Capella Talking to Seven Programs

Defensive lineman Craig Capella camped locally at Rutgers and Syracuse this summer and then ventured far from home twice to Nebraska for a junior day and summer camp. While he has yet to pick up an initial offer, he does have an impressive list of suitors right now.

Craig Capella, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound defensive end from Absegami High School in Absecon, N.J., camped this summer at Rutgers, Syracuse and Nebraska and is hearing consistently from four other programs. We caught up with him for the first time on Sunday to see how things are shaping up for him.

“I went to Nebraska for their spring game and then returned for camp and it is really nice out there,” Capella explained. “It was pretty ridiculous because they had like 80,000 people at the spring game I think. The coaches want to come see me play in person this year before doing anything else. My head coach just went there for an internship, so I have that connection. I also like that they’ve very serious about football there and have great tradition.”

“I went to the Rutgers Big Man Academy and thought I did really well in the 1-on-1 portion of things, but I haven’t heard from them much since. I also went to Syracuse and did really well, but again, nothing from them since then.”

Capella has been getting steady mail from Maryland, North Carolina State, Boston College and Temple and knows that he needs to keep getting bigger and have a good season to nail down offers from these programs.

As a junior, Capella registered 66 tackles and five sacks, earning himself first-team All Group IV honors.