Colorado has found some offensive line depth overseas.
On Wednesday, Yahya Attia from NFL Academy in Loughborough, England, announced that he has signed a financial aid agreement with the Buffaloes, joining the 2024 recruiting class for head coach Deion Sanders.
The NFL Academy is a developmental program for student-athletes from 16-19 years old. It has helped more than 40 players earn college scholarships, including current CU linebacker Kofi Taylor-Barrocks.
Attia comes to CU as a 6-foot-4, 330-pound lineman with very little football experience, but plenty of potential – and a great nickname, as he’s known as “The Bulldozer.”
Born in Egypt, Attia was three years old when his family moved to Vienna, Austria. He is a former soccer player who gave up the sport because of injuries and then continuing to get bigger.
“I was always one of the bigger guys,” he said in an interview with The Sun in Britain. “When I got injured, I had to stop playing soccer and got even bigger and heavier. My friends convinced me to start engaging me in sports again and that’s when I started playing American football for the Vienna Vikings.”
It was only about a year and a half ago that he began playing football in Vienna. Then, last year, he convinced his parents to let him leave home for an opportunity at the NFL Academy.
During a signing day ceremony on Wednesday, Attia said, “Everything I have, everything I’ve got is because of my parents’ sacrifices. … I really enjoyed the time at the academy. All the hard work paid off.”
At NFL Academy, his head coach has been Steve Hagen, a long-time NFL and college coach whose stops have included the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets, as well as California, North Carolina and Notre Dame. From 2011-12, current CU offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur was the head coach of the Browns, while Hagen worked as the tight ends coach.
“It means a lot for me because this is what I wanted to do,” Attia told talkSPORT about the opportunity from CU. “I always wanted to play football in America at the next level … and a dream came true.
“Coach Prime, he says they only raise men, not boys, so I have to be ready for it.”
