Danny "🅿️hantom" Okoye

Danny Okoye was homeschooled. He played football for the Northeast Oklahoma Association of Homeschools in Tulsa, where there were not enough players to go around, so he played defensive end, middle linebacker, tight end, wide receiver and punter. Today he blocked a punt in the Red River game, and the Oklahoma Sooners beat the number one team in the country. Here is how he got there. He came out of that homeschool program as the top recruit in the entire state of Oklahoma. Six foot four, four stars, and he ran a 4.56 forty. He committed to Oklahoma and then enrolled early, in January, a full semester ahead of his class. He weighed 233 pounds the first day they tested him. Here is what his head coach Brent Venables said about him. "His talent is freakish." Here is what a teammate said. "Danny's a freak." And here is Okoye himself, on the adjustment. "Playing college football is a lot different than playing homeschool football." He played two games as a freshman and redshirted. Last season he had six tackles and his first two career sacks, the first one against Kent State. In December they put him on the SEC Community Service Team. He has said what he wants is to become the first homeschooled player drafted into the National Football League since Tim Tebow. And when he got to Oklahoma he told the staff something that matters today. He said he would play wherever they needed him. Including special teams. Now here is today. Oklahoma came into the Red River game 2 and 2. They had lost to the Michigan Wolverines and they had been beaten 41 to 13 by the Georgia Bulldogs. In three games against real teams they had scored 10 points, then 14, then 13. Texas was 5 and 0 and ranked first in the country. In the second quarter, Okoye came off the edge and blocked the punt, and Oklahoma recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown. It tied the game. The rest of the day went the same way. A 53 yard field goal. A 2 yard touchdown run. And a 42 yard interception return for a touchdown off Arch Manning in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma 27, Texas 24. Now the honest part, and it is not a small one. Oklahoma gained 220 total yards. They did not throw a single touchdown pass all day. Their longest completion went 14 yards. They beat the best team in America with a blocked punt, a pick six, a field goal and one short run. That is not a sustainable way to win football games and nobody in Norman cares even a little bit right now. Because a few years ago there was a kid in Tulsa playing five positions for a homeschool team because they did not have the bodies to fill a roster. He told them he would do whatever they needed. Today what they needed was somebody to get a hand on a punt.