By the time he left Rutgers after his official visit last weekend, LaPorte (Ind.) La Lumiere defensive end Ade Aruna knew he would keep his commitment to Tulane.

Rutgers and North Carolina State a week earlier had given him the hard sell about playing in prestigious conferences, but their approach did not work. He decided conference affiliation was an insignificant criterium.

"At the end of the day I think I made a good choice," he said. "I decided to choose Tulane because I'm comfortable with the coaches. I've known them for so long now (compared to the coaches at Rutgers and NC State), and when you talk about education, you can't compare those schools with Tulane. The conference doesn't matter. I'm going to Tulane to play the best football I can play."

Aruna, a 6-feet-6, 230-pound defensive end who arrived in America from Nigeria in 2010, is not a typical recruit. Talk about football reputation fell on deaf ears with him. He just wanted to go where he felt he was the best fit, academically and athletically, after one year of high school football.



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