MidValleySports.Com

Carlos Lozano, former Oiler, now at Ute.

By Steven Mercado

Carlos Lozano is an up-and-coming offensive lineman for the Utah Utes. As a junior redshirt, he currently works to drop his weight and impress his coaches in order to earn the spot on the regular season roster.

Lozano, from Montebello, California, is listed as six-foot six, 380 pounds. He is the heaviest and second tallest player on the Utes’ spring roster and looks to match his big presence with big production.

“I plan on being a player that they can rely on,” Lozano said. “A guy that can get on the field and get it done. [I want to] help them win a championship and be the guy they can count on.”

Lozano has proved he can be reliable. During his days at Montebello High School, his grades were not good enough to be eligible for sports. It took him two years to get his GPA up to par, but according to Lozano, he was still not in the right place.

“I wasn’t up to any good; I was pretty much a kid who was doing the wrong things and hanging with the wrong crowds, so that pushed me,” Lozano said.

Despite his improvement, Lozano’s grades were still not good enough to get him to a university. This brought him to East L.A. College, where during his sophomore year, he “exploded” and established himself as a force to be reckoned with.

“My sophomore season, I turned on the switch, decided to get in the classroom, got in the weight room, had a really good off-season and that’s when everything started coming along,” Lozano said. “I started getting noticed by big-time schools from all over. I decided to go to the University of Utah because I felt like that was the closest to home.”

There is one thing that motivates Lozano to keep on going, fight through the adversity, and do his best: his family. Lozano has a big heart and an extraordinary amount of love and care for his family. He does not want to let them down and he wants to eventually reach the level where he can help their lives to be better.

“I got tired of seeing my dad work two jobs, getting up early in the morning, coming home late, and seeing my mom also work two jobs,” Lozano said. “One day, I want my family to stop working and I just want to tell them, ‘You know, you’re done; it’s my turn to work.’ That’s my main objective and that’s what keeps me motivated. That’s what gets me up everyday and that’s what keeps me working to get to my ultimate goal.”

Lozano drew a lot of attention from Division I schools, which is a rarity for a player from Montebello High School and East L.A. Schools that showed interest in him included Utah State, Kansas, Kansas State, Washington State, Florida International, and UCLA, who Lozano previously committed to.

“I didn’t have many offers after that because my sophomore season, UCLA came and took a chance with me,” Lozano said. “They offered me [a spot] and I was committed to them, but [Coach] Neuheisel left, so I had to start the recruiting process again after telling everybody I was already committed.”

Lozano has shown what it means to learn from your mistakes, grow from them, and take action. As he looks forward, success is the overall theme of his future plans while a big dream of his is to play with the big boys in the National Football League.

“I have one big dream of being successful,” Lozano said. “My main objective is getting my degree from a university. I shouldn’t even have graduated high school, so getting a degree from a university would be awesome. Playing Sundays and Mondays would probably be one of my biggest dreams.”

As he maintains his positive attitude and continues to work hard, Lozano plans to work hard to achieve the future he envisions for himself.

“With hard work, anything is possible and I always tell myself if I could visualize it, I could definitely do it.”