How did Daniel Akinkunmi land with OU football from England after barely playing sport?

Daniel Akinkunmi used to stroll into Southgate College in North London carrying massive lunch boxes filled with chicken and rice.

He transported the food three hours each morning by train from North England to stay on top of his diet and then carried them home each evening to be refilled the next day. When he arrived on campus in the mornings for the year in which he made that commute, the food was still hot.

Akinkunmi’s offensive line coach at the NFL Academy at Southgate, Gavin Collins, finally asked him one day, “How the hell do you heat this up?” There were no microwaves at the school.

It turns out Akinkunmi had searched online and bought a portable microwave, which he trekked on the trains each day to keep his food warm. Collins, a lover of food, had never heard of such a thing and was impressed.

That was the moment Collins knew Akinkunmi was as dedicated as any player who had come through the academy, which the NFL created in 2019 to expand the United States’ most popular sport internationally.

Fast forward a few years and Akinkunmi, who has only been playing offensive line for just over two years, has settled in at left guard for OU's football team the ahead of spring practice, which begins Monday. Not only does Akinkunmi stand out for his unorthodox path to playing major college football and being a British-born player playing in Oklahoma, but his drive — showcased by the six-hour-a-day commutes he used to get here — is second to none.

With the Sooners’ offensive line depth depleted this offseason, Akinkunmi is the type of player who could turn heads with his preparation and maturity. As a 6-foot-4, 310-pound prospect, Akinkunmi jumped off the tape and shined at camps, piquing OU offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh’s interest and leading to an eventual bond between the two.

“What a tremendous addition to OU football,” said Lamonte Winston, the head of NFL Academy. “And from a person who used to scout that area for (Kansas City). I've been to that place many, many times and to many, many games on Saturday. So, I understand that tradition. We're so proud. … He'll make OU proud.”

Originally from East London, Akinkunmi and his mother moved to the northern region of England for a better living environment. When the opportunity to enroll at Southgate and train with college and NFL coaches arose, the then-15-year-old committed to meal prep, travel, go to class, lift, practice football, travel some more and then repeat the cycle every day.

"I really expect Daniel to come in and make this place better right away," OU coach Brent Venables said during his signing day press conference on Dec. 20. "He’s got a great testimony as well, and a lighter side to him that’s really infectious.”

Even with a lot of his days being spent on public transit, Akinkunmi never missed a class or a practice.

“He bought in straight away to where he worked hard,” Collins told The Oklahoman.

Akinkunmi gets his work ethic from his mother. Most parents wouldn’t be too keen on their child traveling hours each day by train, but she knew her son’s capabilities.

When the coaching staff was hesitant about the plan, she convinced them Akinkunmi was diligent enough to make it happen and adamant they wouldn’t move away from their better living situation.

“His mum's been everything to him,” Collins said. “She's supported him regardless of his decision, she's helped guide him. … And she has been nothing but supportive. Anything he's done, she's been behind him — 100% since day one.”

Before enrolling in the academy, Akinkunmi had played American football for only a year. He didn’t play 11-man football until age 16 when he arrived on campus.

In the United Kingdom, soccer and rugby dominate youth athletics. Most students who come through the academy play 11-man football for only a year or two before going on to playing at U.S. colleges.

“You’ve got young men that have been playing this game as short as eight months with one game,” Winston told The Oklahoman. “We have had some guys like Daniel who have played it a tad bit longer, maybe two years. Before that Daniel wasn't playing football, he was playing rugby or he was playing soccer and maybe a little bit of basketball, not much.

“It speaks a lot to the ability, that actual athletic ability, that they have but also their desire and their approach to learn a game that they don't know.”

More: OU football: What's the biggest area of focus for Oklahoma Sooners' 2025 recruiting class?

‘Got the bug’

Akinkunmi’s first two years at the NFL Academy were spent during the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing him to stay in the U.K. and miss U.S. recruiting camps.

However in 2022, Akinkunmi embarked on a U.S. tour. He attended his first major camp in front of college scouts in Baltimore, before returning to the states for a camp in Houston, the one at SMU and another at TCU in Fort Worth.

That June at SMU’s mega camp, Akinkunmi stood in his three-point stance prepared to take on whichever defender came his way next.

Given his limited experience, he had been placed in a group with less-talented campers. After physically turning defenders around without breaking sweat, a coach asked Akinkunmi, “Have you been with this group the whole time?”

He nodded. The coach then motioned toward the top group and said, “Go over there.”

Akinkunmi proceeded to dominate that group as well, which included some of the best defensive linemen prospects nationally.

“That was his first experience of summer camps in front of all these coaches,” Collins said, “and … he had already had the work ethic but then he just got the bug for these camps and he could see where he needed to go and what he needed to do.”

Back home during the weekends when most teenagers were hanging with friends or partying, Akinkunmi worked on his footwork and made highlight videos for coaches. Collins gave him a weekly workout plan, which Akinkunmi stuck to.

In 2022, the academy moved to Loughborough University, which has better facilities.

“He was relentless,” Collins said, noting Akinkunmi took on a part-time job to help foot the bills associated with pursuing his dream.

“It is a grind at times. Sometimes it’s great fun, sometimes you don’t want to do it. But he never lost sight, regardless of how he felt or what he was going through or what he needed to do to get where he wanted. Some of these kids get offers and they’re like, ‘OK that’s fine.’ But he was always striving for the next thing.”

He received his first offer from Washington State on the spot at a camp. The next thing he knew he was visiting schools like Clemson, Georgia and OU.

OU pulled out all the stops for his visit, decorating his hotel room with pictures, bags of candy, a cake and handwritten letters from every coach on staff. Bedenbaugh hosted Akinkunmi and his mother, taking them to breakfast at Neighborhood Jam and giving them a tour of the facilities.

After returning home from Norman, he knew it was where he wanted to go to school.

He walked into Collins’ office to share the news he was planning to commit to Venables and at first the coach was skeptical. Akinkunmi had done the same thing after visiting Baylor and Arkansas, but his demeanor was different about the Sooners.

“He just said it was the environment,” Collins said. “He didn’t feel out of place. They were welcoming, he loved how (Bedenbaugh) talked about the details. Daniel loves the details of the process.”

At the NFL Academy, it takes loving the details to succeed.

At his first U.S. camp, Akinkunmi had been playing offensive line for only a little over five months.

“Daniel is phenomenal,” Winston said. “There's gonna be a lot like him just because of how (the Academy’s players’) mental approach is to the game and wanting to understand, wanting to know, these young men love to practice.

“We have to make them leave the practice field. … (For Akinkunmi) to show enough on tape to where Coach Venables was like, ‘You know, we really like this guy.’ For Daniel to have over 35 offers and he’s played probably eight games in his career, that’s pretty telling.”

More: OU football recruiting class 2024: Meet Danny Okoye, Oklahoma Sooners’ early signees

‘That’s Daniel’

Akinkunmi phoned the academy’s head offices in the U.K. last year with an inquiry.

It had just been announced that Winston, who has over 37 years of experience working in football in America, would be taking over the academy and Akinkunmi wanted his phone number. “The mayor,” as Winston calls Akinkunmi, wanted to grill him about his plans for the academy.

“That’s Daniel,” Winston said. “A day hasn’t gone by where I (haven’t thought of that).”

Before joining the academy, Winston held prominent roles with the Kansas City Chiefs as executive director of player development, and formerly the Oakland Raiders as director of player engagement. He applies what he’s learned in the states in helping lead in Loughborough.

Akinkunmi is addicted to the process of improving himself and is obsessed with the details of getting there, not unlike his new head coach at OU, who keeps detailed notes in a pad he keeps in his pocket every day charting his vision for perpetual growth.

“Look, if there’s anybody now who’d like to tap out…” Venables said he told his players last season during one of his coaches shows. “Anybody that wants to leave, I’ll help you leave. … I’ll escort you to the door right now…. You’re either all in or you’re not. The best is the standard all the time, not when it’s convenient and easy.”

A player who made six-hour daily commutes to improve himself embodies that standard.

“The good thing about our guys,” Winston says, “is they don't have a lot of bad habits because they haven't played for many coaches. … We're (teaching) fundamentals — I think that's what coaches see. I'm sure, just in the short time Daniel's been there competing in offseason weight training and running and all that, they’re seeing that in these guys, man, they never tire. They are detail-oriented and they're aggressive.”

Since arriving on campus in January, Akinkunmi has been living his best life keeping up his YouTube page, which has close to 3,000 subscribers, and attending OU basketball games. While it’s naturally a bit of a culture shock moving to a new country, he feels at home in Oklahoma.

On his first day in Norman, defensive tackles coach Todd Bates took him to Walmart to help him set up his room with all the essentials from smoothies to snacks to sandwiches.

“He's adjusted, Daniel just fits in,” Collins said. “That's why he went to Oklahoma because it felt like his next home, it wasn't like, they're all backwards down here. Certainly, as soon as he went there, he knew. He could feel that he liked the culture. For a young man, he is pretty mature and knows how the world's gonna work.

“He is smart. He's got his head screwed on right. So he knew what to expect and he's just gone into it and he's enjoying it.”

An example of that: He spent his first night here not hitting up Campus Corner, but rather watching Sooners’ film from last season on his iPad in his Headington Hall dorm where an NFL Academy football sits atop his dresser to remind him of where he came from.

Now more than 4,600 miles from London, Akinkunmi’s daily commute has shrunk from six hours roundtrip to a simple walk back and forth across Lindsey Street to OU’s football facilities. Better yet, he has a microwave in his room.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football OL Daniel Akinkunmi’s journey from England shows his drive