Follow
Atlanta, GA– One of the nation’s most talented 8th graders is really having an amazing off season. He’s experiencing something that a high school junior could only dream of. That’s getting college offers by major schools. The difference for Lawerenceville, Georgia’s Owen Pappoe is that he’s not even in high school yet. Pappoe is the nation’s recruiting darling who has eight legitimate BCS offers that stem from his incredible potential to perform at the high school level. He’s got amazing film from his 8th grade season with the Grayson Rams (a middle school team that feeds into one of the nation’s top football programs). But perhaps most importantly, he’s got college mesurables now in 8th grade. He’s been measured multiple times and the consensus is that he’s 6’1, 194 pounds and growing. He won’t turn 15 until the fall of 2015.
“College recruiters who see him in person can’t believe it,” says his middle school coach, Kenyatta Watson. Several schools have stuck around to watch the rising 9th grade practices at Grayson to get a look at Pappoe and his teammates who belong to one of the classes with the highest ceilings in recent memory, put work in on the field.
Pappoe’s first offer was from Boston College. Then he began to attract offers from all over and is averaging an offer per week this spring. He’s since received verbal offers from Tennessee, Miami, Auburn, Kentucky, Michigan, South Carolina and Auburn. His profile pages on Rivals.com and 247Sports.com look like pages of rising high school seniors, not a rising freshman in high school. He’s truly a generational talent who will easily have over 50 college offers by the time he’s a senior.
A recent guest on Hotbed Radio, Pappoe says that he’s motivated to work hard to validate his offer sheet. He knows he’ll have to play with a chip on his shoulder since he’s gotten so much attention. It’s well deserved. He’s only been playing football since the 7th grade, his first game ever was at the Football Hotbed pre-season classic tournament in Jacksonville in 2013. He was named to the All-Tournament team, the first of many accolades to come for Pappoe. The former basketball player uses his raw athleticism and strength to punish players in both the run game and as an outside linebacker.
He’ll certainly be one to watch in high school and beyond.
Owen Pappoe with Hotbed Executive Director Brandon Odoi
