The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
From days at Yale to NFL, Oluokun has same approach
Tony Reno’s family would tape NFL games that his former players appeared in, in recent years so the Yale coach could get a look when he had time.
In 2018 and 2019, that meant Foye Oluokun and Jaeden Graham of the Atlanta Falcons. This year, Dieter Eiselen has been elevated to the Chicago Bears.
“Because of the situation this year with COVID and all,” Reno said Friday, “I’ve watched a ton of Falcons games.”
And?
“I have a very biased opinion,” Reno said, “but I have not seen any linebackers play like Foye has the last five, six weeks of the season. He has been dominant.”
Oluokun was named the NFC defensive player of the week after the victory over Denver on Nov. 8.
He had 10 tackles, four quarterback hits, a sack, a tackle for a loss and a pass deflection.
He was all over the field. After a bye week and heading into a game at New Orleans on Sunday, he leads Atlanta with 64 tackles and has forced three fumbles and had an interception.
The Falcons decided Foye deserved more love than he was getting. They led a Twitter campaign to #PutFoyeOnTheBallot. It worked. The NFL added Oluokun to the Pro Bowl ballot on Tuesday. Overlooked no longer.
“I’ve never really been one for publicity,” Oluokun said. “I’m here to do my job. I got up from a nap and got all that news I wasn’t on the ballot. I’m like, that’s crazy. I thought about it, and it’s really weird they wouldn’t put me on it. That’s kind of disrespectful, low-key.
“But then I got put on it. Now I’m like, it’s up to the fans and people who vote. I’m just here to make plays and try to win games.”
Low key.
After an 0-5 start that cost both coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff — who drafted Oluokun in the sixth round in 2018, their jobs — the Falcons have won three of four under Raheem Morris. Oluokun has been the best defensive player during that stretch.
“The thing I see most in Foye right now is he is playing so fast,” Reno said. “So fast, and so confidently. The one thing we always talk about as a staff is once he gets into a system and got comfortable playing the position, he was going to blow the top off it.
“A lot of guys can defense the run. He’s so good in pass coverage. He can run with a tight end and certain slots. He’s so fluid in coverage. And he’s such an awesome person. He’s not into himself. He’s so into everyone else.”
With Oluokun’s growing national profile, NFL fans are learning he was a high school teammate of Ezekiel Elliott under former NFL quarterback Gus Frerotte in suburban St. Louis. And obviously, folks love to talk about a guy with an economics degree from Yale.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that at Yale he went from cornerback to safety to outside linebacker. When he got to the pros, Reno pointed out, he was playing outside before playing some inside. The Falcons switched systems last year and went to an odd front and Foye became kind of a hybrid.
“I am being more assertive, more aggressive playing with a lot more energy,” Oluokun said. “Being comfortable with all the boys on the field,
being comfortable within every call is really the big change from last year to this year.”
“Now he has actually been in the same system for a period of time,” Reno said. “He’s so bright. He’s so football smart. He plays with so much enthusiasm and energy. That’s his hallmark. When he is playing his best, he’s playing with so much passion. It’s so fun to watch.”
Since taking over, Morris has stressed the need for playmakers on both sides of the ball to step up late in games.
“All of us have been big-time players at some point in our life,” Oluokun said. “It could have been Little League, high school; we’ve got the confidence in us to make the plays when they come. Just apply that confidence to the last part of games.”
The NFL is a fast-moving, furiouspaced business. Oluokun may be in his first year as a full-time starter, but he has been with the Falcons for three years. He had his first start as far back as Oct. 7, 2018; had 10 tackles in a game a month later and ended with 91 tackles that rookie year. He had 64 more last year. In other words, at 25, he’s battle-hardened. Words of correction or wisdom sometimes are best not to come from coaches, and the staff has turned to Oluokun at times to talk to defensive teammates.
“Most of it is the guys trust in me and my work ethic the first two years and the energy I play with on Sundays,” he said. “When they see it translate to the game, they kind of trust what I’m saying. When I try to talk to people, I like to find out how they like to be talked to so I can reach them in the right way to get the messages out.”
So here he was on a Zoom call with beat reporters Friday, answering questions about the news that Taysom Hill, not Jameis Winston, will start at quarterback for the Saints on Sunday. How middle linebacker Deion Jones and the linebacker corps will handle a marquee matchup with dual-threat running back Alvin Kamara.
Reno and his staff first saw Oluokun, the son of Nigerian immigrants, on film. He came to Connecticut for Reno’s camp.
“Foye came with his dad,” Reno said. “I love his dad. We were fortunate Foye decided to come.”
Reno remembers Foye was just over 6 feet and weighed 180-something pounds. He ran like a 4.9, but Reno was taken by how well he jumped and
by his competitive nature in the drills. He’s listed at 6-2, 215 now and at the FCS pro day held at Columbia in 2018 he ran a 4.48. All his numbers — 37-inch vertical jump, shuttle times — jumped off the charts.
“He developed himself into a great player,” Reno said.
When Oluokun arrived at Yale, he played corner. The team wasn’t great. He was the best option there. As he got bigger, he moved to safety. He tore his pectoral muscle as a junior and was granted an extra semester. By 2017, he was a strong side outside linebacker on the first undisputed Ivy League champs in 37 years. “Foye just blossomed,” Reno said. Blossomed so much that Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich called his video from his senior year “brutal.” The whole time, Ulbrich said, the opposition was running plays to the opposite side to stay away from Oluokun.
“Early in the season as he made an impact there, people decided it wasn’t prudent to run at Foye,” Reno said. “People would test him every now and again in the pass game. He’d make a play or decimate the wide receiver at the line of scrimmage. As the season wore on, people just decided there was a better chance to run away from him.”
Oluokun was at Reno’s house the day he was drafted. The call came shortly before his name popped up on the television screen. He went to work.
“The first snaps I took in the NFL weren’t at the level I wanted to be at,” Oluokun said. “So every time I got on the field, it was, ‘Wat can I do to get better?’ Now that I feel I’m closer to where I want to be, I definitely feel more comfortable and a lot faster. Getting used to NFL games and how teams attack you helps.”
Still, his ascent is surprising to some. Not to his college coach.
“I’m not surprised at all,” Reno said. “He’s so driven a person in what he wants to be, but he’s so grounded in who he is. Last year, he comes up to Yale on his bye week to hang out with the guys. He’s on the sidelines for our Columbia game. He spent time on the practice field with us. That’s who he is. If he could ever get into a position where he was given an opportunity, I just knew he would explode. All of us are so proud of him.”