"I loved it, it was a very good trip, getting to come out here with all my family," said Tuimoloau. "The people around us on the trip were very genuine and a first class act altogether. I always felt like they shot it straight with us."
From the second they landed in Columbus, Tuimoloau said they were impressed.
"It was crazy, waking up at 4am, we were all pretty tired, then we get off our second flight and we're getting out and we go 'man, that’s a lot of red', so we were pretty surprised," said Tuimoloau. "The whole coaching staff, didn’t know they would all be at the airport, so it was very surprising how much they showed they cared."
Tuimoloau was hosted on his visit by defensive lineman Haskell Garrett, a West Coast native and he spent a lot of time with him.
"Haskell and I talked about a bunch of things," said Tuimoloau. "We talked about coach (Ryan) Day, his experience at Ohio State, coming out from (the West Coast), everything. I asked him a lot of questions and he was real, and that was what I appreciated the most."
Tuimoloau also spent time with his good friend and former HS and 7v7 teammate, Gee Scott Jr., on the visit.
"I hung out with Gee and that was good," said Tuimoloau. "We were also with Kyle McCord, and I talked with Zack Harrison, Jack Sawyer and Javontae Jean-Baptiste. I was with them mostly on Friday and it was good, we got good feedback from everyone and that was cool to talk about everything, not just football, but everything."
Through all the calls and Zooms, since it was Tuimoloau's first time in Columbus, it was also his first time meeting in person with Ryan Day and defensive line coach Larry Johnson.
And he was even more impressed in person.
"Coach Johnson, man, that guy is very smart, he really knows what he's doing," said Tuimoloau. "Talking to him in person, you just know, he knows what he's doing. You can see it, how he's producing. It's kind of hard to put it in words, but he's the kind of get who gets you there to where you want to be. He talks with you about all of the little things, he sees things you don't see and breaks them down. There is a reason why you see a lot of his players in the league making a name for themselves. That guy is just real."
He was just as impressed with defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs.
"Man, coach Coombs, he's just a high energy guy," said Tuimoloau. "He has energy no matter what time it is, he's a spark, but he also has a switch. He's a lot like me, I'm very mellow off the field but then on the field, I can flip a switch and he knows when to flip the switch. He knows how to get you going."
There was plenty of time with the head coach, Ryan Day, on the visit.
"It was really fun talking to coach Day and talking to him first hand," said Tuimoloau. "We had some great talks, some football, some non-football. We had dinner and just talked with him. You can see what kind of guy and coach he is. He was just a great guy and it was great all-around."
While the trip was mostly football related, he was able to talk with basketball coach Chris Holtmann.
"I got to talk with him and he said they're ready and open for me to come in and play basketball whenever football season ended," said Tuimoloau.
The visit also allowed for Ohio State to talk NIL with Tuimoloau.
"They have a direction they want to go and they said they were headed right in the direction," said Tuimoloau. "They have a plan in place for NIL and and know what they're going to do so whenever it's all set, they're ready to take off as soon as the NCAA is ready."
Given it was his first time in Columbus, Tuimoloau said he liked what he saw from the town.
"It was very different from Seattle or Los Angeles, but it’s also really like Washington, just hotter," said Tuimoloau. "But it's good to get away from the rain. Columbus had great food, really great food. It's kind of funny, it looks like it's in the middle of nowhere, but the city isn’t far from campus. You have full access to wherever you need. It's like a college town but with the big city."
Tuimoloau said he liked seeing all the facilities.
"We went into the stadium and man, that thing was big," said Tuimoloau. "But it was cool to actually see it, I always see it on TV and it's packed and big, so it was crazy to just see it when it's empty. And the facilities, they were great. What was surprising was the people working in them, the staff managing it. They were great, they were top notch, and you know you can get top notch work in the facilities because they people were very top notch."
Since it was his first time there, Tuimoloau didn't know what to expect going in to it, but he said the visit surpassed what he had expected.
"It surpassed them, most definitely," said Tuimoloau. "This is why they were in my top five. I was honestly excited, they surpassed what ever expectations I had before. I was looking forward to what they had and they had everything we wanted and needed."
With the third official visit wrapped, Tuimoloau now heads into his last week of official visits.
And the turnaround is immediate, with Tuimoloau flying directly from Columbus to Eugene to start his official visit to Oregon late tonight.
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He'll be in Eugene until Wednesday morning, then he'll return to his Seattle-area home to recover from being on the road every day since last Monday (when he started the USC official).
On Friday, he'l head out for his fifth, and final official visit, this one to Alabama, where the defending national champions get their crack at him before the dead period resumes.