High School

SMU lands Chinedu Onyeagoro, 4-star edge rusher from California

Despite saying UCLA being his 'dream school' in November, Chinedu Onyeagoro commits to SMU Monday afternoon.

Tarek Fattal

King/Drew's Chinedu Onyeagoro, a 4-star edge rusher from California, commits to SMU.
King/Drew's Chinedu Onyeagoro, a 4-star edge rusher from California, commits to SMU. / Chinedu Onyeagoro/Instagram

King/Drew's Chinedu Onyeagoro was down to four schools: Florida, Washington, SMU and UCLA.

On Monday afternoon, with all four hats laid out in front of him, he picked up the UCLA cap as a teaser before placing it back down on the table and picking up the SMU hat and placing it on his head.

"SMU, baby," he said.

The Mustangs offered Onyeagoro on February 5.

“Thank God for everything without him I would be nothing, and thank you to the SMU staff and fans for believing in me," Onyeagoro tweeted.

Onyeagoro is one of the top edge rushers in Southern California and is ranked No. 33 in the country at the position for the class of 2025, according to 247Sports.com.

(Video credit: Eric Sondheimer, LA Times)

In November, Onyeagoro told SBLive Sports UCLA was his "dream school".

"My dream school would probably be UCLA just because it's close by and they have a great football program as well as a good medical program which i would like to get into," Onyeagoro said this past fall. "But I am not locked in anywhere I'll go to whatever school will use me the best and make me the best player I can be."


Onyeagoro plays for King/Drew in the Los Angeles City Section, where the 6-foot-3, 230-pound prospect finished his junior season with 95 tackles and 21 sacks, along with five forced fumbles and two defensive touchdowns. He had 17 sacks as a sophomore. He projected 35 sacks as a senior on Twitter/X.

According to 247Sports, Onyeagoro holds 19 offers. In the fall, Onyeagoro said the schools recruiting him the hardest were Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, and Oregon State. Neither of those schools made the final cut when he made his decicion Monday afternoon.

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Tarek Fattal, SBLive Sports
TAREK FATTAL

Tarek Fattal has been covering high school sports since 2015 in Southern California and primarily in Los Angeles, covering notable athletes such as Bronny James, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Alyssa Thompson. He was with the LA Daily News for eight years, which included being the beat reporter for the UCLA men's basketball team. Tarek can be seen on TV regularly on CBS/KCAL as a sports analyst with Jim Hill.

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