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Great Article in SI about AOA

I was excited when we drafted AOA because I had just read a nice feature on him by SI's Peter King in their NFL draft preview. Here's a snippet:

Thanks in part to the mentoring of Tepper, who coached 28 years in Division I, including six as head coach at Illinois, where he nurtured NFL first-round defenders Simeon Rice and Kevin Hardy. At IUP, Owusu-Ansah learned proper backpedal and cover techniques while playing mostly corner, then switched to safety for much of his senior year. He had just two interceptions and 27 tackles as a senior, but, Tepper explains, "no one threw at him. He was just so much better than everyone else. I've coached at Virginia Tech, Colorado, Illinois and LSU, and I can promise you he would have started and excelled in any of those programs."

NFL scouts started sniffing around after Owusu-Ansah ran a 4.46-second 40 as a junior—on a linoleum-tiled hallway in the field house. Scouts were on the sidelines of IUP practice regularly last fall. "I'd tell them all the same thing," Tepper says. "His height, weight and [40] time all fit the NFL. His character fits the NFL. And on Day One in the NFL he can cover kicks and return punts and kicks. I see him as a two-deep safety up there. He can play corner, but I think he'd be more gifted at safety."

Link

King loves him. He tweeted this before the start of the 4th round:

Mark my words: Someone will get a bargain in Indiana (Pa.) CB-S-Ret Akwasi Owusu-Ansah in this round.

and then 45 minutes later tweeted this after we made the pick:

Congratulations, Wade Phillips. You just made a great pick in Owusu-Ansah.

Hopefully he's right. It sounds like the kid has the goods.

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