Commitment Report: Craig Orlando (2020)

You are not going to see many high school running backs that stand 6’3" and weigh 265, but you would have if you had been watching the Verndale Pirates the last two years. Moving then-junior tight end and defensive tackle <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="3523" first="Craig" last="Orlando"]</strong> to fullback certainly paid dividends – the Pirates have gone 19-3 over the previous two years – including a trip to the state tournament in 2018. Orlando will not be playing running back next year when he suits up for North Dakota. He expects to be playing the more traditional position of defensive tackle. "We were a young team," Orlando said about the 2019 football team. "We started six sophomores." Despite their youth, the Pirates went 8-2. A former tight end, as big as Orlando is, the move to fullback was not as strange as it may seem. "I was moved to running back the last two years," Orlando said. "I think I am a good blocker. I run a 4.8 forty-yard dash, so I move pretty well for a big guy. I guess Coach Mahlen got a crazy idea the day they decided to move me." Orlando is used to playing multiple positions. "In elementary, I was always on the line. In seventh and eighth grade, I played pretty much everywhere. I started all four years on varsity. My freshman year, I started on defense but started both ways the rest of the time." He was thrown yet another position curb before this season. "(Previous years) I was mostly on the interior, but this year they actually moved me to linebacker. It was a lot of different stuff that I wasn’t used to it. I probably wasn’t very good at it because I wasn’t used to it. We had someone get hurt. I wasn’t the best-case scenario." This winter, Orlando did what he probably does best – wrestle. He won his third straight Class A individual championship. "On my feet, I like to get double under hooks into a bear hug. My favorite move on top is a power half. I don’t know why, but I have always done a half." Orlando had chances to wrestle in college. "I have always liked football better. I like running over people and hitting them hard. It is kind of fun," Orlando said. "I have always been told by my football coaches that wrestlers are always better tacklers and get lower. It also gives me better balance." Orlando wasn’t expecting much attention from college football programs. "I wasn’t prepared for recruiting at all. It started midway through my junior year. I thought I had a whole year before I had to worry about it – I was wrong. I had to be committed before my senior year even started. North Dakota offered me right away, and they wanted to know if I was going to accept so they could offer someone else. I was already set on going to North Dakota. I liked the coaches, and I think they are a fun group of people to be around." UND was interested in Orlando without even seeing him play a second of football. "I think a lot of what drew them to me was my sportsmanship. They had never watched me play football before – they had just seen me wrestle on film. They asked me for my football film, but before that, they first saw me wrestling. They liked how humble I was and how I would always help the guy up. They also noticed my speed and balance." As of now, UND sees Orlando as a nose guard anchoring their 3-4 defense. "I take up a lot of people and usually get double-teamed to free people up." Orlando’s wrestling and running back careers might be over, but his defensive tackle, college football career is just beginning.