The latest with James Madison edge transfer Isaac Ukwu

Isaac Ukwu, an edge transfer from James Madison University, visited Auburn April 29. He then followed that with a visit to Ole Miss the next weekend.

He told Auburn Live after his Auburn visit that a visit to Missouri was in the works, but it has not happened yet.

Ukwu joined the Off-Schedule podcast, which he regularly appears on, to talk about the latest with his recruitment since entering the transfer portal.

Ukwu went in detail about his Auburn and Ole Miss visits and also talked about when he might make a final decision.

Here is everything Ukwu said during the podcast interview.

What is Ukwu looking for in a school?

Q: What are you looking for in a school? What are you looking for to make a new home?

Isaac Ukwu: The main thing I’m looking for is football, that’s the top thing. No. 1 is football. Can I see myself playing in that defense? Can I see myself excelling in that defense? When you’re a transfer coming in for one year, the main thing is the football. I can go to any area and acclimate to the area for a 6-month period. It’s not the rest of my life. So the main thing is football, if I think I can fit in that defense and play in that defense. After that, I would say the next thing would be the connections that the school can give me in terms of after football. Nothing is guaranteed, so being able to set myself up outside of football and the connections I can get through the University, through the head coach, through the anyone on the staff that can help me in the future or even if football doesn’t work.

Q: We’re living in the time of NIL, and it’s crazy out there. Does NIL also play a factor into your decision?

Isaac Ukwu: Oh, no question. No question. It definitely plays a factor. I’m not going to lie and say it doesn’t. It definitely plays a role. It’s not the No. 1 thing for sure, but it definitely does play a role. It’s nice to feel financially comfortable and taken care of. Especially when it’s something I haven’t experienced up to this point in college.

Auburn visit details

Q: Can you tell us about some of the visits you’ve taken?

Isaac Ukwu: The first visit I took was like two weeks ago, I went to Auburn in Alabama. Definitely a different environment. I’ve been to Alabama when I was younger probably like middle school, but I haven’t been since. It’s definitely different than up here towards the north than like Maryland and Virginia. But, it was a nice college town. It reminded me a lot if you put JMU on UVA’s campus. It was a lot of brick buildings and stuff like that, like a town—It was really nice, definitely a place that I thought I could see myself at. That’s the biggest thing. Also, the coaching staff was really nice. Head coach was extremely nice, very personable guy. Food was good, probably gained like 5 pounds on each of these visits with all the food they’re giving me. But no, it was a great visit.

Q: So how would you talk about the facilities? Power five schools, I know the facilities were crazy.

Isaac Ukwu: Oh yeah, it was crazy. It was something I had never experienced. I was like, ain’t no way. I was texting people like ‘Yo, this is literally cheating.’ Like this is literally cheating. Compared to what we had, no knock on JMU or anything like that. Compared to what we have here versus what I was seeing there, I mean cryo chambers, infrared saunas, and it had like a human car wash, they had like three locker rooms. Keep in mind, you’re not going to get this everywhere, they had just built it in December. It literally looked like an NFL facility when you walked in to the entrance it was like stories high.

Ole Miss visit details, decision timetable

Q: So you also said you went to Ole Miss, how crazy was that visit?

Isaac Ukwu: That visit was great, too. They’re not making it easy on me. A lot of the same things I would say about Auburn I would say about Ole Miss as well. It was a nice little college town, nice environment, nice people. It’s in the south as well, so different than what I’ve experienced in Virginia and Maryland. The coaches are really cool, the environment was really cool. Their facilities were under construction at this point, but I was able to see a video and see the indoor and the weight room. That was really nice. That’s going to be done in a couple of months I think. Everything there was really nice as well. Two great visits.

Q: Talk about the food, what type of food were they feeding you?

Isaac Ukwu: It was all types of food. There was this place called Lucy’s I think in Auburn for breakfast that had chicken and waffles, it was fire. They had potatoes, that was fire. I’d give it about an 8/10. It was a great place in terms of the food. For lunch they took to like this place like a bar-ish type of place like hamburgers and that type of restaurant. For dinner I had me a ribeye. When I went to Ole Miss, it’s a lot of the same thing. I had like pancakes and eggs, stuff like that. For lunch, it was more of a chicken tenders, burgers. For dinner, I didn’t have steak this time, I think I had a burger. It was some type of special burger. Yeah that was fire. The food, it’s too much food to a point. Sometimes I was eating when I wasn’t even hungry. But, free food.

Q: People want to know, man, when is the big decision coming? Do you have a timetable?

Isaac Ukwu: No, I don’t have a date, I want to get to where I’m going before they start summer workouts. That’s my main thing when it comes to this. I don’t have a date at all, y’all just have to stay tuned. I’m going to announce it on the pod.