Michael Fasusi's high school football coach saw transformation on, off field: 'He was a sponge'

Lewisville (Texas) 5-star, nation's No. 2 offensive tackle, will announce college commitment on Wednesday

Michael Odle saw the raw potential in Michael Fasusi from the moment that the Lewisville High standout offensive tackle stepped onto a Texas high school football field.

What impressed Odle, Lewisville’s head coach, was Fasusi’s quick ability to pick up the nuances of the game after he and his family came to the United States from Nigeria.

>>Top 25 offensive linemen in Texas entering 2024

“He was a sponge when it came to football; he didn’t know a lot about it, his older brother played soccer,” Odle said of Fasusi, a 6-foot-6, 310-pound senior and nation's No. 2 rated offensive tackle. “But just watching him develop from his eighth-grade and ninth-grade year to what he became the end of his ninth-grade year, we were like, ‘Wow.’

“But he stayed humble, he just worked hard and was just a sponge, just picked up on every little bit of coaching and advice that he got and he did a good job. His parents did a good job of surrounding him with really good people and it’s been pretty awesome to see.”

And on Wednesday, exactly six years to the day that he arrived in America, Fasusi - ranked the No. 12 overall prospect and No. 3 overall offensive tackle in the country by On3Sports - will commemorate that occasion with another big moment.

At a 3 p.m. ceremony at the Lewisville High School auditorium, he will officially announce his college commitment, choosing between his final five of Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oregon and Missouri.

But on the verge of the announcement by one of the more highly sought after players in the country, Odle can’t help but think back to that first year he saw Fasusi learning the sport of football. And even learning basketball.

“That first year (of football), he didn’t understand all the rules; he was tackling or hitting people late and not really knowing. … It was interesting to see this; it was almost like a baby giraffe,” Odle said. “Then they got him on the basketball court and didn’t really know much about that either, there was a lot of traveling (violations), but you could get him the ball and he could dunk on somebody, and you could start to see the athleticism.”

Odle added that Fasusi’s body also made a drastic alteration over time.

“He was a tall, skinny kid at that time and he developed really quickly after that,” Odle said. “Just the overall consistency in his craft, and obviously, his natural development from a 6-4, 6-5, 225-pound kid to the 6-6, 300-plus pound man that he is, so that’s obviously just (speaks) to his development as a player and growth as a young man, but just the knowledge, from not knowing much about the game and then really diving in to now to where he’s identifying fronts.

“His technique is superb, just the communication to be able to get with changes at the line of scrimmage and different things, he’s just real, real sharp when it comes to that, so that’s just a huge area of growth for him.”

In addition, Fasusi is part of an experienced offensive line for the Fighting Farmers. Lewisville also returns senior Sean Hutton (6-1, 315), a three-year starter who can play both center and guard, and Malachi McClennon, who started every game last season at right tackle as a sophomore.

Ironically, Hutton and Fasusi could remain teammates at the next level. Should Fasusi pick Oklahoma on Wednesday, he will get to join Hutton, who committed to the Sooners as a preferred walk-on.

“They work really well together for sure,” Odle said of his returning line.

Fasusi and his fellow returning starters will also be heavily counted on this season to guide an relatively inexperienced offense, as the Farmers return only three starters from that unit from a squad that finished 8-3 in 2023. New faces include sophomore quarterback Tre Williams and junior tailback Tenel Hill, who had five total touchdowns last season.

“We’ve got a lot of young, talented kids at the skill positions and we’ve got a nice group of guys coming back that have played a lot of football games up front on both sides of the ball, so we’re hoping that mixture can jell together and the chemistry can come together for them to play hard and to play well, so we’re excited about it,” Odle said.

“But we know that it’s going to be a process; our schedule is difficult, we know that, but we’ve just got to take one day at a time and get better with each snap that we take and each day that we’re allowed and as soon as these young kids start playing like veterans along with the big boys that we’ve got, we’re going to be tough to deal with.”

And Fasusi will help literally pave the way for that transition.

“He’s a huge part of it,” Odle said. “He anchors our line and our top five guys are talented guys, and he’s definitely a big-time player on that left side. … He’s super athletic, super strong; obviously, that works well with pass (protection), but his feet are really good.

“There’s times he blocks people into people and ends up creating big, huge lanes just because of his strength and his technique, but it’s something we’ll definitely take advantage of with his abilities for sure.”

The two schools that appear to be the leading candidates to land Fasusi are Texas and Oklahoma. In a game last season that was covered by SBLive Texas, Fasusi was interviewed while wearing a headband with the Texas Longhorns’ logo on it, but stressed that there were other schools he was interested in checking out.

He added other criteria being considered when choosing a school were the relationships with the coaching staff, program history and fan support. But he emphasized academics because, in his words, “football doesn’t last forever.”

But Oklahoma might appear to be the one to get Fasusi in the end. Earlier in the week, SBLive recruiting analyst Andrew Nemec predicted the Sooners will be the team Fasusi chooses on Wednesday.

>> SBLive's Prediction: Oklahoma Sooners poised to land 5-star commitment

When asked which school Fasusi may be leaning towards picking on Wednesday, Odle remarked he still isn’t sure which school his talented lineman will choose.

“I don’t even know who he’s going to pick because I don’t ask him,” Odle said. “When we talk, we talk about life; how his parents are doing, how’s his brother doing, how’s he doing mentally and physically. We’ll talk a little football or just the captain’s vote that we have or how his classes are doing.

“We just have a real conversation and we don’t get into the recruiting; he knows that he can come to me and pick my brain if he needs to or vent if he needs to or whatever, but it’s been a long process and our relationship is not going to be about this decision and I know the five schools he’s got, it’s a win, win, win, win, win situation. They’re just great programs with great people that have recruited him hard in the right way and it’ll be a good deal.”

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- Buck Ringgold | buck@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveTX