FRISCO, Texas-Charlotte EDGE Eyabi Okie-Anoma has taken a long road to get to the 2024 East-West Shrine Bowl. The former No. 3 recruit in the class of 2018, Okie-Anoma attended five schools in his collegiate career. After choosing Alabama over Michigan as a recruit, Anoma was dismissed from the team at Alabama before attending Houston. Things didn’t work out there, either, and he spent a season at UT-Martin before following his high school coach Biff Poggi to Michigan, where Poggi served as the associate head coach. After Poggi landed the head coaching job at Charlotte, Okie-Anoma transferred and made an impact with the 49ers, racking up 5.5 sacks in 2023.
At the Shrine Bowl, he was the player who stood out the most on the first day of practice, making a lot of plays including an incredible bull rush against Oklahoma OT Walter Rouse in 1v1 drills. While Okie-Anoma still carries the status of a former top recruit, he’s excited to show NFL teams who he is a person. In an interview with Steelers Depot at the Shrine Bowl, he talked about his journey to get to where he is today.
“It was overwhelming in a sense,” Okie-Anoma said about entering college as a five-star recruit. “You be a five-star, you have a target on you. It’s not like you’re a five-star, I’m scared of you, you’re a five-star, you’re a big target, everyone wants to beat you. Everyone wants to prove that, ‘ok, you’re not that good,’ my ability to try to tune that out, especially at this point, people were joking around like, ‘bro, you top five,’ and I’m like, yeah. The ability to tune that out and handle the task at hand, is what separates good from great.”
In meeting with teams, including the Steelers, Okie-Anoma said he likes being able to show who he is off the field.
“With the teams, I’ve noticed it’s not really about my play. They know I can play. It’s all about, they want to see my growth and maturity and how I view the game and if I’ve learned anything through my journey. And I’m really appreciative of that, them trying to realize, who’s Eyabi the person not the football player, but who’s Eyabi the human being.”
Okie-Anoma was open about his journey, comparing it to the story of Job in the Bible. In the Bible, God gave Job everything and then took it away, but Job stayed faithful to God.
“I love my story in the sense that it’s humbling. I look at my story as a story of Job,” Okie-Anoma said. “God gave Job everything, and at the same time, took it away. And it was up to Job to still believe in himself, believe in God. Job believed in himself, believed in God. And God gave him everything tenfold. I just look at my story like that. In this game of football, everything’s not always gonna be peaches and ice cream. I put something on my Twitter today, it’s always about how many times you get knocked down, you get up. And that’s how I view life. Like, it’s always gonna be adversity, it’s how you respond to that adversity, what determines you as a man.”
After having success at UT-Martin, Okie-Anoma transferred to Michigan after Poggi got hired before following him to Charlotte. Okie-Anoma talked about what Poggi means to him and how he helped him as a player and person.
“He’s an old-school coach. Very old-school. And that’s how I like it. Real gritty, gonna yell at you, but at the same time, you make a play, he’s gonna be right there to love you. So I love that type of coach and coaches who have a true passion for the game. They’re not trying to collect a paycheck, but they really love the game and they see what the game can do for others. It means a lot.”
As he begins his journey to the NFL, Okie-Anoma knows he isn’t a finished product. He talked about areas he wants to improve as a player to get him ready for the league.
“I wanna work on my hands. Being a more whole pass-rusher, not just power, not just speed, like literally make them know they have to set me honest. They can’t jump set me, because they know I’ll win with power, I’ll beat them. So make them real honest. As far as playing the run, consistently setting the edge, I realize I run away, run to, misdirection, stuff like that,” he explained.
The best rep of the day between both practices was when Okie-Anoma won with power in a bull-rush on a 1v1 rep. He explained what he saw and how he was able to win that rep.
“I knew that with his stance, his feet weren’t as back, so I knew he wasn’t really going into depth and he was just gonna try to set me up real straight on, and I knew with that, I trusted my speed to power.”
That win over Rouse was enough for the defensive group to be told they weren’t allowed to bull rush anymore, he said. He also had a win with a spin move around Illinois OT Julian Pearl that showed off his pass-rush moves.
Coming out of Charlotte, Okie-Anoma said he would love to get drafted and have success because it would mean a lot to the school. Charlotte has two players on the Steelers roster right now in Alex Highsmith and Larry Ogunjobi, and maybe Okie-Anoma could make it three.
While his college career got off to a rough start, Ekie-Anoma made the most of it, having success at a big school in Michigan, registering 4.5 sacks in 2022 before improving to 6.5 sacks in 2023 at Charlotte. He was an awesome guy to talk to and very reflective of his journey to get to this point, and if the Steelers do address EDGE in the draft, Okie-Anoma would be a great pickup in the middle rounds.
His journey isn’t over yet, and with three days of Shrine Bowl practices left, he can continue to improve his draft stock. With his natural talent, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him become a fast-riser as we get closer to the 2024 NFL Draft.
