OL Swoboda goes in-depth on what went into him picking the Cavaliers
Not too long before he made it known to the world that he was committing to UVa, the enthusiasm in his voice told the story without offensive lineman Ryan Swoboda having to confirm it.
A 6-foot-9, 270-pound tackle from Windermere (FL) Windermere Prep, Swoboda had just wrapped up his official visit to UVa and was ready to tell the world what he had already told head coach Bronco Mendenhall and offensive line coach Garett Tujague.
"I'm so excited, man," he told CavsCorner before announcing his decision publicly. "It's the perfect fit for me and I just can't wait to get up there and get to work. I talked to the football performance coach, Coach (Frank) Wintrich, and he said he was so really excited to get me up there. They have a different approach with weight training and I'm really looking forward to getting in with him and working with Coach Tujague. He's a really great coach and after talking to him for just a little bit, I learned a lot. I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time with him."
A late bloomer who is just now starting to grow into his frame, the Sunshine State native held offers from UVa, USF, Dartmouth. He told CavCorner that he was hearing regularly from several other schools, including NC State, Kentucky, and UCF. Swoboda is Virginia's fourth offensive line commit in the 2017 class joining tackle Ryan Nelson and interior linemen Tyler Fannin and Chris Glaser, who was also on his official visit this past weekend.
Needless to say, the last few months are interesting cap to a recruitment that Swodoba believed was coming eventually.
"When I first started playing football, I didn't really look like a real recruit," Swoboda explained. "I weighed 190 pounds as a lineman, so I was not great my sophomore year. After I gained some weight, I was about 230 my junior year and I had a couple of coaches start talking to me because of my length but it wasn't really what I did on the field. Then for my senior year, I gained another 35, 40 pounds and now that I was about 270, that's when coaches really started talking to me and offers started to come in and what not."
Even though interest hadn't spiked to that point, Swoboda was sure it would. And eventually, he was proven right.
"I kind of knew for a while that the offers would come in," he said. "I trusted in everything with that. Virginia was the first school that really did find me and talk to me and believe in me."
Led by Tujague, UVa got the jump on the field and made Swoboda a priority. As the relationship deepened, all that was left was for the talented lineman to make the trip north.
"I wanted to see the place up close and I wanted to meet all of the coaches," Swoboda explained. "I've met Coach Tujague but I hadn't met everyone else yet. I know Coach Mendenhall was new to the school too so I wanted to talk to the players and hear from them about what they really thought about the culture and everything. I got to learn a lot about the culture at UVa."
Accompanied by his parents, Swoboda arrived on Friday afternoon and had a great few days in Charlottesville.
"It was a great time for sure," he recalled. "We got to spend time with the coaches, we went to the basketball game which was great even though they took their first loss of the year. We went to Coach Mendenhall's house and road horses at his big ranch, which was real cool. We got to sit in an offensive linemen's meeting with Coach Tujauge and that was really, really cool, talking some Xs and Os and things like that. And I got to meet so many of the players."
Interestingly, Swoboda said that as he spent time getting to know the players, that included guys on the other side of the ball like linebacker C.J. Stalker and Micah Kiser.
"I got to eat dinner with C.J. and he's a great dude," Swoboda said. "He was my host and he was really easy to talk to just like a lot of the team. It was really great getting to know him and Micah, too. I talked to him a lot about the program. He was awesome."
Considering the distance, not to mention the unpredictable nature of recruiting in Florida, it's fair to wonder what sort of role location played. But given his admitted preference for cooler temps, UVa makes even more sense.
"It didn't bother me at all," Swoboda said. "It's been my goal for a while to leave Florida and kind of go do my own thing and I wanted to go north a little bit. Virginia is right in that perfect area. I don't think the travel or the distance was a problem at all for me. I like the cooler weather in Virginia. I'm all about that."
So what stood out to him about his time on Grounds?
"I loved everything about it," he said of his time in Charlottesville. "The coaches kept asking me if I had any other questions or what I was thinking and I always told them the same thing. I loved it and that's why I decided to commit to Coach Mendenhall and Coach Tujague."
With his decision made and finally out there publicly, Swoboda said that he's sure of commitment and where he'll play his college ball.
"I'm not taking any other visits," Swoboda said simply. "When I committed to Coach Mendenhall, we talked about it and I think when I say I'm committed that's my word and I'm not going back on that. I'm just so excited to be committed to him and UVa and like I said, I can't wait to get started."
