Overcoming The Odds: Sam Okuayinonu’s Journey Has Brought Him Around The World

Coming out of halftime against West Virginia down 21-20, Maryland was looking for any sort of spark that could ignite their rally.

Lining up on the left side of the ball, Maryland defensive end Sam Okuayinonu took it upon himself to make a play and get his team the momentum they needed. 

Just over a minute into the half, Okuayinonu fired off the ball, beat the Mountaineer’s right tackle, and mauled quarterback Jarret Doege for the sack. Okuayinonu's sack not only put West Virginia on the other side of the 50-yard line, but it allowed the packed Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium crowd to get on its feet and cheer on its squad even louder.

Okuayinonu has been a wrecking ball for the Terps this season with five sacks through six games, which is good for 18th in the entire country.

The 6-foot-2, 280-pound defensive lineman has been a staple in the Maryland lineup, but not only has his journey to College Park been unlikely, but his journey to the United States is remarkable. 

Coming from Liberia, Okuayinonu knows struggle first hand. He and his mother, Clara, escaped the war-torn country and left everything behind for a chance at a better life. 

“It was nice early on, nice and quiet,” Okuayinonu said. “After my mom went back to college and graduated, she had a graduation party, and that’s when we started hearing bullets. We started getting word that a civil war had broken out in the country. “In the process of leaving, I ended up following my aunt to a neighboring city, so my mom and I became separated.”

The second Liberian Civil War claimed more than 250,000 lives and displaced more than a million citizens. Okuayinonu considers himself lucky because of the support system and their constant will to get young Sam out of there.

While his family was able to keep Sam from becoming a child soldier, they couldn’t shield him from all of the horrors of war. The memories from that time are seared into the Maryland star’s memory.

“I saw a lot of things that a kid shouldn’t see,” Okuayinonu said. “A lot of dead bodies, people being cannibals. I remember crossing this swamp...it was bad. It was really, really bad. So many dead bodies just floating in that swamp.”

Okuayinonu called the time away from his mom the “hardest hardship” he had ever been through in his life. The pair was finally able to reunite, and they settled in Lowell, Massachusetts, where some of their family members had previously relocated. 

Growing up, the Liberian children would tell stories of what they believed to be true about America. Okuayinonu remembers hearing that America was like heaven with streets covered in gold and that the snow tasted like ice cream. 

When Okuayinonu arrived in Boston, it was during a blizzard, and he knew what he had to do. 

“When I got off the plane, we were leaving the parking garage, and the very first thing I did was grab a handful of snow and eat it,” Okuayinonu said. “Unfortunately, it did not taste like ice cream.”

Even though he found out that the snow didn’t taste like ice cream and that the streets are lined with asphalt and not gold, Okuayinonu still recognized just how much better of a situation he was in. 

Soccer was uberly popular in Liberia, and Okuayinonu carried his love for it to his new home. It wasn’t until he got to high school that his cousin introduced him to one of this country’s biggest pastimes, American football.

“I actually quite hated football when I first started playing,” Okuayinonu said. “I tried it out my junior year of high school, but I didn’t really like it. So, I ended up quitting, I think three or four games into the season, and went back to playing soccer.”

Despite his initial hatred of football, Okuayinonu elected to give it another chance for his senior year, and that singular decision ended up shaping the rest of his life. He quickly took to the game this time around and had his mother’s support the entire way.

“It was a lot of fun teaching her the game,” he said. “I remember the first game she came to in high school. It was pouring rain. She just sat there, in the rain, not having any clue what was going on. She just knew her son was out there on the field. That just shows the love and support she has for me. She always has my back.”

Okuayinonu parlayed his monster senior season into a role on the Middlesex Community College in Massachusetts before joining Coahoma Community College in Mississippi. 

His play there put him on the radar of Mesabi Range Community College in Eveleth, Minnesota. So he decided to take the opportunity and enroll at the junior college, hoping to one day latch onto a Division I program. 

In two seasons at Mesabi Range, Okuayinonu notched 62 total tackles (21.5 for a loss) with 17.5 sacks and one forced fumble. He was named the Minnesota College Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year as well as All-Region and All-MCAC First-Team selections, en route to being rated the sixth-best JUCO strong side defensive end in the nation.

With his sights set on playing major college football, Okuayinonu had offers from big-time programs like Oregon, Syracuse, Memphis, and Maryland, with the coveted lineman ultimately picking the Terps. 

“I chose to come to Maryland because I believe in what we’re building,” Okuayinonu said. “This is a great school and a great football team, and I’m lucky to be a part of it.

As a junior in 2019, Okuayinonu immediately became a part of Maryland’s defensive line rotation. He appeared in all but one game and accounted for 31 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, and one sack. 

The 2020 season was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, so Okuayinonu and his team were forced to play just five games, but it was that year when Okuayinonu took a leap in the program. He was not only named a starter against Minnesota but he was also named a captain, signifying that his hard work was paying off.

“Sam has done everything he’s supposed to do,” head coach Michael Locksley said. “He’s a hard worker, someone who puts the time in, and he lives up to the standard that we set.”

Locksley has credited players like Okuayinonu, who have taken advantage of their extra year of eligibility due to the COVID shortened season, for anchoring the team. They’ve added a level of maturity and experience that’s been needed, but it’s also a season that may have been needed for Okuayinonu if he has aspirations of playing at the next level. 

Whenever he speaks of Okuayinonu, Locksley mentions how he thinks “Sam O” is playing himself into NFL draft consideration. He’s not the only one either, as Jim Nagy, the Reese’s Senior Bowl Executive Director, also believes that Okuayinonu is on some NFL teams’ radar.

It’s not just the production that’s eye-popping for Sam O, it’s the combination of speed and power that’s been evident in every game so far this season. For a defense that had question marks coming in, Okuayinonu has been maybe the biggest answer with his heavy hands and ferocious drive leading the way.

That kind of effort and production hasn’t been lost on his teammates, either. 

“Sam sets the tone upfront,” sophomore linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II said. “He’s a leader on and off the field for all of us. We’re lucky to have a guy like that who decided to come back to help the program. I love playing with him.”

Okuayinonu’s long, winding journey has taken him from his home country of Liberia to his new home of College Park, with several important stops along the way. Despite playing for multiple teams and living in many different places, the one thing that has remained constant is his determination.  

Throughout it all, Okuayinonu has kept a positive attitude and let the journey take him as long as it can.

“It’s been a long journey, but it’s been a good one,” he said. “I’m a naturally happy person, and I think that’s helped me. I love playing football, and I love playing it here at Maryland.

“Even though I went through a lot growing up, I love my country. I hope to go back to Liberia one day and help develop my country.”