Despite playing just one year of club football at Ohio State, Praise Olatoke is getting the chance to chase his NFL dream through the league’s International Pathway Program.
Praise Olatoke had never played a snap of football when he joined Ohio State’s club football team in 2022. Two years later, Olatoke has a chance to play in the NFL.
“It was some of the best time of my life,” Olatoke said. “It was such a good experience. And it was really, I think, having that, it was a step. Not too big a step, but having that step really helped. Because it showed me and gave me the confidence that I can do this.” “I've sort of established to myself that this is what I want to do. So I'm not going to let this opportunity go by me because of ignorance or attitude or character,” Olatoke said. “I know physically, I can do it. I’m tall enough, fast enough, I’ve got the right makeup. So just marrying those two together gives me confidence that I can do what I say I want to do.”
“Unfortunately, he joined like three weeks before our season started, and having never played American football, he struggled to learn the verbiage and timing and spacing and things,” Grega said. “But I remember he started picking it up slowly but surely as the year went on, and as we started playing better competition throughout the year, he started getting better.
“When I was at Ohio State, I didn't know X from Z, I didn't know the offense or defense. I just didn't,” Olatoke said. “So sort of learning the game and actually studying and understanding what's going on or why it happens and all that stuff has helped me a lot and has been some of the biggest things I’ve learned.”
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