• last year
Oklahoma recruit Danny Okoye talks about National Signing Day and his future with the Sooners.
Transcript
00:00 What's up everybody? John Hoover,
00:01 all Sooners all Sooners.com here with
00:04 another of the very special guests.
00:07 Class of 2024 Oklahoma Sooners.
00:09 This one's Danny Akoya Noah
00:11 homeschooled Tulsa, OK.
00:12 He's right up the street from me.
00:14 Basically I'm in Tulsa as well.
00:16 Now Danny, let's get started here.
00:18 First of all, thank you for joining us.
00:20 You've been super busy.
00:21 Will get to what you did last night.
00:23 An amazing evening, but thank you.
00:25 Appreciate you being here.
00:26 Very great to be here, man.
00:28 Thanks for having me.
00:29 Yeah, for sure you committed
00:31 to OU in September.
00:33 I just want trying to get everybody's
00:36 feel for how everybody feels.
00:38 Kind of right now. Signing day.
00:41 Is here. You know,
00:43 it's been a commit for a long time
00:45 and now it's over right you as a feel.
00:48 How's it feel to have it behind you?
00:49 Come on, I'm just looking forward
00:51 to getting on campus man.
00:52 It's been a long process and now
00:55 that it's finally coming to a close,
00:57 you know I can finally just
00:59 calm down and focus on what's ahead of me
01:01 instead of what has been going on behind me.
01:04 So you know it's been a great time
01:06 and you know I've been blessed
01:07 to go through this process and.
01:10 It's coming to a close and I can finally
01:12 look forward to what I'm wearing
01:13 that crimson and cream so.
01:15 It's gonna be. It's gonna be fun, right?
01:17 Yeah, I'm sure it's exciting.
01:18 So you're going to be an early enrollee, right?
01:20 So you're just a few weeks away
01:23 from starting school at OU.
01:26 Yes, Sir, I'm enrolling
01:27 along getting on campus on January 13th,
01:30 so that's coming up here pretty soon.
01:33 Yeah, pretty exciting. Tell me about.
01:38 The relationship you have and how
01:40 it's kind of evolved with Miguel
01:42 Chavis since the first time you met him.
01:45 And now he wears that hat everywhere.
01:47 Edgeman. You know that mentality going.
01:51 Tell me about how you kind of evolved
01:53 with him as a.
01:55 A prospect and a recruit and a
01:57 commit and now signing.
01:58 I mean, it started off with him
02:02 just being another recruiter.
02:03 You know I was going through that
02:05 process where I was talking to,
02:07 you know, bunch of different
02:09 schools multiple times a day,
02:10 and he was just another guy you know.
02:13 And then as as time went on,
02:15 as I started to really,
02:17 you know, doing my homework on the
02:19 program and coach Venables and.
02:22 Let's shave and coach Bates and I started
02:24 seeing the potential that was there.
02:27 I started to see that maybe there
02:29 is more to it than that they are.
02:31 And as we built on the communication,
02:33 we started talking more and
02:35 conversing more and became pretty
02:37 obvious to me that there was.
02:38 There was a lot to be.
02:40 There was a lot there.
02:42 And he's gone from just being another
02:44 another recruiter being someone I can
02:46 really see as a mentor to be honest.
02:48 He just the way he lives his life
02:51 and passion he has for the game.
02:53 The passion he has for his players.
02:55 You know it's not just being another athlete.
02:57 There is really trying to make
02:59 you the best person can be,
03:01 and that's that's what I want out
03:03 of a college football program.
03:05 What is that edge man mentality?
03:07 What does that mean to you?
03:09 It just means getting after it,
03:11 doing what needs to be done.
03:13 You know, we're kind of the unsung heroes.
03:15 If you will, you know,
03:16 we're the guys who get down in
03:18 there and make stuff happen so
03:20 that their you know receivers and
03:22 quarterbacks can have their shine
03:24 or whatever. So it's really just
03:26 doing what you need to do and being
03:28 disciplined enough to do it even
03:30 when nobody's watching.
03:32 How did Brent Venables in
03:35 home visit go last week?
03:37 I know you had Chavis there as well,
03:39 and the live and you guys had breakfast.
03:42 Tell me about it. Sounds fun.
03:43 It was a great time.
03:45 They came down.
03:46 You know we had time just to
03:48 kick back, relax, catch up.
03:49 You know it's really it was just nice vibe.
03:52 It was just nice to be in the
03:54 atmosphere being able to not have
03:56 to think about football and just,
03:58 you know, reflect on memories and
04:00 you know just share stories and
04:02 just have a have a nice family breakfast.
04:05 That's what I would call it.
04:06 You know, so it's definitely
04:08 a great experience.
04:09 That's pretty cool.
04:10 What does that say to you about Brent Venables?
04:13 He's already got you guys committed.
04:15 You're going to be signed in a few weeks yet.
04:18 He's going around the country,
04:20 stopping and seeing basically everybody.
04:22 Is crazy is best when you think
04:24 he has a ball game coming up.
04:27 And I was like, wow,
04:28 that shows how genuine he is
04:30 and the love he has for.
04:32 He's not coming incoming recruits
04:34 and players he already has,
04:36 and even people who aren't committed yet.
04:38 You know, but yeah,
04:39 it's just you don't see that
04:41 in a head coach every day and
04:43 being one of those guys that he
04:46 chose to come visit is it was
04:48 definitely a special thing to me.
04:50 You have any goals for your freshman season?
04:54 I'm I'm just trying to get more technical.
04:56 You know, I learned a bunch of different things.
04:59 I'm trying to get on the
05:01 field as soon as possible.
05:03 Hopefully secure starting spot
05:04 by the end of the season and being
05:07 a freshman All-American would be nice.
05:12 For sure, a lot of freshmen,
05:13 a lot of freshmen kind of get discouraged
05:16 or or don't show a lot of patience
05:18 because they've been the man in high
05:20 school you know and get to college
05:22 and you gotta wait your turn or
05:24 you gotta work from the bottom up.
05:26 Whatever it is.
05:27 Is that going to be hard to have
05:29 that kind of patience or or you
05:31 just going to attack it without the
05:33 idea of having to wait for anything?
05:35 You know, I've always been doubted.
05:37 You know, I've always been the guy
05:39 that people are like he's alright,
05:41 but you know once he gets to college,
05:43 it's you know,
05:44 I've heard that so many times that
05:46 at this point it's even like you
05:48 know I'll show you what I can do.
05:50 You know I'm not.
05:51 I'm not worried about you know
05:53 people being like oh you were.
05:54 You were the guy in high school
05:56 and I get to college.
05:57 You know I'm not going.
05:59 I'm not, you know,
06:00 crazy enough to think that I'm going
06:01 to go in there and dominate everybody,
06:04 but I'm definitely going to do my
06:05 thing and try my hardest to put on
06:07 as good as it so far put on as
06:10 good as a show as possible.
06:11 Yeah,
06:12 kind of like you did last night at
06:13 the US Army All-American Bowl at
06:15 the star in Frisco Danny,
06:16 you were the best player on the field.
06:18 I don't know who got the MVP,
06:20 but you were the best player on the field.
06:23 You had that crazy quarterback
06:24 pressure that led to an easy pick six.
06:26 You were.
06:27 I was watching some highlights.
06:28 You were basically throwing your
06:29 peers around the practice field that
06:31 the Dallas Cowboys practice on.
06:32 Final score was 6237 man.
06:34 Let's talk about that real quick.
06:35 What was that experience like for you?
06:37 Getting coached at that level a week
06:39 and then you know getting to play in
06:41 that facility against that competition.
06:43 It was great man.
06:44 It was an amazing game.
06:46 I mean, I was you know the practices
06:48 leading up to a great.
06:50 You know, it was really just a nice
06:52 time to go out there and play football.
06:54 So I was just trying to soak it in,
06:56 fly around, do as much as I can.
06:59 Yeah, it ended up going the way I wanted
07:01 to go being able to play against really
07:04 good competition in the best some of
07:06 the best competition in the country
07:08 and had the type of game that I had.
07:11 It was definitely a confidence
07:12 booster and I really enjoyed it.
07:15 Let's talk about your tweet.
07:17 From last night,
07:18 I think it was last night about being
07:20 no more talk about you not being able
07:21 to play in 6A or something like that.
07:23 I hear you're a homeschool kid,
07:25 so you're going to be undersold no matter
07:27 what well he's just a homeschool kid.
07:29 You stood out last night.
07:30 You showed out.
07:31 Tell me about that tweet and kind of
07:33 what that that's like.
07:34 There's a chip on your shoulder or or
07:36 an attitude written on your on your forehead.
07:38 You know I'm this guy.
07:39 I'm not him, I'm him.
07:41 I mean, I've had to.
07:44 I've had to overcome those type of,
07:46 you know,
07:46 statements for for a long time.
07:48 Ever since I went from 6A to to
07:51 homeschool football my sophomore year,
07:52 you know it's always been.
07:54 Oh, you're just a homeschool guy
07:56 and you're just a homeschool athlete
07:58 and you won't be able to do anything.
08:01 If you move up to 6A,
08:02 I always just sort of laughed it off
08:05 because I I know what I can do and
08:08 I've got it up against 6A guys at camps.
08:11 And you know I do my thing so I don't
08:13 have to play as long as I can play my
08:16 hardest and I'm always going to do that.
08:18 So it's all there is to it.
08:20 Do you have a way that you
08:22 would describe your game?
08:23 What kind of characteristics you play with?
08:26 Speed and power.
08:27 This speed and power.
08:28 That's all there is to being a defensive end.
08:31 You know you gotta be fast.
08:33 You gotta be aware and focused.
08:35 A lot of different things to
08:37 process at the same time and.
08:41 Just fly around, make plays.
08:44 You got your roommate picked out yet?
08:46 Yeah, me and I just meant to be getting
08:48 to know each other really well here
08:50 in a couple weeks. That's not fair.
08:52 Jackson Arnold is going to be
08:53 walking by the room one day.
08:55 You guys are going to be in there.
08:57 He's going to have nightmares or
08:58 something because that's too.
09:00 That's too crazy.
09:00 Address is right there.
09:02 Yes, Sir,
09:02 for the make some stuff happen.
09:04 Yeah, looking forward to it.
09:05 Hey Danny Okoye,
09:06 Oklahoma class of 2024 can't thank you
09:08 enough for joining us here at all centers.
09:12 Thanks for having me again.
09:13 Appreciate you.