Four-star wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer commits to UCLA, explains navigating NIL in decision
Four-star wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer knew he wanted to stay on the West Coast.
But he heard out a number of the top programs across the country. He took five visits this summer, narrowing down his list to UCLA, Washington, Michigan State and Oklahoma. Ultimately, the Sierra Canyon product decided to stay home in California and become a Bruin.
A dynamic player, he heard all types of recruiting pitches. Trying to find a school that could prepare him for the NFL was a must. But building an NIL brand off the field was important for the 6-foot-1, 175-pound receiver, too.
Gilmer has already developed a strong social media following, thanks in part to a dance he did on every visit. Wearing the school’s uniform, he would bust out his dance moves and post them on his TikTok. The result has been a major following, closing in on nearly 75,000 followers across three platforms.
“Yeah, it was really important trying to figure out how schools would set me up, between on and off the field,” he told On3. “A lot of teams, for NIL purposes, throwing big numbers out and trying to be like, ‘come to my school.’ Just because a school is offering a certain amount of money, that doesn’t mean they’re trying to help build my brand, they’re not helping Kwazi.
“That’s like chump change when it comes to the NFL. That was definitely a big deciding factor when it came to UCLA.”
UCLA made an impression through the work it has done in branding with athletes. He was also impressed by quarterback Chase Griffin, who has become a star in the NIL Era. The senior has signed endorsement deals with brands like Chase Bank, DIRECTV and the United States Polo Association. He was the inaugural NIL Male Athlete of the Year.
“They have really good brand marketing,” Gilmer said. “They do have the number one student-athlete [Griffin] at their school. The way he represented himself is how I want to do my NIL, and he did it all by himself. I was not able to talk to him, but I have him on social. I’m definitely going to hit him up after, Chase set a really good example of how a student-athlete should do NIL.”
The top factor in his decision was relationships. Gilmer has built a close relationship with Chip Kelly and Jerry Neuheisel. He’s excited to start working in the same offense as quarterback Dante Moore, too.
“The biggest factor was the relationship with the coaches. I feel like everyone has the same facilities, same clothes and same yada yada. It’s really just the relationship with the coaches who I could see being with for the next three to four years.”
Similar to most top prospects, schools have thrown all kinds of financial packages at Gilmer. The top-200 prospect quickly picked up on the programs that actually wanted him. He said he could pick up on the schools whose only recruiting pitch was NIL, something he was hesitant of.
“There’s some schools like they’d tell you, ‘Hey Kwazi, let’s get on the phone and we got to talk about your NIL,'” said Gilmer, who had eight touchdowns last season. “Those schools, it’s kind of iffy because it was a big push. That was their sell. Other schools would tell me, ‘If you do really well on the team, you’ll probably make this amount of money.’ Every school had its own kind of NIL operation.”
Kwazi Gilmer has already found some NIL success. The receiver told On3 he has worked with Invisalign and has plans to continue to grow the brand. He has a $98,000 On3 NIL Valuation, which ranks in the top 250 of the high school football NIL rankings.
On-field success at the college level will only help him. Continuing to post content has been his key to building a strong following.
“Really, the big thing was just keeping active,” Gilmer said of his social media following. “A lot of my videos went viral when I started this TikTok dance. I would just keep doing it, every school I went to I just kept doing the dancing and my followers kept going up.”