University of Memphis Athletics
Photo by: Joe Murphy
From The Hardwood To The Field
Oct 16, 2019 | Football
Eze, Oladele originally came to the United States to show their talents on the basketball court.
NOTE: The Obinna Eze-Kayode Oladele feature first appeared in the Sept. 26 Memphis Football GameDay program when the Tigers hosted Navy.
They came to the United States from their native Nigeria as high school students with dreams of parlaying their basketball talents into scholarship offers from American colleges.
Along the way, another sport and another dream intervened, sending Obinna Eze and Kayode Oladele in a different direction, a path that eventually led them to the University of Memphis.
When the Tigers play host to Navy tonight in the Memphis' American Athletic Conference opener at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, Eze and Oladele, who did not know one another in Nigeria, will be taking another step toward fostering their relatively newfound athletic passion.
While they enjoyed playing basketball, they have embraced football and all the game offers. Eze, a redshirt sophomore, is the team's starting left tackle. Oladele, a redshirt freshman, is a reserve defensive end.
"Probably midway through my junior year in high school is when I made up my mind that I really liked football," said Eze, who is listed at 6-foot-8 and 303 pounds.
A power forward and center, Eze had been playing basketball at Davidson Academy in Nashville. He continued to play until he graduated. But football was making an impact. He played junior varsity football in 2015 (unable to join the varsity due to rules pertaining to exchange students) and played his only season of varsity football in 2016. One season was enough to garner national attention.
During that brief period, his size and athleticism earned placement on multiple recruiting sites. He was named a top-30 offensive tackle nationally by Scout.com, 247Sports.com, Rivals.com and ESPN.com. Eze said he fell in love with the "team aspect" of football.
"I enjoyed the fact that skill wasn't enough," he said. "And the fact that football had a place for everybody. It didn't matter if you were a 5-foot-10 linebacker, if you played hard enough and gave enough effort and knew what you were doing, you had a chance to make it however far you wanted."
Basketball, he said, sometimes puts "a limitation on you if you don't have certain height, or certain skill."
Oladele came to the United States as an exchange student at age 16 to play basketball. Much like Eze, Oladele discovered football midway through his prep basketball career.
"I developed an interest in football," Oladele said. "I talked to my (guardian) and said 'Can I play this sport'?"
His guardian told him if he was interested, he should try out. Attracted to the physicality of the sport, Oladele said he wanted the opportunity.
"I started practicing (during the 2016 season) and I was doing OK," Oladele said. "The transition from football to basketball wasn't that difficult, but it's two different sports."
Oladele said he played in his first organized football game during May 2016 at Miami Edison High's spring scrimmage. In the fall of 2016, he made his official debut and appeared in six games. He was credited with 56 tackles and six sacks during a season in which his playing time was limited by an ankle injury.
He transferred to Champagnat Catholic in 2017, but was unable to compete because of visa issues. Champagnat won the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A state championship.
"My senior season was gone, so I was pretty much just working out and practicing with my team," Oladele said. "I just couldn't step on the field."
Oladele said he actually received seven scholarship offers before he took a snap in a sanctioned game. Schools were impressed with his size and mobility. Several had seen him play basketball.
"(College) coaches were saying at the time 'We can teach you to play football'," Oladele said. "I had done pretty good in the spring game."
Memphis defensive coordinator Adam Fuller said Oladele visited Marshall when Fuller was on the Thundering Herd staff.
"I met him two years ago," Fuller said. "I saw that he was here right before I got here. That was pretty neat."
Fuller got his first opportunity to coach Oladele during spring practice. He came away impressed.
"He's new to football," Fuller said. "He has not played a lot of football from high school to now. But he did a lot of natural football things. He played in good football position. He played with his hands well. He had good knee bend. He ran well. He's tall and he's strong.
"To me, what was exciting was that in (spring) practices 1, 2 and 3, Kayode was in good football position. That was a positive. Now he's got a long way to go and lot of work to put in, but his fundamental tools are not super raw. He has some naturalness to him. Hopefully, we can get the treadmill going a little faster on his development."
As a high school senior, Oladele originally committed to Florida State, but when Jimbo Fisher left to take the Texas A&M job, Oladele de-committed. He was a member of Auburn's 2018 signing class, but did not enroll at the university. He joined the Memphis program in August 2018.
Oladele and Eze met before coming to Memphis. Oladele said they both participated at the Alabama football camp in 2017. It was Eze who convinced Oladele that the Tigers' football program would be a good fit.
"I was talking to Obinna (after not enrolling at Auburn), and he said I was going to like it (at Memphis)," Oladele said. "He said the coaches were pretty straight-forward. He said they'll take their time to develop you. He's my brother. I knew I could trust his word."
They came to the United States from their native Nigeria as high school students with dreams of parlaying their basketball talents into scholarship offers from American colleges.
Along the way, another sport and another dream intervened, sending Obinna Eze and Kayode Oladele in a different direction, a path that eventually led them to the University of Memphis.
When the Tigers play host to Navy tonight in the Memphis' American Athletic Conference opener at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, Eze and Oladele, who did not know one another in Nigeria, will be taking another step toward fostering their relatively newfound athletic passion.
While they enjoyed playing basketball, they have embraced football and all the game offers. Eze, a redshirt sophomore, is the team's starting left tackle. Oladele, a redshirt freshman, is a reserve defensive end.
"Probably midway through my junior year in high school is when I made up my mind that I really liked football," said Eze, who is listed at 6-foot-8 and 303 pounds.
A power forward and center, Eze had been playing basketball at Davidson Academy in Nashville. He continued to play until he graduated. But football was making an impact. He played junior varsity football in 2015 (unable to join the varsity due to rules pertaining to exchange students) and played his only season of varsity football in 2016. One season was enough to garner national attention.
During that brief period, his size and athleticism earned placement on multiple recruiting sites. He was named a top-30 offensive tackle nationally by Scout.com, 247Sports.com, Rivals.com and ESPN.com. Eze said he fell in love with the "team aspect" of football.
"I enjoyed the fact that skill wasn't enough," he said. "And the fact that football had a place for everybody. It didn't matter if you were a 5-foot-10 linebacker, if you played hard enough and gave enough effort and knew what you were doing, you had a chance to make it however far you wanted."
Basketball, he said, sometimes puts "a limitation on you if you don't have certain height, or certain skill."
Oladele came to the United States as an exchange student at age 16 to play basketball. Much like Eze, Oladele discovered football midway through his prep basketball career.
"I developed an interest in football," Oladele said. "I talked to my (guardian) and said 'Can I play this sport'?"
His guardian told him if he was interested, he should try out. Attracted to the physicality of the sport, Oladele said he wanted the opportunity.
"I started practicing (during the 2016 season) and I was doing OK," Oladele said. "The transition from football to basketball wasn't that difficult, but it's two different sports."
Oladele said he played in his first organized football game during May 2016 at Miami Edison High's spring scrimmage. In the fall of 2016, he made his official debut and appeared in six games. He was credited with 56 tackles and six sacks during a season in which his playing time was limited by an ankle injury.
He transferred to Champagnat Catholic in 2017, but was unable to compete because of visa issues. Champagnat won the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A state championship.
"My senior season was gone, so I was pretty much just working out and practicing with my team," Oladele said. "I just couldn't step on the field."
Oladele said he actually received seven scholarship offers before he took a snap in a sanctioned game. Schools were impressed with his size and mobility. Several had seen him play basketball.
"(College) coaches were saying at the time 'We can teach you to play football'," Oladele said. "I had done pretty good in the spring game."
Memphis defensive coordinator Adam Fuller said Oladele visited Marshall when Fuller was on the Thundering Herd staff.
"I met him two years ago," Fuller said. "I saw that he was here right before I got here. That was pretty neat."
Fuller got his first opportunity to coach Oladele during spring practice. He came away impressed.
"He's new to football," Fuller said. "He has not played a lot of football from high school to now. But he did a lot of natural football things. He played in good football position. He played with his hands well. He had good knee bend. He ran well. He's tall and he's strong.
"To me, what was exciting was that in (spring) practices 1, 2 and 3, Kayode was in good football position. That was a positive. Now he's got a long way to go and lot of work to put in, but his fundamental tools are not super raw. He has some naturalness to him. Hopefully, we can get the treadmill going a little faster on his development."
As a high school senior, Oladele originally committed to Florida State, but when Jimbo Fisher left to take the Texas A&M job, Oladele de-committed. He was a member of Auburn's 2018 signing class, but did not enroll at the university. He joined the Memphis program in August 2018.
Oladele and Eze met before coming to Memphis. Oladele said they both participated at the Alabama football camp in 2017. It was Eze who convinced Oladele that the Tigers' football program would be a good fit.
"I was talking to Obinna (after not enrolling at Auburn), and he said I was going to like it (at Memphis)," Oladele said. "He said the coaches were pretty straight-forward. He said they'll take their time to develop you. He's my brother. I knew I could trust his word."
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