Growing up in Nigeria, David Oke admittedly wasn’t a very good soccer player.
In his own words, he “kind of sucked.” His large frame and physical style of play made him an okay defender, but he couldn’t control the ball at all on the attack.
That skillset was much more suited for a different kind of football — one Oke discovered after moving to the United States in the eighth grade.
When a friend finally convinced him to try out for football as a sophomore at Alief Hastings High in Houston, it was no surprise that Oke made the varsity team, but it would have been impossible to know it was the start of a journey to the SEC.
That’s exactly where he’ll be for just his seventh year ever playing the sport, though, as Oke is one of 19 players who’ve signed with Arkansas football out of the transfer portal since the end of the 2024 season.
A 6-foot-2, 290-pound defensive tackle, he joins the Razorbacks after three seasons at Abilene Christian. Despite coming from the FCS ranks, Oke was a coveted transfer who earned a high three-star rating from 247Sports, which ranks him as the No. 207 overall player in the portal this cycle.
He is a critical addition at a position of need for Sam Pittman’s squad, but even being in this position is nothing short of a “miracle,” as Oke recently described it to Best of Arkansas Sports.
David Oke’s Journey
His bio page at Abilene Christian may list Houston as his hometown, but David Oke is originally from Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria and arguably the largest in all of Africa.
That’s where he lived until 2018, when his family decided to move to the United States. Even though his parents had “outstanding” jobs — his dad in the oil and gas department and his mom at a top university — they wanted to pursue better medical care for his younger brother, who has cerebral palsy.
While they found the physicians and therapists he needed, the Oke family also ended up in the football-crazed state of Texas. David was aware of the sport pretty early on and there was a push for him to play as a freshman, but he didn’t give in until 10th grade — and he was about as “raw” of an athlete as they come.
In addition to learning the techniques and intricacies of football, Oke had to learn the actual rules of the sport. He didn’t know what a sack was or even how the scoring system works. That learning curve was on display during a game his sophomore year.
“There’s a funny story about me when my friend caught an interception, but I didn’t understand why he had the ball because he was on defense,” Oke said. “So I actually tackled him. That story is forever in my head because it was the most funniest thing ever.”
It is something he can laugh about now, but his lack of knowledge — which was understandable, given his background — hurt him in the recruiting process.
As a junior, Oke started getting offers from FBS programs like New Mexico State, Houston, Arkansas State, Nevada and other Group of Five schools. It was a revelation that he could earn a college scholarship from football.
However, he never took any visits and didn’t think it made sense to commit somewhere without first seeing the campus. When Oke got around to figuring out where to go after his senior season, he was shocked to hear all of the coaches inform him they were already full and the offers were no longer good.
He was all set to go to Kilgore College, a JUCO program in East Texas, before getting a phone call out of the blue from Danny Phillips, the recently hired defensive line coach at Abilene Christian. Phillips had just come across Oke’s film and liked what he saw so much that he had a graduate assistant pick him up the next day and bring him to campus for a visit.
“I committed right then and there,” Oke said. “I remember that feeling, just being able to go to a Division I school and just be able to commit to them… Going to ACU was really a miracle because it didn’t feel like it was meant to be, but obviously God doesn’t make mistakes.”
Developing at Abilene Christian
When he first arrived at Abilene Christian, David Oke said he weighed about 260 pounds — pretty light for a defensive tackle, even in the FCS.
He quickly put on a “freshman 15” and was listed at 275 pounds in 2022. That was enough to earn a starting nod in the opener and play 87 defensive snaps over the first three weeks of the season, according to Pro Football Focus, even notching a sack against Missouri. His playing time dwindled after that, though, as he averaged just 14 snaps over his final seven games and finished the year with 10 tackles.
Heading into his sophomore campaign, Oke was tasked with getting up to 300 pounds. He accomplished the goal, but it was counterproductive.
“Not to bash on them, (but) we didn’t have a nutritionist, so I was eating food that made me 300, but I wasn’t eating food that would make me feel good at 300,” Oke said.
The result was him appearing in only 10 games and playing just 1 snap in one of those appearances. He did see an uptick in playing time when on the field, playing 241 snaps, and his PFF grade improved from 62.3 to 66.6, but he once again finished with only 10 tackles.
After that season, Oke set out to take better care of his body and, as he said, “it took care of me.” Down to a much healthier 290 pounds, he moved into a starting role for the Wildcats in 2024 and played a whopping 823 snaps across 14 games. That’s an average of 58.8 snaps per game, which would have ranked second among FBS interior defensive linemen this season.
His play warranted the high snap counts. Officially, Oke racked up 63 tackles, including 9.5 for loss, and had six quarterback hurries in addition to one sack. He also forced and recovered one fumble, plus broke up a couple of passes. Pro Football Focus gave him an excellent 79.5 grade — which is close to the average grade of John Ridgeway’s last two seasons at Illinois State (80.9) before transferring to Arkansas.
From the Transfer Portal to Arkansas Football
Even though he had quite a few people telling him he’d generate a lot of interest, David Oke wasn’t expecting the kind of attention he got when he hit the transfer portal after this season.
“My phone was blowing up,” Oke said. “I was lucky I didn’t have a final that day because…my phone was getting ringed up every time and it was kind of perfect. Sometime when I was on the phone with a coach, I wouldn’t get another call, so I didn’t have to hang up the phone.”
Oke said he got about 20 calls the first day and it was the same thing the next day. When the dust settled, he shared 22 offers — many from Power Four programs — on his Twitter.
Included among that group was Arkansas and defensive line coach Deke Adams quickly made an impression on the standout defensive tackle.
“He had called me and then the next time he wanted to be on the phone with FaceTime, and that kind of says a lot because a lot of coaches, they’re just calling me and offering me, but he wanted to get to know me,” Oke said. “He put me on the phone with head coach Sam Pittman the very same day, on FaceTime, even though he was busy.”
The Razorbacks were immediately a contender for Oke, who scheduled visits with them, as well as Texas Tech, USC and North Carolina.
He was an early priority for Arkansas because Eric Gregory and Keivie Rose — who accounted for more than half of the defensive tackle snaps in 2024 — had exhausted their eligibility. The Hogs needed another player or two at the position alongside returners Cam Ball, Ian Geffrard and Danny Saili.
Oke eventually picked the Razorbacks, announcing his commitment on Dec. 20. He cited the usual reasons for his decision, like the bond he felt with the coaches and players, and he had a prior relationship with former teammate Kyle Ramsey – a kicker who transferred from ACU to Arkansas last summer – but an ace up Adams’ sleeve might have helped seal the deal.
Oke the Entrepreneur and Arkansas
In addition to working at a university back in Nigeria, David Oke’s mom, Remi Oke, is also an entrepreneur.
So when the pandemic hit back in 2020, she made sure her son didn’t just sit around and waste his time.
“She owned a couple of restaurants back at home and helps a lot of kids start their businesses young,” Oke said. “So she told me to get busy while I’m in the house. We didn’t know how long the covid was going to have us locked down.”
Thus a clothing line was born: JDY Apparels. The acronym can be pronounced “Judy” and stands for Just Do You, a phrase he took to heart when he moved from Nigeria to Houston.
“When I got to the States, I wanted to fit in and it didn’t work at all because I was joining a lot of the wrong friends,” Oke said. “I didn’t know who (was wrong) and who was right. So I came up with this: Just Do You — wherever you’re at or wherever you’re in, just be yourself.”
It’s safe to say it’s more than a hobby, as Oke held a launch event in April of his senior year of high school that was actually covered by the local news and it’s only grown since then. He recently held an event at Abilene Christian in which he sold about 50 pieces, examples of which can be found on Instagram at @jdyapparels.
When Deke Adams learned about the emerging brand, he got Oke in touch with one of his friends – who just so happens to work for one of the top companies in the country and specializes in growing businesses.
The businessman (Oke didn’t want to name him) has already met with Oke once and the plan is to do so again soon. The offseason is when Oke spends most of his time building his clothing line since he pauses it during the season.
It’s a perfect example of how much things have changed for college athletics in less than a decade. In the summer of 2017, UCF kicker Donald De La Haye chose to step away from the sport when the NCAA made him choose between playing or continuing to monetize popular YouTube channel, deeming the latter made him ineligible because he was profiting off athletics-related videos.
Fast forward a little over seven years and not only can Oke leverage his status as a college football player to help grow his clothing line, but a coach was able to use it to sweeten a recruiting pitch.
It helps that this particular coach works at Arkansas, which likely offers more entrepreneurial opportunities per-capita than most other schools, given Walmart world headquarters are essentially in its backyard.
The hope is that Oke’s lone season in Fayetteville can be mutually beneficial. While taking his game – and fashion business – to the next level, he could also solidify the defensive line for an Arkansas team trying to take that next step after a 7-6 campaign in 2024.
David Oke Career Stats
| Year | Games (Starts) | Snaps* | PFF Grade* | Tackles (solo) | TFLs | Sacks | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 10 (1) | 185 | 62.3 | 10 (3) | 1 | 1 | 1 QBH, 1 FF |
| 2023 | 10 (2) | 241 | 66.6 | 10 (4) | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| 2024 | 14 (14) | 823 | 79.5 | 63 (21) | 9.5 | 1 | 6 QBH, 2 PBU, 1 FF, 1 FR |
| TOTALS | 34 (17) | 1,249 | — | 83 (28) | 10.5 | 2 | 7 QBH, 2 PBU, 2 FF, 1 FR |
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Check out who else is joining David Oke on the 2025 Arkansas football roster:
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