2023 Defensive Lineman Andrew Heinig Talks Commitment To BYU

BYU received their most recent commitment from Oklahoma native, Andrew Heinig. It is anticipated that he will play along the defensive line at the collegiate level. The Glenpool High School product has not had the typical football path of most Division-1 recruits. We had the chance to speak to Heinig and talk about his football journey, as well as what lead to him receiving and offer from BYU.

As mentioned before, Heinig’s football career has not been like most that commit to a Power 5 school. When asked about playing football growing up Heinig said:

“From 1st grade to 5th grade football was my thing. At the end of my 5th grade year my parents transferred me and my brothers to a small class 2A private school called Riverfield. They only had a few sports to offer so I played basketball during middle school, freshman year, and some of sophomore year.”

There probably aren’t too many recruits who played football as kids and then all of a sudden had to stop because it was no longer available to them.

“Sophomore year I decided to quit basketball and a few weeks later I moved back to Glenpool. I joined the football team at Glenpool at the end of the season my sophomore year and didn’t touch the field, but I got to practice and lift with the team and remembered why I loved football.”

For nearly five years Heinig was unable to play football because it was not offered at his school. After all that time it definitely took some work to get back into the swing of things.

“It was a little difficult at first, I had pretty much forgot how to play football,” Heinig said on getting back into football after so many years. “I was still in good shape from playing basketball, but I wasn’t nearly strong enough to compete. I really had to take the weight room seriously and it has really payed off.”

It is hard to imagine someone Heinig’s size struggling with strength. Heinig is listed at 6’6” and weighing in at 270lbs. A mountain of a player, it’s not hard to see why BYU had interest in him for their defensive line. Heinig currently has a similar build to current BYU defensive line standout, Tyler Batty. Heinig also has translated his size and strength into track and field.

“My offensive line coach sophomore year had urged me to do track and field and I eventually agreed. I really just started having a great time throwing and got good pretty fast. Me and two of my teammates made it to state that year and I placed 6th.” Not too bad for being a sophomore at the time. He improved upon that sophomore season to win the Oklahoma 5A shotput state title as a junior. “My junior season I ended up winning state and qualifying for Nike Outdoor Nationals.”

Heinig won the shotput title with a distance of 58’ 10.75”, beating the second place finisher by nearly ten feet. When asked if the preparation for track helped him in any way with football he said,

“The lifting I have done for throwing has made me a lot more explosive compared to more static weightlifting movements in the football weight room. I feel that the footwork and explosiveness I have achieved from track has really helped me out on the football field.”

Heinig received his offer from BYU after attending BYU’s summer camp back in June. Heinig said on attending the camp,

“I haven’t gone to many camps. Me and my friend from Nebraska, who recently commit to a school in Minnesota, decided to go to this camp together in January. I really had no idea they would consider offering me when I thought about going.”

Heinig said he had been invited to other camps but many were on conflicting weeks of each other. It seems like it was a good thing that BYU’s camp was a priority to him.

“It went really well,” Heinig said on his experience at the camp. “I feel like I performed to the best of my ability at the time. I gave all my effort on every rep. Since I had been in track season until that week it took me a bit to warm up to being in pads. After a few reps of one on one I was able to work my moves and really be strong going against other kids at the camp.”

Heinig impressed enough at camp that he was one of the attendees that received an offer. He is joining Pierson Watson, Miles Hall, Saimone Davis, and Matthew Fredrick as players who received offers from the camp and are now committed to BYU. On his performance at BYU’s camp he said,

“I usually perform better on defense but I played both sides of the ball at camp. They seemed to like my performance better on the defensive side so I think the offer was based off how I did at camp. I really don’t have any film for them to evaluate so the camp was all they had to go off of.”

It appears that was enough. Heinig said he had a lot of conversations with BYU’s coaches. The coach he had the most communication with was BYU’s defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki. Tuiaki was the one to extend Heinig his offer to play defense at BYU. Tuiaki was impressed with his strength and aggression, as well as how quick Heinig got off the ball. Heinig said it was surreal for him to receive the offer from him.

When asked if he was a fan of BYU or any other school growing up he said,

“Yeah, I’ve always been a BYU fan and an Oklahoma fan since I’ve been little. I always watch the BYU games.” That begged the question, was he was old enough to remember when the two schools played in 2009? “I was there, but I don’t remember it. I know what happened.”

So do we, Andrew. So do we.

Heinig is preparing for his senior season at Glenpool. He is focused on making sure his technique is dialed in and getting his hands as fast as possible. Other than that, he is feeling relaxed going into his senior year knowing his college plans are figured out.

Heinig is the 11th commitment to the 2023 class for BYU and second defensive lineman joining Stanley Raass. There isn’t a lot of film or recruitment references to go off of for information on him. However, with his size and power, Heinig has a very good foundation to develop into a great addition to BYU’s defensive line in the Big 12.