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Auburn Football Recruiting: Valentine-Okeke Down to Tigers & Alabama

By Nicholas Ian Allen

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The 2015 Auburn football recruiting class already features several quality offensive linemen, but Chidi Valentine-Okeke would make the group even better.

As it looks right now, the only thing standing in the Tigers’ way when it comes to the 6-foot-6, 305-pound four-star prospect is the Alabama Crimson Tide.

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“Alabama and Auburn, they both have a great program,” Valentine-Okeke said last week. “They are recruiting me so hard. The people and the coaches all of that stuff looks good, so I am looking at those two schools and I am gonna go to one of them.”

Ludowici, Georgia is listed as Valentine-Okeke’s hometown on his recruiting profiles, and he attended Faith Baptist Christian Academy in Stockbridge, Georgia, but he’s only lived in the United States for a little more than a year. The Nigerian native is understandably raw because of his limited football experience, but he has already made a big impression because his talent is off the charts.

With two seasons of high school football under his belt (the first of which he played in south Florida), Valentine-Okeke is considered a Top 100 prospect by 247Sports, the ninth best player in Georgia and is rated as the 11th overall offensive tackle prospect.

Talent evaluators got a good look at Valentine-Okeke last week at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, and came away impressed. According to Barton Simmons of 247Sports:

"On the offensive line, Chidi Valentine-Okeke was one of the pleasant surprises of the week. Raw but athletic, we were encouraged by how quickly the four-star picked things up and how coachable he was."

The big lineman had some good things to say about Auburn offensive line coach J.B. Grimes, who along with Scott Fountain, is the assistant actively recruiting Valentine-Okeke.

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    • “He’s a nice coach,” Valentine-Okeke said in November. “He coached Greg Robinson and I’m looking to be like him. That shows he knows what he is doing.”

    The lineman also claimed his visit to Auburn in December was the “best visit ever,” according to AuburnUndercover.com ($).

    As for the other team in contention for his services, Mario Christobal is the Alabama assistant coach assigned to Valentine-Okeke’s recruitment. Georgia had been in the running until Bulldogs’ assistant Will Friend followed Mike Bobo to Colorado State. Valentine-Okeke also plans to visit LSU later this month.

    Should Valentine-Okeke become a member of the 2015 Auburn football recruiting class, he is expected to join fellow four-star O-Linemen Tyler Carr, Marquel Harrell, Kaleb Kim and Bailey Sharp.

    That’s a lot of linemen for a team that is expected to return seven players with starting experience in 2015, but it’s also a position group where you can never have enough bodies – especially ones as big and talented as as Chidi Valentine-Okeke.

    Next: The Three Most Important Auburn Recruits of 2015

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