| |||||||||||||||||||
  | |
| Getting To Michael Okwo Pronunciation: OAK-woe |
At Stanford: A three year letterwinner, including earning his first letter as a true freshman in 2003 ... Selected by The Sporting News as a preseason 2006 Second Team All-Pac-10 player ... Earned First Team All-Pac-10 honors as a special teams player during the 2004 campaign ... Finished his career with 181 tackles (117 solo, 64 assists), 4.0 sacks, 15.5 tackles-for-loss, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, two blocked kicks and an interception.
Career Statistics
Career Game Highs: Total Tackles - 15, vs. WSU (9/23/06) Solo - 9, at UCLA (9/30/06) Ast - 8, vs. WSU (9/23/06) Sack - 1.0,three times TFL - 2.0, three times INT - 1, vs. Oregon (10/1/05) FF - 1, twice FR - 1, at California (11/20/04) Blocked Kick - 1, twice PBU - 4, at Washington (11/11).
The 2006 Season: Earned First Team All-Pac-10 honors as a linebacker to mark the second time he earned the recognition in his career after making the First Team All-Pac-10 squad as a special teams player during the 2004 campaign ... Led the team in 2006 with 95 tackles despite missing two games due to a broken thumb suffered in training camp and posted a 9.56 tackle per game average that ranks tied for first in the Pac-10 and tied for 15th in the NCAA ... Also paced the club with 57 solo stops, taking over the lead with eight in the final game of his career at California (12/2/06), and was 14th nationally with an average of 5.70 per contest ... Second on the squad with two forced fumbles (#10 Pac-10), while ranking tied for second with 2.0 sacks, third in tackles-for-loss (5.0) and tied for second in pass breakups (5) ... Added a quarterback hurry ... Had a huge game at California (12/2/06) with a team-best nine tackles (eight solo), a key fourth quarter forced fumble and a pass breakup ... Had a career-high four pass breakups and his second sack of the season at Washington (11/11/06) ... Set a career-high with 15 tackles versus Washington State (the most by a Stanford player this season), while picking up a new career-best nine solo stops at UCLA (9/30/06) ... Recorded the first five double-digit tackles of his career in each of the first five contests he played in during the 2006 campaign ... Picked up his first sack of 2006 at Arizona State (10/21/06) ... Selected by The Sporting News as a preseason 2006 Second Team All-Pac-10 player.Game-By-Game Statistics
Season Game Highs: Total Tackles - 15, vs. WSU (9/23/06) Solo - 9, at UCLA (9/30/06) Ast - 8, vs. WSU (9/23/06) Sack - 1.0, twice TFL - 2.0, vs. Navy (9/16) FF - 1, twice PBU - 4, at Washington (11/11).
The 2005 Season: Managed to make 34 tackles (26 solo, eight assists) in an injury-plagued campaign, making 5.5 tackles-for-loss (-29 yards) and being credited for the first 2.0 sacks (-21 yards) of his career ... Added his first career interception versus Oregon ... Had a career-high eight tackles (six solo, two assists), 1.5 tackles-for-loss and a half-sack versus UC Davis ... Came on at the end of the season as his injuries began to heal, making five tackles in each of the last two contests against California and Notre Dame while combining for 1.5 sacks (-14 yards) and 2.5 tackles-for-loss (-17 yards) in those two contests ... Played in 10 of 11 possible games, starting the first three contests.
Game-By-Game Statistics
The 2004 Season: Enjoyed an outstanding season, especially in the final three games of the year when he received extensive playing time ... Played in all 11 games and started the final two due to an injury to Kevin Schimmelmann ... Was the team's top special teams player and was recognized by the conference coaches as a First-Team All-Pacific-10 Conference selection in that area ... Finished the year with 39 total tackles, 4.0 tackles-for-loss, four pass breakups, a fumble recovery and a blocked punt ... In the final three games of the season, he tallied 22 tackles, 3.5 tackles-for-loss and a fumble recovery ... Accounted for a combined 14 tackles and 3.5 tackles-for-loss in his two starts versus Oregon State and at California ... His teammates voted him the winner of the Phil Moffat Award as the team's top defensive special teams player.
Game-By-Game Statistics
The 2003 Season: Earned his first varsity letter as a backup outside linebacker and special teams player ... One of seven true freshman to play in 2003 ... Appeared in all 11 games and recorded 13 total tackles, 1.0 tackle-for-loss (-1 yard) and one blocked kick ... Had three tackles, one tackle-for-loss and a blocked punt in the season finale versus Notre Dame ... Had two tackles each in games versus USC, Washington State and Oregon State.
In High School: A Prep All-American linebacker from Mira Costa High School in Southern California ... Recorded 130 tackles and 7.0 sacks as a senior ... Named an All-American and the No. 6 linebacker in the West by PrepStar ... SuperPrep selected him to their All-American team and ranked him as the No. 28 linebacker in the nation, as well as the No. 23 overall recruit in California/Hawaii/Nevada ... Rivals.com ranked him as the No. 18 linebacker in the country ... CIF Division III Co-Defensive Player of the Year and league MVP as a junior ... National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete award winner in 2002-03.
Personal Information:Philosophy and Religious Studies major.
Getting To Know Michael Okwo
| I would desribe myself as a person as: | Okra |
| What people don't know about me is: | I used to have a huge belly button |
| The reason I love football is: | My high school coach, Don Morrow, made it fun |
| My favorite pre-game ritual is: | Doing Ron Forbes' SSS workout with Udeme |
| My greatest athletic moment is: | Hitting a double off the right field fence my first year playing baseball ... It kept our team in first place going into the playoffs |
| The biggest thrill in my life to date is: | My first time on Splash Mountain |
| The teammate I admire the most is: | Nick Sanchez |
| My favorite stadium in which to play is: | The new Stanford Stadium |
| The toughest player I have faced in college is: | Reggie Bush (USC) |
| In Memory Of: | One of Michael's best friends on another college football team was the late Devin Adair (Tulsa) |
| Since coming to Stanford, I have learned: | Sounds cliché, but that I am very fortunate |
| The best thing about Stanford is: | It's the second biggest University in the Galaxy! |
| My favorite class at Stanford is: | Chuang Tzu |
| The sports team I followed when I was younger: | Los Angeles Lakers |
| When I played football as a kid, I pretended to be: | Deion Sanders |
| The athlete I admire most is: | Edson Arantes Do Nascimento (Pelé) |
| The person I admire most is: | Bill Lysle |
| If I could spend a day with anyone, it would be: | Prof. Lee Yearley |
| The three people in history I admire most are: | Ras Al Gu, Chick Hearn, Alex Mack |
| Best book I have read: | Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir by Graham Roumieu |
| Favorite Food: | Cereal |
| Least Favorite Food: | I can't remember, but whatever it is, I don't eat it anymore |
| If I had to cook all of my meals, I'd probably survive on: | My favorite food |
| Favorite Movie: | The Interpreter |
| Favorite TV Show: | Grey's Anatomy |
| Favorite Actress: | Natalie Portman |
| If a movie were made of my life, I would have the following actor play me: | Andre Benjamin |
| Favorite musical group or performer: | Andre 3000 |
| If I were not playing college football, I would be: | Coaching high school football |
| The best advice I ever received was: | Follow your bliss |
| The person who had the greatest influence on my life: | Mom and Dad |
| The place I'd most like to visit: | Italy |
| The favorite place I've visited: | London |
| Hobbies: | Philosophy, Sudoku, Tekken, Guitar |
| Ten years from now, I'd like to be: | Settled |
| My advice to youngsters: | Be wary of urgent people |
| My most prized possession: | My velcro shoes |
| If I won $1 million, I would: | Buy $1 million in lotto tickets! |
| The one thing about college football I would change: | We would train less in the off-season |
Last Updated: January 10, 2007