Sam Okuayinonu

Golden Nuggets

• Is of Liberian and Nigerian descent.
• Last name is pronounced oh-kwu-AHN-new.
• Okuayinonu has his mother's middle name 'Deakonti' tattooed on his right forearm. In his native language, Bassa, the word means 'Everything has time.' He has used this phrase to re- main motivated during difficult times in his life, including the ups and downs of playing professional football.

Golden Nuggets

• Is of Liberian and Nigerian descent.
• Last name is pronounced oh-kwu-AHN-new.
• Okuayinonu has his mother's middle name 'Deakonti' tattooed on his right forearm. In his native language, Bassa, the word means 'Everything has time.' He has used this phrase to re- main motivated during difficult times in his life, including the ups and downs of playing professional football.

Goldmine

• Okuayinonu, a native of Monrovia, Liberia, did not grow up playing football and dreaming of being an NFL player. Instead, he grew up loving the game of soccer, a much more prevalent sport in his home country.
• At the age of 12, he and his family fled from Liberia to the United States to escape the country's civil war, settling in Lowell, Massa- chusetts. Even after immigrating to the US, his love of American football took a bit longer to develop. It wasn't until his junior year of high school that his cousin introduced him to the game. "I actu- ally 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."
• He decided to give football another try during his senior year, which is when he began to take it seriously and ultimately fell in love with the sport. Okuayinonu instantly found success on the field and decided that he would work hard to play professionally.

College

• Appeared in 28 games (17 starts) in three seasons at Maryland (2019-21) and registered 103 tackles, 14.5 TFLs and 7.5 sacks after spending one year (2017) at Mesabi Range Community College (MN). As a redshirt senior in 2021, received third team All-Big Ten recognition after starting all 12 games and registering 55 tackles, 8.5 TFLs and a team-leading 6.0 sacks. In 2020, appeared in 5 games (4 starts) and registered 17 tackles, 1.5 TFLs and 0.5 sack. As a junior, appeared in 11 games (1 start) and registered 31 tackles, 4.5 TFLs and 1.0 sack. Transferred to Maryland from Mesabi Range Community College. In 2018, was named the Minnesota College Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year after starting in all 10 games and registering 62 tackles, 21.5 TFLs, 17.5 sacks, 1 FF