My’Keil Gardner is on his way to becoming one of the most-wanted recruits out west in the 2023 cycle. The standout defensive lineman from Liberty High School in Peoria, Arizona has started to see the flood gates open with new offers as of late. He picked up an offer from Colorado State this week giving him 18 offers overall.

Since the middle of January he has added offers from Oregon, UCLA, Oregon State, Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, San Diego State, Nevada and Utah State.

As the process started to unfold for the four-star prospect he did not expect his recruitment to look quite like it is right now. Gardner has gone from hoping to add more schools to his list to wondering how he will settle on one program.

The amount of recruiting attention he is receiving has certainly caught him off guard.

“It’s been great,” he said. “It’s a blessing, really. There’s nothing more I can ask for right now. At this point I’m trying to figure out where I’m going to visit, so I can have my decision to be an early enrollee. But, it’s been great and I’m glad to see my hard work pay off.”

Gardner did not begin to focus on becoming a defensive lineman until he started high school, so there has been an adjustment period of sorts. He started to truly come into his own as an impact player in the trenches over the course of his junior season.

He shined at Liberty last season wrapping up his junior campaign with 86 tackles, 24 tackles for loss and 10 sacks. That type of production helped him earn a recent bump up to four-star status at Rivals.

Gardner has been pleased with his development through the first three seasons of his high school career.

“I never really played D-line until my freshman year, so I just kind of just watched different guys play, try to learn different techniques and I think it just all came together,” he said.

USC is another school among the group of programs that has offered Gardner over the last month. The Trojans jumped in just about a month ago, and it was a significant moment for the four-star prospect when got the official word.