OL Ellinger breaks down his commitment to Virginia

Naperville (Ill.) Central senior three star ranked offensive guard recruit Grant Ellinger (6-foot-5, 260 pounds) made a weekend official visit to the University of Virginia and on Tuesday announced his verbal commitment to the Cavaliers. Ellinger discusses his college decision and commitment to Virginia in this recruiting update.

"I'm just very happy and excited about my decision to commit to Virginia," Ellinger said. "It's just a great opportunity for me, an opportunity I could not pass up to be honest. Virginia is a school that offers such great academics, and also getting to play football in the ACC and at a Power 5 school is just everything in was hoping to find in a school. I found it at Virginia so I committed."

Ellinger pointed towards some key factors which led to his verbal commitment to Virginia.

"I ended up making two separate visits to Virginia, one this past spring and then again this past weekend for an official visit. The official visit to Virginia definitely played a big role in my decision. My Dad made the unofficial visit with me but my Mom couldn't make it so it was important to me for her to see Virginia in person. Virginia just has so much to offer. The coaches at Virginia are just a great group of coaches and people who I got a long great with all weekend long. I also enjoyed getting to know the players on my official visit and I felt like I was a good fit with the team. Virginia is also building a new football facility and locker room plus the facilities now are already great. The surrounding area is also just beautiful. My parents loved it at Virginia and I was glad my Mom finally got to see the school in person."

So which other schools did Ellinger consider before committing to Virginia?

"I ended up having a lot of different offers and college options, so it wasn't an easy decision. I looked pretty hard into Kansas, Cincinnati and also Harvard. Those were the main schools for me. In the end everything that Virginia has to offer on and off the field was just too impressive for me to pass up. Also Virginia being academically one of the top public school in the world was another big factor in my decision to Virginia."

Ellinger is also thrilled to put his college decision behind him this summer.

"It's nice to be done with my recruiting. It definitely got tiring at times dealing with all of the different coaches and recruiters. I can just keep training and working out with my team this summer, and I can also just be a kid again this summer. I'm very grateful to every school who offered me and I called all of the schools and let them know of my decision before I made it public."

Grant Ellinger is verbally committed to the University of Virginia.