‘23 EN TE Emmanuel Okoye (Tennessee commit)

#8
#8
We begin with the one official visit Tennessee has this weekend and that is athlete Emmanuel Okoye. The London based athlete could play edge or tight end in college. Tennessee along with Vanderbilt and Georgia are getting official visits while he is in the states. He plays for the NFL Academy and while raw, has big-time upside with his length and speed.
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-VQ
 
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#13
#13
OV weekend huge for an overseas guy. Are we on commit watch or think he’s lower on the board behind nwaneri, fountain, Franklin, etc? Hadn’t heard much about him so far.
 
#14
#14
volunteerlane said:
Would like to see some verified numbers on him.
His Hudl claims:
6'6
230lbs
45.5" vertical
4.5 40
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His highlights are kind of “meh” and it looks like the competition he plays against isn’t the best considering they’re playing on a soccer field and England breed sissies and isn’t even a real country. If those numbers are legit though and we manage to land Franklin, Ross, and Fountain I would love to see us take this guy as a project TE. You can’t teach LeBron James type athleticism. His 24/7 profile does show a Georgia and USC offer. So apparently coaches see something in him
 
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#15
#15
now this is finally a project! We keep inaccurately throwing the word around but this is an actual project a la Kongbo, Jakob Johnson, etc.

Great measurables, great athleticism, & some pretty bad tape. Personally, I don't like projects. Projects mean more work for everyone involved. I like underrated players who may need to gain or lose weight, learn a slightly new position (OT-->OG, DT-->OG, CB-->WR, etc). But learn a new sport? In the SEC? Go to the Big10, ACC, or the PAC and you then at least are closer to playing soccer.

IMO it's a high risk (scholarship, time spent coaching, resources used), low reward (often never pan out) endeavor.

But if we take ONE, and ONE only? make it every other year. which would make me ok with this guy as JH doesn't seem to want to take many projects. Butch on the other hand.. woody quinn, remember that joke?
 
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#16
#16
Go Fight Win said:
now this is finally a project! We keep inaccurately throwing the word around but this is an actual project a la Kongbo, Jakob Johnson, etc.

Great measurables, great athleticism, & some pretty bad tape. Personally, I don't like projects. Projects mean more work for everyone involved. I like underrated players who may need to gain or lose weight, learn a slightly new position (OT-->OG, DT-->OG, CB-->WR, etc). But learn a new sport? In the SEC? Go to the Big10, ACC, or the PAC and you then at least are closer to playing soccer.

IMO it's a high risk (scholarship, time spent coaching, resources used), low reward (often never pan out) endeavor.

But if we take ONE, and ONE only? make it every other year. which would make me ok with this guy as JH doesn't seem to want to take many projects. Butch on the other hand.. woody quinn, remember that joke?
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Im fine with a 4* project
 
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#19
#19
Go Fight Win said:
now this is finally a project! We keep inaccurately throwing the word around but this is an actual project a la Kongbo, Jakob Johnson, etc.

Great measurables, great athleticism, & some pretty bad tape. Personally, I don't like projects. Projects mean more work for everyone involved. I like underrated players who may need to gain or lose weight, learn a slightly new position (OT-->OG, DT-->OG, CB-->WR, etc). But learn a new sport? In the SEC? Go to the Big10, ACC, or the PAC and you then at least are closer to playing soccer.

IMO it's a high risk (scholarship, time spent coaching, resources used), low reward (often never pan out) endeavor.

But if we take ONE, and ONE only? make it every other year. which would make me ok with this guy as JH doesn't seem to want to take many projects. Butch on the other hand.. woody quinn, remember that joke?
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If our staff is just decent at developing guys they will be able to turn this guy into a solid football player
 
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#20
#20
I understand the excitement people have about these athletic freak types that are projects. However, that being said, since this guy projects to TE or EDGE, i'm not sure he is a take for me, considering our board for the 24' class.

At TE we all ready have Echols, and we are in the top 3 for Reddell, Caleb Odom, Max Leblanc, Dillon Hipp, JaCorey Whitted, and Colton Heinrich.

At EDGE besides who we already have on campus, we are the leaders for Jordan Ross and Kameryn Fountain. We are actively recruiting Jamonta Waller, Dylan Stewart, Eddrick Houston, Danny Okoye, and Kellen Lindstrom.

I'm not sure if we need to go after a project guy considering who we are already recruiting at these 2 position groups. Maybe as a back up guy, but Emmanuel seems to want to make a decision fairly soon, and he looks like he has a lot of big offers to choose from, so i'm not sure if i'd take his commitment right now even if he wanted to jump in the boat considering we have some extremely talented and much more polished players we are in good shape with.
 
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#22
#22
chandler bing said:
I understand the excitement people have about these athletic freak types that are projects. However, that being said, since this guy projects to TE or EDGE, i'm not sure he is a take for me, considering our board for the 24' class.

At TE we all ready have Echols, and we are in the top 3 for Reddell, Caleb Odom, Max Leblanc, Dillon Hipp, JaCorey Whitted, and Colton Heinrich.

At EDGE besides who we already have on campus, we are the leaders for Jordan Ross and Kameryn Fountain. We are actively recruiting Jamonta Waller, Dylan Stewart, Eddrick Houston, Danny Okoye, and Kellen Lindstrom.

I'm not sure if we need to go after a project guy considering who we are already recruiting at these 2 position groups. Maybe as a back up guy, but Emmanuel seems to want to make a decision fairly soon, and he looks like he has a lot of big offers to choose from, so i'm not sure if i'd take his commitment right now even if he wanted to jump in the boat considering we have some extremely talented and much more polished players we are in good shape with.
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3 counterpoints, if I may:

1) Regardless of position except for QB, you cannot ever have too much talent. And while our roster is incredibly improved from when Heupel took over - to the point that IMO we are legit annual CFP contenders for the forseeable future - we still need more talent.

2) IMO we are not anywhere near the top of the list for Waller or Stewart and we aren't really on Houston's radar (he's continually mentioned but hasn't visited in 2023 and has no scheduled plans to do so). Not sure on Danny Okoye, his recruitment is quiet. I like Lindstrom and think we're in the mix there. But the long list above of guys outside of Ross and Fountain - the latter of whom IMO projects more as an inside guy/SDE rather than a pure Edge - isn't realistically that long.

3) Finally, if there is an any spot where we DO have the luxury of developing someone whose ceiling is reported to be that of a Day 1 NFL pick (my multiple 247 analysts) it's Edge. We've got Pearce, Josephs, Herring and Bradley from the last two classes - all four of them have immense talent and multiple years of eligibility left. So, especially if you assume we're going to sign a couple of other Edge guys in this 2024 class along with Okoye, he can take his time developing into a monster while the position is well taken care of.
 
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#24
#24
jvols1999 said:
3 counterpoints, if I may:

1) Regardless of position except for QB, you cannot ever have too much talent. And while our roster is incredibly improved from when Heupel took over - to the point that IMO we are legit annual CFP contenders for the forseeable future - we still need more talent.

2) IMO we are not anywhere near the top of the list for Waller or Stewart and we aren't really on Houston's radar (he's continually mentioned but hasn't visited in 2023 and has no scheduled plans to do so). Not sure on Danny Okoye, his recruitment is quiet. I like Lindstrom and think we're in the mix there. But the long list above of guys outside of Ross and Fountain - the latter of whom IMO projects more as an inside guy/SDE rather than a pure Edge - isn't realistically that long.

3) Finally, if there is an any spot where we DO have the luxury of developing someone whose ceiling is reported to be that of a Day 1 NFL pick (my multiple 247 analysts) it's Edge. We've got Pearce, Josephs, Herring and Bradley from the last two classes - all four of them have immense talent and multiple years of eligibility left. So, especially if you assume we're going to sign a couple of other Edge guys in this 2024 class along with Okoye, he can take his time developing into a monster while the position is well taken care of.
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We aren't at a point program wise where we should be taking players that are 2 to 3 year projects just because they have immense potential. We are short on bodies at TE as it is. We need guys who can contribute quickly and provide good depth. Just 2 years ago we had 68 scholarship players. Yes Huepel has done a fantastic job to rebuild the program so quickly, but we are still a ways depth wise compared to UGA, BAMA, tOSU etc... We can't afford to suffer a couple injuries at TE for example and have this guy in the 2 deep next year. We need guys who can play soon still.

Huepel has us closing that gap faster than any of us had thought possible, but we aren't at a point where you can take on too many projects. When we are 3 deep at almost every position, and playing time is at a minimum, than you start taking a couple of projects with huge upside that are ok sitting and learning the game for 2-3 years before they contribute. We need guys ready to play and be in the 2 deep right now at TE and DE.
 
#25
#25
chandler bing said:
We aren't at a point program wise where we should be taking players that are 2 to 3 year projects just because they have immense potential. We are short on bodies at TE as it is. We need guys who can contribute quickly and provide good depth. Just 2 years ago we had 68 scholarship players. Yes Huepel has done a fantastic job to rebuild the program so quickly, but we are still a ways depth wise compared to UGA, BAMA, tOSU etc... We can't afford to suffer a couple injuries at TE for example and have this guy in the 2 deep next year. We need guys who can play soon still.

Huepel has us closing that gap faster than any of us had thought possible, but we aren't at a point where you can take on too many projects. When we are 3 deep at almost every position, and playing time is at a minimum, than you start taking a couple of projects with huge upside that are ok sitting and learning the game for 2-3 years before they contribute. We need guys ready to play and be in the 2 deep right now at TE and DE.
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I don't think he's going to be a TE here (where you're right, we do need depth, which is why we're likely to sign 2-3 high school/portal TEs) I think he's going to be an Edge here (which is why I said what I said about us in fact having the ability to develop him). Would I sign him as the ONLY Edge in this class, even with the aforementioned 2022/23 studs signed at the position? No. But that's not going to be the case, so it's a moot point.
 
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