Ed Oliver is a paradox: he is everything he was proclaimed to be as a high school prospect, yet feels like a player whose potential went untapped in college.
Coming out of Westfield High School in Houston, Texas, Oliver ranked as 247Sports' No. 6 overall player and the third-highest ranked defensive lineman behind Michigan's Rashan Gary and Clemson's Dexter Lawrence. Oliver had offers from Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, and other top Power-5 schools, but shocked the recruiting world by choosing to stay local and play at the University of Houston, a non-Power-5 team in the American Athletic Conference.
Though his decision to stay in Houston made sense on a personal level, things did not quite work out from a football perspective.