VandyMania.com ARCHIVE

The NFL Academy is an initiative in London England that takes high-school age young men with football talent, develops them, and allows them to market their skills to American high schools and colleges. Darren Agu is a product of it.


Emmanuel "Skywalker" Okoye is a freakish 6-5 230 DE with a 7-foot-2 wingspan from Nigeria who has some bigtime offers, including Georgia, UT, Colorado, and USC (but I think Vandy may have been his first). He is a product of NFL Academy. Originally he was a class of 2024 guy, but now it looks as though he has decided to try to get into a college this fall. He was on campus in Nashville on his tour of American schools this week, and Darren Agu hosted him.
Could Vandy hope to land a guy with that kind of offers? I don't know, but I do know UT made a big push at the end after Agu had already committed to Vandy, and Agu held firm. Also, Clark Lea said recently Vandy currently has all 85 of its scholarships allotted for the fall; but if a guy like this wants to come, you probably find a way to get him in. And if he's attending college this fall, you know his decision has to be coming very soon.

May the Force be with us!

Vanderbilt is doing something right in its identifications and evaluations of players, it seems to me... it's struck me lately how many players that Vanderbilt has offered that Georgia has come along and offered a month or so later. Ethan Utley, a 2025 DL out of Ensworth, is the latest one. It's like they're trolling us or something.

Now, at some point, Vanderbilt needs to start winning some of these battles and hanging onto some of these highly-rated Midstate guys... THAT'S when you'll know things are starting to change for Clark Lea.

He is down to three schools, and none of them are Vandy.

Texas Tech, Southern Cal, and a school to the east of us that wears orange.

best of luck to the red raiders/trojans.

Okoye has committed to and signed an LOI with Tennessee, and will report this fall. A great get for them.