Notre Dame Football: How Romeo Okwara's Surging in Senior Season

Notre Dame football’s quest for pass-rushing productivity involves a move from Nigeria, a 17-year old freshman and a surging senior.

Without question, senior captain Sheldon Day and junior end Isaac Rochell have been valuable components along the Irish defensive line. Yet it’s senior defensive end Romeo Okwara pacing Notre Dame with nine sacks—six more than Day and seven more than anyone else on the Irish defense.

Okwara, who notched just 3.5 sacks and seven tackles for loss in his first three seasons in South Bend, has posted eight sacks over his last five games, including two against Pittsburgh and three more against Wake Forest on Saturday.

The 6’4”, 270-pounder moved from Nigeria to the United States as a sixth-grader and, being especially young for his class, arrived on campus at Notre Dame before his freshman season as a freshly minted 17-year old.

“He came onto campus as a 17-year-old that just really was a raw player, raw football player and has grown in a very short period of time this year into the kind of football player that I think has a huge growth potential in front of him as well,” Irish head coach Brian Kelly said.

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Notre Dame deployed Okwara as both a defensive end and an outside linebacker during his first few seasons, and the Charlotte, North Carolina, product only logged one start and a half-sack in his first two years.

In his first year under defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder in 2014, Okwara made 12 starts at defensive end.

“This is something I’ve been working on each and every year,” Okwara told reporters after the Wake Forest game. “I’ve just been working on things, especially transitioning from the defensive line to outside linebacker and then back to defensive line. I’ve just been working on my game wherever they put me and I try the best that I can wherever they have me.”

Before halftime against the Demon Deacons, Okwara broke free on the left side of the defensive line and hurdled Wake Forest running back Tyler Bell, who helplessly shuffled over in pass protection. In one graceful motion, Okwara flopped onto quarterback John Wolford, who unsuccessfully tried ducking away from the impending sack.

Okwara capped off the highlight-reel play with an epee-inspired fencing celebration.

That play, in particular, stood out to Kelly for the importance of confidence in his players.

“He's playing with some of that reckless abandon that at times he was kind of feeling his way through his role in his play, where now he's really confident in what he's doing and how he's doing it,” Kelly said. “I think that's probably the biggest key for him right now.”

In turn, Okwara has helped key the Irish defense. Notre Dame’s 19 sacks rank tied for 76th in the country, right around where the Irish have finished nationally in each of the previous two seasons.

“We're just seeing that maturation process kind of come together,” Kelly said. “Long, athletic, starting to really understand the game of football and I think that's what we're seeing in front of us.”

All quotes were obtained firsthand and all stats courtesy of cfbstats.com unless otherwise noted.

Mike Monaco is the lead Notre Dame writer for Bleacher Report. Follow @MikeMonaco_ on Twitter.