Sooners' offensive lineman Daniel Akinkunmi speaks to reporters at OU Spring Media Day on March 6, 2024.
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00:00 The kind of guy who actually has international appeal.
00:02 Yeah.
00:03 Did you think about that when you were picking a school or anything?
00:06 I was thinking about that, but it wasn't a very big factor into all of it.
00:11 I already knew it was going to be a problem anywhere and everywhere I go.
00:14 So it was just a matter of picking the best school for me as a player.
00:18 Less about money, but more about what school can develop me.
00:21 That's the reason I came here. Coach B's an amazing coach.
00:23 And I just need someone to literally shout down my throat and be like,
00:27 "I need you to do this detail, this detail, that detail."
00:29 I don't need a coach who thinks I'm ready or a coach who's going to be soft on me.
00:34 That does nothing for me. The best way I learn is by making mistakes.
00:38 So when I have someone shouting at me consistently, being like,
00:41 "I did this wrong, I did that wrong," that's how I learn the best.
00:43 That's what I want to do with Coach B.
00:45 Me and Coach B were talking about in the recruiting game.
00:47 He said the reason some of the guys in the NFL are so good is because they just worked hard.
00:52 They all have the mentality to just keep on going, keep on working.
00:54 I feel like I already have that mentality.
00:56 What I need to do now is an amazing coach like Coach B and amazing staff like IOU
01:01 to help me develop me and get me to this point.
01:03 Did you grow up more invested in the NFL than college football?
01:07 I mean, were you into college football at all when you were growing up?
01:10 When I was growing up, no. I didn't know about it.
01:12 I didn't know about it until I started wanting to be a division one in basketball.
01:15 That's how I knew about it.
01:16 And then when the NFL Academy came out, that's when I made a switch
01:19 and was like, "Let me try American football."
01:21 So the last couple of years, were you on YouTube watching streams or anything?
01:24 Yeah, so the last couple of years as I started to support, I started to watch shows.
01:29 I started to watch multiple games, like past games.
01:33 2019 LSU, Bama, all of these great programs.
01:37 Just trying to prepare myself for coming to OU.
01:40 How hard is it to watch a college game?
01:42 Oh, it's very hard.
01:43 So they've just recently changed licensing over in the UK.
01:47 So Sky Sports now have rights to College Game Day.
01:50 But beforehand, you couldn't watch on any mainstream platforms in the UK.
01:54 I saw maybe they get Notre Dame. Do they get on Sky?
01:58 No, they didn't. Sky now has rights of it in 2024.
02:04 But beforehand, we didn't have any rights.
02:06 So the only way we could watch it was on YouTube or on a website.
02:10 How much do you know about Oklahoma before you got here?
02:14 Oh, I knew a lot as soon as I came here because they were telling me all the facts about how I was the most wanted in this program,
02:23 how OU has changed a lot of people's lives, OU is one of the greatest programs to ever come.
02:30 Very funny thing, Chris Darmer, who is one of my mentors, told me, "Oklahoma is the Bama before Bama."
02:38 That's the way he explained it to me.
02:39 He was like, "Oklahoma is that school and has a very amazing history."
02:44 What about the state as a whole? Did you have any concept of--?
02:48 State as a whole? Not really, but I understood the concept of normal as a small-time college town.
02:56 OKC is the main city part of it, but the rivalries, that's the main somewhat what I knew about it.
03:02 Do you know anything about the Kings of Leon there?
03:04 Originally from Oklahoma.
03:06 I don't know if you know them.
03:07 I do not.
03:08 You're a fan of UK, I guess.
03:10 I did not know that, no.
03:11 OK.
03:12 Not a fan of rock music, then?
03:15 No, no.
03:17 What kind of music do you listen to?
03:19 I listen to everything else other than rock, country, and probably heavy metal.
03:28 OK.
03:29 Do they have one of your favorites?
03:30 Pardon?
03:31 What are some of your favorites?
03:33 Artists or songs?
03:35 Both.
03:36 What artists, mainly?
03:38 Artists like Daniel Caesar, Lil Baby, Adele, Usher.
03:48 There's a whole list.
03:50 Yeah, that works.
03:53 There's so many artists I absolutely love.
03:57 All right, man. I really appreciate it. It's great talking to you.
04:00 It's great talking to you.
04:01 Have a good one.
04:02 Thanks so much.
04:03 Last time I spoke to you was in Orlando at the Under Armour Games.
04:05 Yes.
04:06 You talked about how excited you were to get to Norman.
04:07 Now that you're here, has it met your expectations?
04:09 How's that been?
04:10 Oh, it's been amazing.
04:11 I'm absolutely loving it here.
04:12 I want to change it for the world.
04:14 I'm just happy to be here and be able to compete.
04:17 I haven't had an opportunity to play and be here and learn a major sport.
04:21 I just don't know.
04:22 I feel like I'm a little kid in this sport.
04:25 I barely know anything, but it's amazing to be around such amazing staff who know so much about it.
04:30 Obviously, being one of the younger guys in the O-Line room,
04:33 what's it been like getting to meet some of the older guys, some of the veterans?
04:36 Have they taken you under their wing at all?
04:38 It's been amazing to be able to be around those guys, learn from those guys.
04:43 I feel like I'm very mature.
04:45 We always have man-to-man conversations of what I can do better, what they see,
04:51 because I feel like what a lot of young guys take for granted is they think the older guys are being rude
04:58 or they think the older guys are being impersonal or the older guys are trying to put them down,
05:01 but in reality it's not that.
05:03 In reality, they're just trying to make you better.
05:05 I really love the older guys. I love talking to the older guys.
05:07 I pretty much hang out with the older guys mainly because they're more of my maturity level.
05:12 They're more of the people I need to be around to make sure I learn the sport to a high level.
05:17 You kind of touched on your relationship with Bill Beatonville.
05:19 What's it been like getting to be in the weight program at OU with Coach Schmidt?
05:22 How's that been?
05:23 Oh, it's been amazing.
05:25 I've absolutely loved the weight program with Coach Schmidt.
05:27 I think Coach Schmidt has been very surprised with how strong I am for my age.
05:30 I think the whole staff in general has been very surprised with how strong I am for my age,
05:35 but I've just loved it.
05:36 I've loved to embrace it and love to absolutely just dive in and be 100% committed.
05:42 So that was my next question.
05:44 Is this weight training experience, is this like anything that you've been through before?
05:48 Did the NFL Academy have something similar?
05:50 Yeah, the NFL Academy had something very similar in terms of what they did.
05:54 Obviously there will be slight differences, slight movements where they do differently,
05:57 but pretty much we had the same thing.
05:59 We had the SEC staff, we had a bunch of people to help out.
06:02 So we had the same structure.
06:03 So for me it's just about learning, absorbing what they're doing here,
06:07 and just taking it full speed and trying to be able to do it at the level they want me to do it at here.
06:12 But the simple lifts, I've been doing it for a very long time,
06:14 so they were very surprised with my movements, how much I'm lifting.
06:18 I just want to keep on the press and keep on doing my thing.