Boulder bound! Buhach Colony star announces his commitment to Colorado during visit

LJ Wallace was interested in the University of Colorado from the start of the recruiting process. The Buffaloes immediately went to the top of his list when they showed interest in him.

Even though he’s received football scholarship offers from eight schools, the Buhach Colony star has always been leaning toward Colorado. So much so that Wallace had pinned a tweet on the top of his Twitter page featuring the scholarship offer from the Buffaloes.

After his visit to the campus in Boulder, Colo. this weekend, Wallace pinned another tweet. This time announcing his verbal commitment to Colorado.

“I knew going in Colorado was going to be a nice college, but it was more than I expected,” Wallace said. “The facilities were crazy, everything was so nice. The coaches were awesome. I pretty much liked everything about it.”

Buhach Colony coach Kevin Navarra wasn’t surprised when Wallace committed over the weekend. Navarra thinks he would have committed to Coloardo a month ago if Navarra hadn’t stressed to at least visit the school before you make up your mind.

“Ever since day one, when they started recruiting him there’s been an instant connection with LJ and their head coach Macintyre,” Navarra said. “I don’t know if persistence is the right word, but they did their due diligence with him. They’ve made constant contact with him, with me. Every time they reached out to him they also reached out to me.

“Not a big surprise. It’s a great opportunity for him. I like what coach (Mike) MacIntyre has done there.”

A verbal commitment is not binding. Nothing is official until a national letter of intent is signed. Schools will still continue to recruit Wallace.

Wallace’s ultimate dream is to play in the NFL and he feels Colorado will help him achieve that goal. At 6-foot-3, and 190 pounds college coaches love his size and speed. Wallace loves that the Buffaloes had two big defensive backs selected in the NFL draft this spring in Chidobe Awuzie in the second round by the Dallas Cowboys and Ahkello Witherspoon in the third round by the San Francisco 49ers.

“I know that I’ll be coached up good,” Wallace said. “If I put my mind to it, I’ll be able to get out of there and get into the draft. They have good facilities, good coaches, a good education. Those were my main reasons for choosing Colorado.”

Wallace felt at home on campus during his visit. The coaches went out their way to make sure all his questions were answered and he got to see everything he wanted. His interactions with the players were positive. He felt the facilities there would give him every opportunity to succeed.

At that point, Wallace didn’t feel he needed to draw out the recruiting process. He knew this is the place for him.

“We were eating lunch and I went up to coach Mac’s office,” Wallace said. “He was telling me how they’d love for me to play here. They thought I could play a big role on the team. He asked me if I wanted to play there and I said, ‘Yeah, I want to commit here.’ We shook hands and took a picture.

“It was exciting and at the same time it took a lot of stress away. I knew that’s where I wanted to be.”

With his college decision out of the way, Wallace feels the stress has been lifted. He can now turn his full attention to the upcoming season.

Buhach Colony opens the 2017 season with a big test against Downey, which has won five consecutive Modesto Metro Conference championships, on Friday, Aug. 25 in Atwater. That means we could see a lot of Wallace against Downey’s UCLA-bound receiver Isaiah Johnson.

“Now it’s time to focus on my game,” Wallace said. “Instead of worrying about other colleges, I can hopefully focus on helping us have a good season.”

This story was originally published August 1, 2017 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Boulder bound! Buhach Colony star announces his commitment to Colorado during visit."