Canes fans got their first extended glimpse of five-star OL Samson Okunlola when he took the field with the starters in the spring game. Now fully recovered from a mid-season knee injury, Okunlola joined the CanesInSight Podcast to discuss his business-like approach on and off the field:
On his decision to come to Miami: I definitely saw something going on over here. It was a hard decision when I was in high school, but it was the best decision I made. Overall, just looking at the coaches, the family aspect, talking to my parents, it was a good decision to come down here.
On his athletic journey: I don't even remember when I started football. The first day I tried for the football team, they said I was overweight for my age limit. So I found this team where you play unlimited [weight].
When I got to high school, I was a little heavy, 340. Then I started wrestling. Wrestling really helped me losing weight, getting more flexible, getting stronger in the body. And that's really when I started improving more in football.
On wrestling: I lost a ton of weight. I used to wear full sweatsuits in practice trying to burn the calories. My first year, I didn't wrestle officially. My second year, I made a dent, taking it all the way to the national level.
It just brings a certain type of mental fortitude you need to have. You only have seconds to beat a dude. The seconds where you're down by a couple of points and you need to beat the dude by a pin. You're wrestling another man one-on-one. It’s the same mental process I brought into football.
Physically, it’s learning leverage, learning how to torque dudes, learning how to make dudes go where you want them to go. In wrestling, it's not as much of, “He's doing this," give and take. You want to make him do something so you can do something off of that. It’s making dudes do what I want them to do. There’s a certain reaction I might give them to flip them over, throw them off the edge. Wrestling taught me how to set things up for myself and how people usually react to certain movements. Get them off balance, so I can torque them a little better.
On what he learned from his midseason injury: It brought me a lot of lessons. Time is limited. You're only going to play football so long. I’ve got a lot of ambitions, a lot of things I want to achieve. I’ve got to achieve them in a timely fashion, and on God's time as well.
I’m going to face a lot of adversity. That's not going to be the last time I face adversity. So I just play the process. At the end of my process, there’s going to be a good outcome.
On the difference between playing guard and tackle: At guard, I'm more aggressive because he's right in my face. I’m going to attack him more, but I'm also going to play mind games where I don't attack him. Guard just brings a new element of aggressiveness and more things I can do when it comes to being aggressive.
At tackle, I’ve got to be more patient depending on the dude, how much speed he has, how much power he has. I can still be aggressive, but I can only throw it in spurts. It’s definitely a mindset change, having an aggressive patience. I had to flip a switch.
On his nickname “Pancake Honcho”: I came up with the idea and I came up with a nickname. If you Google “Pancake Honcho” right now, only me pops up. I definitely made it the brand of who I am. Samson Okunlola is Pancake Honcho. I learned about business and marketing. When I’m taking pancake photo shoots at schools, that’s free marketing right there. So I definitely love that marketing scheme I made for myself.
On his business-like approach: It just comes from my father and my mother. My father started his own business. He’s a mechanic and owns his own shop. Coming from that, I always want to create something for myself. I was a five star, I had all these rankings, so I was like, “What can I gain off that? What can I have for three, four, five, six, seven, eight years?” Because you only become a five star once. I was trying to use that boom I had. I always say “boom” because you always need a boom to create something. I had a boom, I created something for myself and I hope it keeps going for me.
On growing up with his brother, Samuel (DE at Colorado): It was great. Me and my brother went to the same high school. We're grinding next to each other. When he wanted to work out, I had to work out. Even when I was younger, he was carrying me through the process of learning how to be a proper athlete, what you needed to do, what time you needed to do it.
He set a high example for me, just like my other brothers. I have three other brothers who play football. The saying is, “The older people usually make all the mistakes that the youngest can learn from.” So I definitely learned from all the mistakes they made and all the good things they did.
On who would win a rep between he and Samuel: We line up 10 reps, I win every time. I don't lose. That’s the type of confidence I've got to have. If you play this game, you cannot lack confidence. If you don't think you win every ten reps, you ain't gonna win one rep.
On the OL group: They're going to hold you accountable. We're playing right next to each other. You have to trust the man next to you. They're going to look at you every day and tell you what you're doing wrong and what you're doing right. They're going to pick you up when you're doing right, and they're going to still pick you up when you're doing wrong. We’re a tight-knit group. We're five working as one. We’re all striving for something together.
On his off-field interests: I'm really just chilling. I'm listening to music, talking with my parents, talking with my friends. Just hanging out with people to take my mind off football for just a second a day. Just kind of refresh and do more.
On Cam Ward as a leader: Cam definitely understands what a quarterback is. A quarterback has to bring the leadership. You can't be a QB and not be a leader. He definitely understood that from early on, as he played a quarterback all his life. I love to see that from him.
On his transition to South Florida: I love Miami. It's a little hot down here, though. I just came back from Boston two days ago. I only walked five steps and I'm still sweating. The heat down here is different. When it comes to social life, Miami's Miami. You’ve got to stay focused.
On the new NCAA game: I opted in. I wasn't a crazy player growing up. I dabble a little bit in it. But it is definitely is an achievement being in a game. That’s every athlete's dream of being in a game and having your family members play.
On Canes Connection: Canes Connection has been very great to me. It’s helped me with the marketing process, helping me figure a bunch of things out when it comes to business. They're doing a great job.
On his goals for the season: I'm just going to talk about my team goals. I like to keep my personal goals personal. Everyone knows I have dreams to be somewhere in life. But with our team goals, we're trying to win. We’re trying to win at a dominant level and a high level. We're trying to stay together as a team and hold everyone accountable.
