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 . “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 thatap 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 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,” 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.”
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