Top national football recruit John Olmstead discusses his top five college choices

St. Joseph High School junior John Olmstead, New Jersey’s top-ranked prospect and one of the nation's most coveted recruits who holds scholarship offers from countless major Division I programs, has narrowed his list of college choices to five schools.

Olmstead’s short list includes – in alphabetical order – Michigan, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Ole Miss and Rutgers.  

The academically and athletically gifted two-way lineman, who stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 305-pounds, will announce his official college choice on April 20.

“It was very difficult for me,” Olmstead said about paring his list from 10 to five schools. “Telling five coaches and five football staffs that, unfortunately, they didn’t make it was probably the hardest part of being recruited. Telling coaches ‘No’ after you’ve built relationships with them for quite a while was difficult.”

Olmstead said he does not expect the process to get any easier over the next several days.

“It could be pretty hard,” he said. “I’m probably not going to get any sleep the next few nights. It’s always going to be on my mind leading up to (the final decision). I’ve never gone through this. I’m going to have a lot to think about the next few days.”

Olmstead spoke with MyCentralJersey.com about each of his five finalists, shedding some light on the reasons those schools made his short list.

“Michigan has a really big New Jersey connection,” Olmstead said, noting the Wolverines feature 10 Garden State players on their current spring roster. “One of their coaches (Chris Partridge) was at Paramus Catholic and a lot of star players are from New Jersey, like Rashan Gary (Scotch Plains). That’s really appealing. They always have a winning record, and the campus, I was there last week, I like it. I really clicked with Coach (Jim) Harbaugh and the offensive line coach, Ed Warinner, because he recruited me when he was at another school, so I really knew of him for a while.”

Warriner spent the 2017 season as the offensive line coach and run-game coordinator at the University of Minnesota, where he worked with a rushing attack that combined for 2,153 yards.

“The culture at Minnesota is probably among the best I’ve ever seen,” said Olmstead, who described head coach PJ Fleck, a former Rutgers University assistant (2010-11), as “an exciting coach who is going to be there for you.”

“He’s very involved with the players, and cares about the players,” Olmstead said. “You can really see that. He’s a guy you want to play for. He’s pumped up with a ton of energy.”

Olmstead said he enjoys Fleck’s litany of mantras and slogans, known nationally as Fleck-isms.

Olmstead has visited Notre Dame several times, most recently April 9-10, and said “I love the campus” and that “the tradition there is among the best, everything from Touchdown Jesus to the Golden Dome.”

“The thing I like about Notre Dame is the offensive line group gets along and they all hang out together. A lot of offensive linemen at our school (St. Joseph) are that way. I’m coming out of a school where (the linemen) are really tight-knit. I’m looking for that in college.”

Olmstead visited Ole Miss for the first time last week and “fell in love with the campus.”

“The campus is beautiful,” Olmstead said, noting he also likes that offensive line coach Jack Bicknell (North Plainfield native) and offensive coordinator Phil Longo (Parsippany and Rowan University alum) have New Jersey connections.

“They get me,” Olmstead said.

Olmstead said he was impressed with the Game Day atmosphere at Ole Miss, particularly with the team walk into Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium in which thousands of fans line a brick pathway beginning at the Walk of Champions arch and winding through The Grove to watch the Rebels make their entrance.

He spent some time on campus with former Sayreville High School (N.J.) star Myles Hartsfield, now a defensive back with the Rebels.

“I got a good feeling for the school,” Olmstead said.

A North Brunswick resident, Olmstead, who lives 10 minutes away from High Point Solutions Stadium, said Rutgers is appealing as his “home-state school.”

“I have a great relationship with Coach AJ Blazek,” Olsmtead said of the Scarlet Knights’ offensive line coach, adding that he remains close friends with former high school teammate Nick Krimin, now an offensive lineman at Rutgers.

“I obviously know a lot of kids on the team,” Olmstead said, adding that former Immaculata star Mike Lonsdorf, now a lineman at Rutgers, went to school with his sister. “The fact that it’s so close to home is a big factor for me."

Olmstead attended today's Scarlet-White spring game.

The coveted junior tackle is known around St. Joseph's campus simply as “Johnny O.” His gregarious off-field nature belies the tenacity with which his massive frame drives opposing linemen in the opposite direction, or sometimes into the ground.

Long before he established himself as the biggest man on campus since 7-foot NBA All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns graduated from St. Joseph four years ago, Olmstead was merely a physical specimen playing on the freshman football team.

“I was impressed from the beginning with his friendliness, with the way he spoke to me and how he handled himself,” St. Joseph President Gregory Brandao said of his initial meeting with Olmstead three years ago, believing at the time that the towering student-athlete had to be a senior. “I haven’t seen anything where he’s demonstrated anything less than sportsmanship or what we want to see from a St. Joe’s guy. I’m proud of what he’s done and who he is, and I know he’s going to do well wherever he goes next.”

The next destination for Olmstead, who has helped the Falcons post an 18-2 record over the past two seasons, will be decided next week.

Some of the other schools from which Olmstead holds offers include LSU, Penn State, Florida, Tennessee, Wisconsin, UCLA, Nebraska, Oregon, Arkansas, Arizona and Missouri. Olmstead’s bedroom is flooded with boxes overflowing with recruiting letters.

In announcing his Top 10 college choices on Twitter last month, Olmstead wrote: "I  am truly thankful to every school that has offered me a chance to continue my academic and athletic careers. It has been an honor to meet all of the coaches who recruited me. After many conversations with my family and much prayer, I will be considering these ten schools."

Olmstead is the most heavily recruited football player from Middlesex County since quarterback Bryan Fortay, a 1989 East Brunswick High School graduate who signed with the University of Miami after being named a consensus Parade magazine, ESPN, Super Prep Magazine, Coca-Cola and National High School Coaches Association All-American as a senior.

The school that wins Olmstead’s services won’t just be getting a gifted lineman with size 18 shoes who dead lifts more than 500 pounds, squats more than 400 pounds, benches 300 pounds and runs a five-second 40-yard dash and a 1.65-second 10-yard split. They’ll also be getting a phenomenal student with a 4.1 grade-point average who has an outstanding pedigree. Olmstead’s parents, Pat and John, both played college sports, with mom playing basketball and dad playing football, while his four older sisters all played college lacrosse, two at the Division I level.

Olmstead suspects he was holding a lacrosse stick before he was holding a rattle, saying that he played lacrosse for as long as he can remember. Ray Lepski, a middle school gridiron coach in Olmstead's native North Brunswick, convinced him to come out for the football team.

The latest in a long line of Division I linemen that St. Joseph, a fledgling program which just completed its seventh varsity season, has produced, Olmstead has only been playing football for four years (he was always too big to participate in Pop Warner). Former St. Joseph linemen Nick Krimin (Rutgers), Jethro Pepe (Delaware), Sean Mills (Illinois) and P.J. Barr (Bucknell) are all currently scholarship players.

The Falcons amassed more than 3,400 yards from scrimmage last season with Olmstead paving the way for running backs and providing air-tight protection for his quarterback. He also starred on the line for a defense that limited 16 opponents to a touchdown or less over the past two years, during which St. Joseph won consecutive Greater Middlesex Conference White Division championships.

Olmstead played lacrosse as a freshman at St. Joseph but never came back out for the team after he began to generate football scholarship offers following his sophomore season on the gridiron. Olmstead said transferable skills from lacrosse – including the physicality of the game and the agility required to excel – have helped him on the gridiron. Olmstead said his training regimen, which includes working out sometimes twice a day, including a routine that commences at 4 a.m., interfered with his ability to be a two-sport athlete.

“If I lose a day at the gym, someone else is getting better than me,” Olmstead said in explanation of his relentless work ethic, which he hopes eventually will  translate into an NFL career.

Olmstead also has to find time to eat. He consumes eight to nine meals daily, taking in between 8,000 and 9,000 calories per day.

When he needs a break from the rigors of recruiting, which include college football fans reaching out to him on social media – especially those from Rutgers, where Olmstead last month made his first unofficial visit – Olmstead said he enjoys retreating to his family’s lake house in Lake Wallenpaupack near Scranton, Pennsylvania, to do some fishing.

A leader in the school community, Olmstead has been integral in the resurgence of the Falcon Flock, the St. Joseph student section, whose attendance at winter sporting events dwindled in recent years, but has increased exponentially with classmates following the example of the big man on campus. He worked with Alyssa Davis, the school's director of communications, to formulate a plan to fill the stands at home and away games.

Olmstead is always looking out for his football teammates, as well, making sure St. Joseph head coach Rich Hilliard mentions some of the Falcons' other top players to college coaches who come to St. Joseph wanting to talk exclusively about the school’s big lineman.

“Every coach that comes in the building says this kid has what you can’t teach,” Hilliard said of Olmstead. “They just can’t say enough good things about him. They notice his motor is running well past the line of scrimmage. He’s always looking further down the line."

Hilliard, who is renown for grooming talented linemen, including former Northwestern star Brandon Vitabile, who was a Rimington Trophy finalist as college football's top center before signing a contract with the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent, said he is unaccustomed to the interest Olmstead is generating.

“This is the first athlete that I’ve been around that has had so much attention," Hilliard said. "He’s handling it better than any young man I’ve ever seen. He’s so well-grounded.”