In a down-to-the-wire competition to land Class of 2021 inside linebacker Zephaniah Maea, a three-star prospect from Henderson (Liberty) Nevada, Colorado has emerged on top, edging Boise State and San Diego State late in the game an coming away with a verbal commitment from the 6-foot-1, 230-pound bruiser.

The final sequences that led to Maea's commitment were doubtless interesting an a unique product of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Maea recently named Boise State, San Diego State and Colorado as his three finalists schools and on the same day, May 28, set Monday, June 1 as the day he'd commit.

Other than those aforementioned schools, Utah, Washington State, Nevada, UNLV and Utah State had also offered.

He was able to conduct virtual visits with the Broncos and Aztecs months ago, while the Buffaloes, who only offered on May 26, made an impression in quick succession, enough to sneak in a virtual visit with him today in the morning.

In other words, the Buffs managed to schedule an 11th-hour opportunity to court Maea.

Maea recently broke down where he stood heading into his visit with Colorado, but clearly the last second chance to see what the Buffs have to offer him — as an athlete and also in the classroom — wound up making all the difference.

Quality control coach Junior Tanuvasa deserves a lot of the credit in bringing in Maea, as before the latter's visit, Tanuvasa was the only Colorado coach that he'd spoken to. So it really is not an overstatement that in the span of his morning visit to now, having pulled the trigger and committed, Maea seems to have quickly digested everything with respect to details about Colorado pretty quickly.

Recently, such as in the cases of 2021 cornerback Devin Kirkwood and safety Jordan Eubanks, the Buffaloes have appeared in recruits' top schools lists only to fall short of the finish line. Kirkwood ended up choosing UCLA while Eubanks committed to Florida State.

Maea is a hard-hitting talent that has a knack for plugging holes and filling gaps. He looks like a tackling machine.

But in addition to his on-field abilities, Colorado under Karl Dorrell has won its first recruiting battle. It's fair to say that with the other two 2021 commits, Chase Penry and Allan Baugh, there wasn't a plethora of fellow suitors in the mix.

As the saying goes, you've got to walk before you can run, and in terms of recruiting, you've got to edge Boise State before you edge Washington or Arizona State.

For all the disadvantages facing Dorrell's staff this recruiting cycle, it is impressive that the Buffaloes have managed to land Maea, whom was offered less than a week ago and only met CU's coaches and took a virtual tour of campus less than a half day ago.

No matter how you swing it, Maea's commitment is a step in the right direction, and Colorado's Class of 2021 has just gotten stronger.