UConn Football: Former Florida State linebacker E.J. Levenberry transfers to UConn

Uconn Football's Twitter account announced this evening that former Florida State linebacker E.J. Levenberry will be at UConn next season. He has two years of eligibility remaining and UConn will be filing an appeal for a waiver to play immediately. If the waiver is not granted, he will redshirt this fall.

Levenberry was a 4-star recruit (per Rivals) from C.D. Hylton High in Woodbridge, Virginia. His offer list reads like a roll call of college football royalty: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Mississippi, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Tennessee, Virginia and Virginia Tech, among others, all had offers out to him coming out of high school. He was the 8th best player in a very talented state and the 9th-ranked linebacker in the country.

According to Inside Nova, Levenberry was recuited by Bob Diaco while Diaco was defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, and by both Anthony Poindexter and Vincent Brown while our current co-defensive coordinators were at Virginia. There were a number of major programs vying for Levenberry's services after his release from Florida State, but he chose UConn after visiting the school and attending spring practices, "I felt it was the best place to develop me. They showed me so much love. Everything seemed so perfect. It felt like the best fit."

After making 39 tackles on the Seminoles' National Championship team as a true freshman, Levenberry was in the running for a starting inside linebacker job going into his sophomore season, but didn't win the job and saw his playing time diminish across the season.

Levenberry will be enrolling at UConn in June, and if eligible it will be interesting to see how much playing time he can earn next year. Right now the linebacking core is actually one of UConn's strengths, with seniors Marquise Vann and Graham Stewart expected to lead the way. Vann was a captain last year and led the team in tackles with 105 and Stewart was all over the field and painted his eye-black in a really scary way. Other players vying for time include Junior Joseph, converted fullback Matt Walsh (shout out to Madison, CT!) and special teams ace Jon Hicks.

This is (obviously) extremely exciting news. The Boneyard's Matt Schovinsky is reporting that the list of schools going after Levenberry included "Oregon, Georgia, TCU and Virginia Tech, among others," making E.J. Levenberry by far the most sought after football player to ever suit up for UConn. Here's to many more. #INBOBWETRUST

GO HUSKIES!