Oregonian story on Owamagbe Odighizuwa

[pdxduck]

Looks like he's being pursued by the big boys. Would be nice if he stayed in state (and not at OS).

I live a few miles from his school. Looking forward to watching him play this fall.


http://highschoolsports.oregonlive.com/ ... -national/


For much of his life, football didn't interest Owamagbe Odighizuwa.

He grew up playing soccer in Nigeria, and by the time he reached junior high in the David Douglas School District, he was more into track and field.

"I just didn't want to play football," he said.

But he finally decided to give football a try in the eighth grade, and a few years later, the 6-foot-3, 240-pound David Douglas junior defensive end is one of the most coveted college recruits in the nation.

"It's been really cool. It's been exciting," Odighizuwa said. "I'm just taking it all in."

David Douglas coach Dan Wood said Odighizuwa -- known as "Owa" at the school -- has received scholarship offers from 15 schools, including high-profile programs USC, Florida, Louisiana State, Tennessee and Notre Dame. Every school in the Pacific-10 Conference, except for Washington State and Arizona, has offered.

Scout.com and Rivals.com give Odighizuwa four stars. Rivals rates him the No. 10 defensive end in his class; Scout has him at No. 13.

"I've never had a youngster recruited to this level," said Wood, the Scots' coach since 1990.

Strong, fast and explosive, the chiseled Odighizuwa is a dominant force on defense. He was voted the Mt. Hood Conference defensive player of the year as a junior, when he had 22 tackles for loss, including 18 sacks.

"He's a nightmare, is what he is," Central Catholic coach Steve Pyne said. "He's just as strong as you can get. He's going to be a great pass-rush defensive end at the college level."

Pyne compared Odighizuwa to Central Catholic graduate Kevin Frahm, a sophomore defensive end at Oregon State.

"I don't know that he's as polished in terms of skills as Kevin was coming out of high school, but he's certainly athletically superior to Kevin," Pyne said. "As soon as he learns to play with more of a plan ... he's got future star written all over him."

Wood and his coaches first got an idea about Odighizuwa's potential a year ago when he participated in a camp at Oregon State.

"Their coach said, 'This guy's the real deal. He's going to get recruited by USC and whoever,'" Wood said. "I started thinking, 'Well, here we go.'"

Oregon State, Oregon, Stanford and Notre Dame were hot on Odighizuwa's trail during his junior season, and the national interest spiked in January after he excelled at the U.S. Army Junior Combine in Texas. He dominated one-on-one pass rushing drills and was chosen the camp's defensive MVP.

"From what the coaches said, and other people said, I was beating them up pretty bad," said Odighizuwa, whose name is pronounced "oh-a-MAH-bay oh-dee-ga-ZOO-a."

Said Wood: "Once he did that, it wasn't a week, and I had schools that I hadn't communicated with faxing in verbal offers."

Odighizuwa, who turned 17 in April, has been barraged with phone calls and is in regular communication with Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, Florida coach Urban Meyer and Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin, according to Wood.

It has been a whirlwind 2009 considering Odighizuwa is on the basketball and track teams (he runs the 100 meters in 11.9 seconds) and helps his mother, A.B., take care of his three younger brothers. But Odighizuwa, who has a 3.4 grade-point average, is doing his due diligence.

"When Florida, Notre Dame and Stanford came in, he had three pages of questions typed out, and he interviewed all of them," Wood said. "He's sizing up the college coaches."

Odighizuwa, who attended Oregon's spring game Saturday, said he plans to take all five of his college visits before making a decision.

"I don't have all five of them down, but I know for sure I'm going to take a visit to Florida," he said. "I'm still thinking about USC and Stanford."

Is proximity to home a factor in his decision?

"It matters, but in the end, it's whatever makes me and my family happy," said Odighizuwa, who was born in Ohio and lived in Nigeria (ages 3-8) and Virginia before moving to Portland as a fourth-grader.

"The bling doesn't matter to him," Wood said. "He's a meat-and-potatoes guy. He's really humble. It's so cool to see it happening to the right kind of person and the right kind of family. He's been raised right. My deal is I don't want to screw it up, and he goes to the right place."

[jhopduck]

Tony D. seems to think this will come down to Stanford, USC, Florida, and Oregon. I really don't think he ends up at USC but ?? And my money is he stays on the West coast personally, I hope we work him hard!!!!

[Greydrake]

Hope the distance factor keeps him in state; would like to see that swing our favor for once.

[woundedknees]

If, as stated in the article, "The bling doesn't matter to him," will it hurt Oregon's chances if the Ducks win the PAC-10 outright?

[GoDucksIn09]

The article stated that he was hearing on a regular basis from USC Stanford and Florida. Thats a little bit of concern. Here we are in his home state and not in regular contact with him. I do not know what to read into that but does concern me such a highly recruited guy and our coaches not in the regular contact with him.

[UOducksTK1]

"I don't know that he's as polished in terms of skills as Kevin Frahm was coming out of high school, but he's certainly athletically superior to Kevin," Pyne said. "As soon as he learns to play with more of a plan ... he's got future star written all over him."

Haha, someone is a homer.

Anyway, Getting OO to play at Oregon is going to take some work. If I had to bet, I'd say he leaves the state. However, we are still so early in the recruiting process.

[DmoneyDuck]

"I don't know that he's as polished in terms of skills as Kevin Frahm was coming out of high school, but he's certainly athletically superior to Kevin," Pyne said. "As soon as he learns to play with more of a plan ... he's got future star written all over him."

Haha, someone is a homer.

Anyway, Getting OO to play at Oregon is going to take some work. If I had to bet, I'd say he leaves the state. However, we are still so early in the recruiting process.

yup, immediately thought the same thing when I read it..seriously..kevin frahm who?!

[woundedknees]

Lemmeesee... Frahm was a 6'3/250/5.19 3*, ranked # 61 in the nation after HS.

Owa is Owa is a 6'3/235 4*, ranked #13 in the nation after his junior year...

Why is anybody listening to the coach of his HS rival?

[goducks75]

"I don't know that he's as polished in terms of skills as Kevin Frahm was coming out of high school, but he's certainly athletically superior to Kevin," Pyne said. "As soon as he learns to play with more of a plan ... he's got future star written all over him."

Haha, someone is a homer.

Anyway, Getting OO to play at Oregon is going to take some work. If I had to bet, I'd say he leaves the state. However, we are still so early in the recruiting process.

Coming from a guy who lined up against Kevin in high school every day in practice he's not really that far off. True Steve's a bit of a homer in that regard but Kevin had the technique down, that's for sure. Of course he had to because his size kept him from being an elite prospect (even though Owa is about the same size, he has elite athletic talent. Kevin's athletic talent wasn't incredibly mind-blowing). Then again it could just be me being a homer too but that's how I saw it.

[thomas time]

I graduated david douglas in 2003 and have seen this guy plenty of times. He is freak out there and would be huge get for the ducks. Let's all hope we go after him hard the next year and he will want to stay out west.

[UOducksTK1]

"I don't know that he's as polished in terms of skills as Kevin Frahm was coming out of high school, but he's certainly athletically superior to Kevin," Pyne said. "As soon as he learns to play with more of a plan ... he's got future star written all over him."

Haha, someone is a homer.

Anyway, Getting OO to play at Oregon is going to take some work. If I had to bet, I'd say he leaves the state. However, we are still so early in the recruiting process.

Coming from a guy who lined up against Kevin in high school every day in practice he's not really that far off. True Steve's a bit of a homer in that regard but Kevin had the technique down, that's for sure. Of course he had to because his size kept him from being an elite prospect (even though Owa is about the same size, he has elite athletic talent. Kevin's athletic talent wasn't incredibly mind-blowing). Then again it could just be me being a homer too but that's how I saw it.

BYU and OSU were his only offers. If Kevin was technically advanced, I'm sure he would have received more attention. Obviously Owa being more athletic and explosive probably catches a lot of scouts attention, but he made some nasty moves during the1 on 1 drills (And that was against some legit competition).

[canaduck]

Coming from a guy who lined up against Kevin in high school every day in practice he's not really that far off. True Steve's a bit of a homer in that regard but Kevin had the technique down, that's for sure. Of course he had to because his size kept him from being an elite prospect (even though Owa is about the same size, he has elite athletic talent. Kevin's athletic talent wasn't incredibly mind-blowing). Then again it could just be me being a homer too but that's how I saw it.

BYU and OSU were his only offers. If Kevin was technically advanced, I'm sure he would have received more attention. Obviously Owa being more athletic and explosive probably catches a lot of scouts attention, but he made some nasty moves during the1 on 1 drills (And that was against some legit competition).

One could argue Frahm was further along in a technical standpoint but received less offers because scouts believed he had pretty much maxed his potential, Owa, as talented already as he may be, obviously has lots of potential that can still be molded. Obviously the coach is a homer, but that still may be his honest opinion. I'm sure we all know of some great and productive high school players who just didn't get love from the scouts because they seemingly lacked potential beyond the level they had already achieved.

edit: sorry those quotes are backwards had some issues posting with embedded quotes