Okorafor, Chukvuma

Okorafor was born in Nigeria on August 8, 1997. When he was one year old, the family moved to South Africa , and a year later to Botswana . They lived there for the next six years and in 2010 emigrated to the United States . Chukwuma started playing football as a panther when he was twelve years old. At that time, he studied at the Mumford School in Detroit . A year later, Okorafor moved to Southfield School. There, he played cocker and served as a kicker on the football team. Then coach Tim Conley transferred him to the line of attack ^[1] .

After graduating from school, Chukvuma received a number of offers from various football programs, but chose the University of Western Michigan in Kalamazoo , because he wanted to play and study near his house. As a freshman, in 2014, he played twelve games for the right tackle for Western Michigan Broncos . While studying in his second year, he was already a player in the main team that won the Bahamas Bowl , this victory was the first in the history of the university’s football program ^[1] .

In 2016 and 2017, Okorafor played for the university in the left tackle position, having spent twenty-six games. In the fourth year, he became the best in the team in terms of the number of rallies spent in the attack. Chukvuma was among the contenders for the Outland Trophy, awarded the best linear attack in the NCAA championship , and also received an invitation to the Senior Bowl - an analogue of the All-Star Match for college graduates ^[2] .

In 2018, Okorafor nominated for the NFL draft. Assessing his prospects, an analyst at the League’s official website, Lance Zirlane, wrote that because of his size and potential, he would most likely be selected sooner than he could based on his current abilities. It was noted that he may have problems with actively maneuvering pass-rashers due to poor “reading of the game” ^[3] .

In the Chukwum draft, he was selected in the third round by the Pittsburgh Steelers club. He became the youngest player in one of the best NFL lines of attack at the time. He made his league debut in the first game of the season of 2018 against the Cleveland Browns . In the twelfth gaming week, Okorafor entered the field in the starting lineup of the team and successfully acted against one of the best defense players in the league, Von Miller from the Denver Broncos . The Steelers in this match showed the best result of the season for the scored yards, and the line of attack allowed only two sacks on Ben Rotlisberger ^[4] .

• NCAA Performance Statistics
• NFL Performance Statistics