Scout keeps its collective eye on as many prospects as it can, and it filters to the state of Alabama, where I’m primarily involved. But over the last five weeks or so, even with the current group of seniors as compelling a group as the state has had, the story and ascent of Prince Tega Wanogho Jr. was beginning to overshadow the entire class ahead of his.

Now, as the 6-foot-8, 250-pound project out of Elmore (Ala.) Edgewood Academy has reclassified to the class of 2015, the momentum has overtaken the groups'.

Following the holiday break, Wanogho Jr. and his host family, the Taylor’s, found out that his advanced courses abroad and subsequent classes taken and passed in the fall provided enough credits to push up his graduation date to that of the current senior class. Paperwork went through on Monday, and the basketball hopeful turned national football prospect will take several visits before making a decision he thought he wouldn’t have to until this time next year.

The acceleration has already resulted in a new offer, from Georgia, while many other coaching staffs scramble to get into the late mix for a prospect in the middle of the Yellowhammer State with no fandom, lean or deep knowledge of either in-state power. Auburn, however, has already offered him a scholarship along with two dozen other national programs like new national champion Ohio State, Notre Dame, USC, Texas, LSU and many, many others.

Visits will be set this week, and many others will make their way to the Montgomery area to get an in-person look at the state’s most intriguing prospect, in a recruitment that will be anything but routine in the middle of SEC country.

Scout projects Wanogho Jr. as a tight end. Programs have offered him as such, in addition to some as purely a defensive end and others as an athlete.

The First Step Was a Map

Scout met with the Taylor’s in late December. Todd, an assistant on the football staff at Edgewood under Bobby Carr in addition to a bigger role on the school’s basketball staff, first learned of Wanogho Jr. , referred to most commonly as Tega by his family and peers, because of the basketball upside he and fellow Nigerian Kelvin (6-foot-7) had. They’d been playing the sport for some time. But while walking after school early in the fall, shortly after moving from Nigeria to America, the football team’s outdoor workouts caused Tega to stop and ask about the sport his new country values more than any other. What resulted was the introduction to the game that will help him earn a free education beginning this fall.

The season followed, then his tape was finished (see below), and scholarship offers came in by the bundle. It was time to educate Tega, who did take unofficial visits to both Auburn and Vanderbilt during the season, about college football.

Unlike virtually every other recruit in the country, the next step was a map.

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The above was purchased by the Taylor family to literally point out where each and every program offering a scholarship was located. Color-coded thumbtacks wouldn’t be enough, as many similarly-colored programs located relatively close to one another, like Ohio State and Indiana, made things more difficult.

The general thought with the recruiting process was, “we have time.”

Tega wasn’t worried, as he was just beginning to realize his potential as an edge rusher or pass-catcher at the next level.

“It’s really weird, because seriously, I don’t really understand,” he admitted. “I don’t really know what’s going on right now. I’m just being blessed, and I’m enjoying the moment. I know I’m getting a scholarship, and I know I’m going to school, and that’s what comes first.

“I’m trying to do my best, and making good grades, as coach explained to us, is the only way you can play. It’s a challenge for us, a big challenge for us, to do well in the classroom and with the sports they play.”

It’s not just a cliche with Tega, who became emotional on multiple occasions in stressing his priorities, family and education.

In the fall, he achieved all A’s save for one class, where a B was his final tally.

“Anatomy,” Tega said. “The crazy words, everything and I don’t like learning about the body parts, it freaks me out. But my best class is U.S. History. The books make it easy; I take everything as a challenge, every little thing. History is kind of easy to understand. It’s all about hard work, it’s all about responsibility and doing things right. Those things work together.”

It’s translated to the football field as well, where the kid who didn’t know how to get in a stance in August became the standout tracking down running backs from behind before bringing them down with physicality.

It even resonated for the 17-year-old early in the season.

“The first time we actually played, it was a scrimmage, it was the first time I put a helmet on and all of the pads. I actually made a tackle. There’s a kid at my school named Josh (Vanderbilt running back commitment Josh Crawford), he’s our best running back…I guess I actually smoked him. I got him twice, and I didn’t know what I did, I just knew I was supposed to tackle him and get the football from him. Everybody was surprised, it was a big deal, but to me, I just put some fat boy to the ground,” he said, laughing. “I call him fat. It was the first time coach told me I actually have a chance to play college football.”

Learning of his opportunity, with his priorities still in order, he began hearing things from coaches that he previously hadn’t -- praise. Encouragement. A future.

Months earlier, he didn’t know what that felt like.

“Back home in Nigeria, there was this tournament, a basketball tournament, that I actually won,” he said. “ I was with the team I was with back home, I didn’t know I could come to the states one day. But I did good, and my coach was really proud of me that day, it was the first time he actually encouraged me and said something nice. It was last January. Everybody came up to me, the other guys were looking up to me, it was something really amazing.

“My dad taught me that, to take every little thing as a challenge. Ever since I tried to do the little things right, it’s been alright.”

With his father passed on or late, as Tega puts it, the burden was placed upon his mother’s shoulders and it opened Tega’s eyes on what so many have to endure with one parent. Couple it with the opportunity he now has, and few will doubt that the story will end on a good note.

“We wake up in the morning, go to school, but it’s not really easy over there,” he said. “But that’s life, sometimes it’s really tough. It was a money thing; I’m not from a rich family, so I’ve seen my mom struggling everyday making ends meet for us. It really tears me up. Seeing her struggle everyday, trying to provide, with the responsibility she has to handle -- it’s not really easy. I’m trying to do my best.

“When I was about to leave, for the airport, she was really sad, but she knows it’s the best thing. It’s not easy, we’re nine (children). So it’s a blessing for the family to have somebody in the states, I’m the first one.”

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