West Chester (OH) Lakota West TE
Luka Gilbert is a 6’7, 233 athlete who doubles as a center in hoops. Miami is one of several schools recruiting the #12-ranked tight end, and has already hosted him for a January 27th unofficial visit. He spoke to CanesInSight about his recruitment:
On his height: “Two weeks ago, I was listed at 6’7.25. That was exact, no shoes. My mom is 6’1 and my dad is 6’5.5. So that's where I get it from.”
On his process for evaluating schools: “It's actually funny. My dad has a spreadsheet of all the different categories and how every school ranks up with each other. Some of the things are education. That's a big part for me. My whole life I've been a pretty pretty solid student. It's not the next four years is the next 40 years. Miami has got a great education, which is big for me.”
“It's also how you're utilized as a tight end. Coach Woodall does a great job with the tight ends there, 12, 13 personnel. It’s just awesome. I could definitely see myself fitting in.”
On the Miami coaches and visit: “I'd say it's three of Coach Woodiel, Coach [Nate Crutchfield], and Coach Cristobal.They did an awesome job with me when I was down there. I was with me, my mom, and my dad. It was an awesome time. Got to see the whole campus, really. I really see it like a home. Like a home away from home. And I got to get out the weather. So that was nice, too.”
On Miami’s big city reputation: “I don't really look at it like the big city. It's more of a private school. Only 9,000 students on campus. I look at more like the length [of trip]. They have direct flights twice a day, versus other places where there's no flights and you just have to drive five, six hours. I take everything into consideration.”
On his top 5: “I'd say my top five right now is Miami, obviously, and then Ohio State, Kentucky, Michigan, and Iowa.”
On his timeline: I'm probably going to make a decision early summer or late spring. These next couple of weeks, I'm going to go to a couple of places which I'm heavily considering. Miami being one of them. I'm going to go to some practices, and then I'll go to a couple of official visits. [Gilbert plans on taking both an unofficial and an official to Miami].
On his basketball background: ”I truly believe that every sport besides your main sport helps. It's just really competing. That's what it comes down to. I'm the most competitive dude you'll ever see. My whole life has been competing with my friends in the backyard, on the football field, to my class rank in school, everything. But it also helps in areas like rebounding and staying athletic. I'm a pretty big dude, so I'm usually the five. And I’ve got to guard all the small little point guards, so it helps staying agile.”
On his physicality: “I really do take pride in my blocking. In practice, I'm with the O-line and the receivers. Luckily this year, I have a tight end coach. But last year, I was spending some time with the O-line. And I just dove deep, embraced it, learned how to block, learned how to stay wide. As big as I am, it's hard to stay low. But I just embraced it. I learned how to block. You can see on the film that I'm gonna make dudes pay out there. That's that's probably my specialty in my game, honestly, right now.”
On being a “dog”: “Dog is what comes out when you're tired. I feel like everybody's going to be great when you're feeling good in the beginning of the game, but I feel like the real dog comes out over time. Fourth quarter, that's when the real dog comes out. Who's the toughest mentally when you're tired?“
