Clearview’s Nick Oliveira envisions being a ‘hometown hero,’ committing to play football at Rutgers

Inside the Clearview Regional High School weight room four years ago, Steve Scanlon, the former head football coach, held an offseason workout session when Nick Oliveira, an eighth grader at the time, was in attendance.

Scanlon asked the incoming freshman which position he planned on playing the next season. Oliveira shrugged. He had never played football and had little knowledge of the game, apart from what he had learned from playing Madden NFL. So, he quickly looked up on his phone the positions that catch the ball and said, “I want to be a tight end.”

“He was like, ‘No, you’re not going to be a tight end,’” Oliveira said. “‘You’re going to be a left tackle,’ so I thought, oh this kind of [stinks]. I don’t want to be a lineman, but it worked out in the end for me.”

The 6-foot-5, 280-pound senior is one of the top recruits in the class of 2023 from New Jersey and ranked as the No. 46 offensive tackle in the nation. After receiving offers from Power Five programs such as Oregon, Penn State, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse, Oliveira decided to stay home to play for Rutgers. He plans to put pen to paper Wednesday to sign his national letter of intent.

His decision to join the Scarlet Knights came after Oliveira withdrew from a commitment to Cincinnati on Nov. 27 after former Bearcats coach Luke Fickell left the program for the head coaching job at Wisconsin.

Oliveira felt a close connection with the Bearcats’ staff, especially Fickell. So when he saw the rumors spreading across the internet about Fickell’s departure, Oliveira reached out to Scanlon, who’s now the offensive line coach at Alvernia University, and current Clearview coach Stephen Duncan for advice.

“They’re telling me to just wait it out,” Oliveira said. “Cincinnati isn’t a bad program. They’re going to be in the Big 12, have a lot of wins, so it wasn’t a bad situation. They just told me to stay committed, wait it out and see if there’s somewhere else I want to go.”

A couple of days later, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano reached out to Oliveira, offering him a scholarship and saying he was a completely different player compared to his junior season. The Scarlet Knights were in contact with the three-star lineman early in his high school career but never extended an official offer.

When he had a meeting at his home in Mullica Hill with Rutgers offensive line coach Augie Hoffman, Oliveira knew where he wanted to spend his collegiate years.

“I always wanted to get an offer from them,” Oliveira said. “It’s hard to get an offer from Rutgers, because they only offer like 100 kids every year, so it’s an honor to get an offer from them.”

But how did the offensive tackle go from knowing very little about the sport to racking up Division I offers? It started where his football journey began — in the weight room.

As a freshman, Oliveira weighed about 200 pounds. His coaches said that his size is his biggest advantage, and if he was to turn his frame into muscle, Clearview’s offensive line could be one of the team’s strongest assets.

At first it came with a learning gap. Oliveira found himself hanging around the varsity linemen to take in what they saw on the field. He also took some reps on the defensive line. Eventually his grasp for the game became second nature.

“I was just working out every day in my house,” Oliveira said. “When we had our workouts at the school, I’d work out there. I also tried to eat at as much as I can; chocolate milk, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chicken, anything.”

The summer before his junior season, Oliveira grew to 6-5 and gained about 50 pounds. He saw playing at the collegiate level a real possibility, so he started to put himself out there to make it happen. Oliveira attended three showcases before his senior season started, including camps at Rutgers and Temple.

At those camps, he tagged along with Washington Township offensive lineman John Stone, who was the first to announce his commitment to play for Rutgers in the class of 2023.

“One of the reasons I committed was because of him,” said Oliveira, who met Stone during an unofficial visit at Rutgers this past January. “I need him if I’m going to be able to tear it up in the Big Ten.”

» READ MORE: From under the radar to a Rutgers scholarship, Washington Township lineman John Stone rose to the top

Through those workout and film sessions, Oliveira came into his own this past season. The senior broke the school’s record for pancake blocks as a junior, and ultimately felt like a stronger person.

While his focus has shifted to preparing for an early enrollment at Rutgers in the spring, Oliveira has made it his goal to start next fall, looking for a chance to make an immediate impact on the Scarlet Knights program.

“I could be a hometown hero,” Oliveira said. “Help bring them back to what they used to be in the 2000s, when they were an amazing program and had the seventh-most NFL players.”