During the Camping World Bowl last month, Notre Dame ROVER Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah was a one-man wrecking crew. He was a heat-seeking missile against Iowa State. His performance earned him national recognition earlier this week when ESPN named JOK to their 2019 All Bowl Team.
Against the Cyclones, Owusu-Koramoah racked up 9 tackles, 4 TFL, 3 sacks, and he forced and recovered a fumble. He was everywhere and was a major reason why Notre Dame shut down an offense that had enough firepower to make that bowl interesting. Notre Dame’s defense, however, never let Iowa State get comfortable as JOK and crew harassed ISU quarterback Brock Purdy all day long.
The rest of ESPN”s All-Bowl team reads like a virtual Who’s Who of elite, NFL-bound athletes across the country so JOK is in some great company here.
2019 was a huge year for Owusu-Koramoah and this accolade is just the icing on the cake. Over the last two years, JOK flashed the kind of raw potential that had previous defensive coordinator Mike Elko so quick to offer him when he was hired in January of 2017. An injury in camp in 2018, however, derailed his sophomore year so he started 2019 with little experience.
From week one on, we saw Owusu-Koramoah give us glimpses each and every week of the kind of wrecking ball he could be for this defense. Early on we also saw glimpses of his inexperience causing him to overpursue and be out of position. Those latter instances became few and far between, however, as the season progressed.
Heading into the 2020 season, JOK is one of the cornerstone pieces on a Notre Dame defense that must replace six starters (Khalid Kareem, Julian Okwara, Troy Pride, Jalen Elliott, and Asmar Bilal). He, along with Kyle Hamilton, gives Notre Dame its best chance for a star player. After what we saw at the end of the season, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for Owusu-Koramoah to be an All-American candidate for the Irish in 2020.
There will be some speculation this off-season about whether or not Notre Dame should move him to BUCK just like they did their previous to ROVERs – Drue Tranquill and Bilal – but in this case, it seems like JOK is such an absolute perfect fit at ROVER that it is best served this defense to keep him right where he is and let him do what he did to Iowa State, to every one on the 2020 Notre Dame schedule.
I thought Storespook said he (she?) was from Iowa (the first primary)? Or did I misread something?
PS: Carl, you have no idea how good an idea it would be to put Bob Rodes, another FAC BRAT, in the White House. He comes very highly recommended by my brothers (Dave and Roger) though I myself did not know him personally, and I doubt he needs the job. If you can’t vote “Rodes” in your state, let’s start a national “draft Storespook” movement. At least either of those guys would actually try to get something done besides inquisitional hearings of various sorts and impeachments, which are always easier than balancing budgets, fixing healthcare, upgrading infrastructure, regulating high technology privacy issues, bringing energy production and distribution into non-obsolescence, and effectively protecting the environment. And with apologies to all, I won’t be writing anything else “political” here.
GO IRISH.
BGC ’77 ’82
Bruce, gotcha now regarding the reference, on Iowa being the 1st Caucus ( not a Primary event). Yep, they scream about that here in corn field country (AKA Iowa) every 4 years.
Go Irish
Notre Dame defense will rely on young players like Drew White, Shayne Simon, Bo Bauer etc. This defense will be young but has the potential to be more talented than the previous years. We have major depth in our D line and at linebacker and the secondary is solid. Owusu is a freak of nature and has intsticnts you can’t. Teach, he just a solid football player. I hope shayne Simon comes around as well. Isaiah Pryor was also a huge pickup he’s a freak of nature to and his personality fits of a Notre Dame player he’s a bright kid and also a really good football player, Ohio State was not his type of environment (I went to high school with Pryor). Can’t wait until next season.
I would vote for Bob Rodes Just vote regardless of party, if more folks voted we would be a much better country. That said I really enjoy reading all of your comments regarding ND some of you i agree with some I don’t but that’s what makes it fun every season. like you all Carl
Bob, Pete Buttigieg is a FAC BRAT, as some of the “regular” students used to call us at Notre Dame. Those students certainly considered it to be a derisive term, and they meant it to be hurtful, no doubt,…but many of us embraced it as an honor, much like the term “Fighting Irish” during the roaring twenties.
Vote for whoever seems to be the best candidate to you, Bob. Unfortunately, I cannot vote in the Indiana Primary, because in order to do so, I would have to declare myself to be either a Democrat or a Republican…and I would rather be tortured to death than to be associated with either of those parties, as those who know me might well suspect. But that never means there can’t be a good man or woman to come out of the primaries and get my vote in the “real” election in November, where I can vote as an Independent, which is what I have always been, without having to register as a Rebumblecon or a Demonrat.
So if you live in a state that allows you to vote in a primary without betraying your own principles, please do so, and keep the FAC BRAT in mind as one possible candidate. I don’t endorse, because nobody would listen to me anyway, but I confess that I do identify with the rigorous religious training most FAC BRATS were raised around, and it does matter to me, if you are interested. I greatly preferred the brief version of all this, but you seemed to ask. Thanks, Bob…vote your conscience.
BGC ’77 ’82
I don’t get the reference to FAC BRAT, or whether the commenter supports or opposes this candidate, but the inference is that the commenter is urging a point of view on a candidate. I did not take this as a general encouragement to vote. You’re right that Notre Dame football can be just as divisive as politics, but my point is to avoid extraneous division, not division itself.
Agree 100% Frank – keep the man at ROVER! He has a chance to rewrite the book at that position…to reset the bar. And besides, we have people for BUCK this year. There is no need for JOK to move to that position.
FYI, to Storespook firstly, and then to everyone eventually: We have a “FAC BRAT” in the Presidential primaries…please consider doing your duty for God, Country and Notre Dame. Vote early and often, as we do on the Southside, right Southside?
BGC ’77 ’82
Bruce, don’t know to whom you are referring, but let’s keep politics, a divisive topic, out of Notre Dame football discussions.
Seems to me that asking everyone to vote isn’t a divisive topic, so long as you don’t say anything about whom to vote for. Pretty much everyone who has anything to do with politics votes, right? Voting seems a whole lot less divisive a topic than any topic having anything to do with Notre Dame football. Do you disagree?
Bruce, not sure why the “FYI” reference to me, I haven’t discussed any governmental politics whatsoever on this posting site. In 2016, for the record ( since those who know me personally know this)I voted for myself as a write in for POTUS and I plan to do so again in November. As to JOK, I say keep him where he has been. He’s a defensive BEAST at his position.
Go Irish
BGC , My roots are from south side of Chicago ( as yours were). That area was God , Country, Notre Dame—predominently Catholics , Democrats(Mayor Daley) and of course Notre Dame fans. Hope this response to south side is close to what you were refering to ? Kinda lost on the Fac Brac and Storespook part.
Southside: all my “southside” relatives (Curme, Zimmermann, Scavone, and Styz) used to put it one of two ways:
1. In Cook County we vote early and often, or 2. In Cook County we are so patriotic that even our dead vote. Does that sound about right for Mayor Daley’s Chicago?
BGC ’77 ’82
St. Patrick forgive me, I left out “Callahans”
BGC ’77 ’82
Ha , agree BGC —dead votes too !
dead votes matter
BGC ’77 ’82