USC transfer Jason Zandamela to visit UCF, working on finalizing Florida visit

USC offensive line transfer Jason Zandamela will visit UCF on April 23 and 24, he tells On3’s Hayes Fawcett.

He also is in the works of finalizing a visit to Florida, which is expected to come sometime this weekend or early next week. Other schools that have stood out to him include Miami and Georgia, although no visits have been scheduled for either program.

Zandamela is reportedly looking to land somewhere closer to home. Being from Florida, visits to UF and UCF both check out in that regard.

The 6-foot-3, 305-pound offensive lineman from Clearwater, Florida was ranked as one of the top offensive linemen in the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He entered the NCAA Transfer Portal months after the early enrollee stepped foot on campus.

Coming out of high school, Zandamela held 30-plus scholarship offers and was named an Under Armour All-American. According to the On3 Industry Rankings, he was rated as a four-star prospect, the No. 118 overall player in America and was the nation’s No. 6 interior offensive line prospect.

He was enrolled at USC for the spring of 2024 and was expected to compete for playing time along the offensive line as a true freshman in the 2024 campaign. Zandamela is originally a native of Mozambique, Africa, and he was a former rugby player. He actually never even heard of football before coming to America in 2020. In his junior campaign, he helped block for an offensive unit that averaged 7.8 yards per carry and 198.2 yards per game on the ground.

USC finished with a disappointing 8-5 overall record in the 2023-2024 season, but they managed to put on quite a show in their bowl game against Louisville, whom they beat 42-28 without quarterback Caleb Williams, who is the consensus No. 1 overall draft choice in this week’s 2024 NFL Draft.

While Zandamela’s services certainly could have done the Trojans some good as a new era begins at USC post-Caleb Williams. However, that did not work out for whatever reason. Zandamela will now look to find his landing spot in the coming weeks after taking all of his visits. It remains to be seen if he will schedule any more visits.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.

On3’s Wade Peery contributed to this report.