Seminole High School’s Brandon Walton committed to play football for Florida Atlantic on Dec. 5, but that did not stop other colleges all over the east and southern parts of America from trying to sway him away from Boca Raton.

2016 Atlantic Wall is locked in!! Great having Brandon Walton in the family!! #WinToday pic.twitter.com/htJ03GC2WZ

— FAU Football (@FAU_football) February 3, 2016

“Walton got hammered this last month by a lot of schools,” Patridge said on Feb. 3. “He really got a ton of schools coming in working to talk to him, working to get him on trips, and he felt so good about his decision he was able to hold them off.”

Among these schools were the University of Miami, Rutgers University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Kentucky and Temple University.

“It was frustrating, my heart was set on FAU,” Walton said. “I wanted to go to FAU.”

Walton said he was sold on FAU once he met the players and coaches and saw how determined they were.

“Walton felt the energy and the kind of staff that we have,” Partridge said.

The three-star recruit — according to multiple recruiting services, including 247Sports — was invited to play in the Blue/Grey All-American Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida.

I couldn’t make it due to financial reasons, but it was an honor to be invited to a game like that,” Walton said.

Walton did say he needs to improve his footwork and “learn to take the right steps in pass protection,” before getting on campus, but his biggest strength comes from his physicality.

“I look to go for the contact,” he said. “I like to run, block and go right after the linebacker.”

Walton hopes to start and make an immediate impact on the offensive line, but more importantly he hopes to help FAU’s football program grow during his duration on campus.

Brendan Feeney is the sports editor of the University Press. To contact him regarding this or other stories, he can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter.