Franklin Nonyelu Okam, Jr. is an American football defensive tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was drafted by the Houston Texans in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He played college football at Texas. Of Nigerian descent, Okam attended Lake Highlands High School in Dallas, Texas, where he competed in football, basketball, and track & field, while holding a 3.9 GPA. As a senior at Lake Highlands, Okam achieved a 345 lb bench max, 500 lb squat max, 29 inch vertical, and an impressive 4.9 40-yard dash for a man of his size. He weighed in at 300 pounds on a... 6 ft 5 in frame. Okam was highly recruited as the second ranked defensive tackle in the nation, Okam received scholarship offers from Florida, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Stanford among other universities. He played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and the Oil Bowl in which he got Defensive MVP following his senior season. Okam contributed immediately as a true freshman, earning first-team Freshman All-America honors from Sporting News. As a sophomore, he started all 13 games and earned second-team All-Big 12 honors from the league's coaches.
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