BREAKING | 2025 AZ LB Dinos Drossos Commits To UMass
Drossos' recruitment was unpredictable, but in a way, it ended exactly how he always expected it to.
Dinos Drossos’ route to Amherst was a circuitous one to say the least.
The 2025 Arizona linebacker just announced his commitment to UMass and is set to sign a National Letter of Intent on Wednesday.
The Salpointe Catholic High School standout picked up an offer from Nebraska as a junior and eventually added other schools, including Louisville to that list. The 6-foot-4, 220-pounder seemed set to land at Louisville all the way until late-November, when the Cardinals were able to flip a linebacker from South Florida, Cameron White.
“He’s a stud,” Drossos said of White. “He was committed to Michigan and they got him to decommit and jump to Louisville, and he took my spot.”
Drossos re-established contact with Nebraska, but the Cornhuskers were in the midst of a major staff changeup with defensive coordinator Tony White leaving Lincoln for Florida State.
Drossos has a cousin who long-snapped at UCLA and helped him connect with the Bruins coaches. The Bruins showed some serious, immediate interest.
“They wanted me out there by January,” Drossos said of the Bruins. “They're like, 'Can you graduate early? Can you get out here by January?'”
And then, in the midst of that, UCLA underwent a major coaching upheaval of its own.
“So, there goes UCLA,” Drossos said.
He began talking to some Big Sky schools and was briefly committed to Portland State, but his recruitment remained open in the final weeks.
“My pops was stressing,” Drossos said. “He was like, 'You've got to find yourself a home.' I just told him, 'No worries. God's got a plan. It's going to all happen for a reason. February is coming up. It's coming up, don't worry. We'll find a place.'”
Salpointe Catholic is one of the very top high school programs in Arizona and as an All-State performer, Drossos was long considered one of the very best linebackers in the state.
Little did he know that all the scrambling he was doing in the winter wouldn’t matter nearly as much as the camping he did the previous summer.
During the offseason, he hit several camps, including one at the University of Minnesota. There, he quietly impressed then-Gophers defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman. Now the defensive coordinator at Miami, Hetherman is close friends with UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak, dating all of the way back to their time as graduate assistants at Springfield (Mass.) College. They also coached together at Maine and Rutgers.
“Coach H was hitting him up and was like, 'Do you know any linebackers who are some studs?'” Drossos relayed. “He threw my name up at Coach, and then Coach hit me up, and that's how I landed at UMass.”
Harasymiak got Drossos up to Amherst for an official visit this past weekend.
“It's awesome,” Drossos said. “Oh man, I loved it. It was just the atmosphere. It just felt like home because I'm originally from Chicago, so I'm a cold guy. It felt like home to me. I loved it.”
Drossos also fell in love with the UMass coaches.
“They're awesome,” he said. “They're funny. They're great people to be around. I feel like I'd hang out with them all day. They're just amazing.”
And he’s excited about the plan they have for him on the field.
“They're looking at putting me at Will backer,” he explained. “I played Will backer my junior year of high school. I've played a lot of places through high school; d-end, tight end, strong backer, middle backer, strong safety, safety, Will backer. I've basically played it all, so I'm comfortable with it all.”
Drossos described the culmination of his recruitment as “perfect.”
“It's exactly how I expected it to go. I knew I was going to land at a home and a place that I was going to love. I knew it was going to work out. I wasn't too stressed. I told my Pops to stay calm. God has a plan and it worked out.”