chose the Buffs over Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska and Minnesota. Most of the recruiting sites still report Equae as a soft verbal commit to the Buffs as he will be taking official visits to the schools noted above. I don't feel the Buffs are going to lose Eguae and I applaud him for checking out other schools. You only get recruited once in your life so you might as well take advantage of it. Eguae should have no problem qualifying for admission to CU as he is a smart kid (1330 on SAT) who values Coach Hawkins values of being successful as a person, as a student and as an athlete.
From watching the three or so minutes of film on Eguae and reading the various recruiting reports (check out the links to these reports on our commit tracker on the left side of the main page), the Buffs are getting an active DE that has a good frame especially if the Buffs want him to adjust his size to fit in multiple positions. At 240 lbs, Scout.com has him running a 4.9 which isn't blazing for a defensive end but is plenty adequate. I noticed that Eguae is still pretty raw in terms of displaying football moves and technique but has intelligent football savy often reacting to reverses and screen passes extremely well. Defensive linemen have one of the hardest transitions from high school to the college level because frankly, defensive line coaching and technique teaching can be hit or miss at the high school level. It is very rare to see a defensive lineman come in from day one and be an impact player. Eguae looks to have good body control and is athletic enough to cover up some of his technique short comings. You can't teach a good motor and athleticism, you can teach technique.
It will be interesting to see what Hawkins does with Equae. He may be a tweener. He currently would be an undersized defensive end. The Buffs may try him at linebacker but currently they are loaded in that department and defensive end is a need position. I think as soon as Nosa's high school season is over, the Buffs will ask him to put on weight and get up to that 250 to 255 pound range. Let's hope his athleticism and speed aren't impacted but to be successful against the run and pass, weight will need to be added.
Overall, this is a solid pickup for the Buffs. He definitely has playmaking ability and you have to like his speed, quickness in the gap and overall athleticism for a pretty decent sized kid. Technique and weight gain are two areas of improvement that would most benefit Eguae.
-picture of Nosa Eguae courtesy of rivals.com