BUFFALO, N.Y. - While soccer is easily the most popular sport in Germany, something was always missing for Fabian Weitz. The UB freshman started playing soccer when he was six and gave American football a try when he was 13 after a classmate invited him to practice. Weitz immediately found a new dream - playing American football for an American school.

"I just love the team atmosphere," he says. "Everybody's like a brother to you, and the coaching and the discipline. You really see who put in the work and who didn't. More fun than I had with soccer."

Weitz may be undersized for a linebacker, but he became talented enough to play for Germany's U19 national team; even while people told him he made a mistake by abandoning soccer.

"A lot of people didn't believe in me. I just listened to my family, my friends and coaches," Weitz says.

So how did a German linebacker end up in Buffalo? Weitz attended a football camp at Rutgers for international players looking for college scholarships. Weitz's work ethic and ability stuck out from the other 30 or so linebackers, earning interest from multiple Division-I teams. UB coaches asked Weitz for game film to learn more about him, and he committed less than a week later.

"It was my dream to play college football since I began football," says Weitz. "A lot of other football players from Germany do it. A friend of mine did it, and I just wanted to follow in their footsteps and make it to the USA and play football here.

"Whether he wants me to say it or not, I made the offer to him and he teared up," says UB head coach Lance Leipold. "That was a lifelong dream for him to have that opportunity. From right there, I knew we had someone who would put his all into it. He's going to help our football program."

Weitz summed up the feeling in just a few words.

"It was one of the best days of my life."