For a better life for his family, Paul Attaochu left his wife and children in Nigeria for four years to work and go to school, surviving on as little as three or four hours of sleep. His son has re-paid him by playing a game completely foreign to him, not that Jeremiah Attaochu hasn’t tried to explain it to him.
“Several times,” said Paul, bemusement in his voice. “I don’t understand it at all.”
His confusion can be excused. Paul Attaochu continues to work two jobs — he is a pastor and a licensed practical nurse — so he hasn’t been left much time to absorb American football. For his son, however, the game is becoming increasingly transparent. A rising sophomore outside linebacker at Georgia Tech, Attaochu’s gift for knocking down ballcarriers should become obvious even to his father this fall.
“He’s looked very good,” A-back Roddy Jones said of Attaochu’s play this spring. “The defense has looked good as a whole. They’re very athletic. They all move very well, but I think Jerry’s stood out the most.”
Tech fans can measure Attaochu’s progress Saturday at the T-Day game at Bobby Dodd Stadium. They’ll likely see a player who attacks faster and with more certainty, as well as someone who’s carrying more heft. Attaochu, who contributed as a backup last fall as a freshman, has continued to grow into the role that he fits snugly.
“I feel pretty good,” he said. “The confidence is definitely up.”
When he was coach at Virginia, defensive coordinator Al Groh identified Attaochu as an ideal fit to play outside linebacker in his 3-4 defense. Groh knows more than a little about spotting and developing players for that position. At both the college and NFL level, he coached the defining 3-4 outside linebacker, Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor. Two others are Carl Banks, a member of the NFL’s all-1980s team, and most recently Clint Sintim, a star at Virginia chosen in the second round of the 2009 draft.
The position requires a fearsome wealth of assets — size, speed, strength, agility — to rush the passer, defend the run and drop back in pass coverage, and the willingness to do all of them.
“I’d certainly say so,” said Groh, when asked if Attaochu fits the bill. “He’s in the [6-foot-3]-plus range and 240, he’s got good athletic skills, he’s got good mental versatility to handle the number of different jobs.”
Groh was fired at Virginia after the 2009 season and subsequently hired at Tech. He persuaded Attaochu, from Archbishop Carroll in Washington, to come along.
The attraction is not hard to understand. Despite playing a different defense in high school, he was enamored with the 3-4 outside linebacker spot, starting with Dallas Cowboys All-Pro DeMarcus Ware.
Groh “thought I could do a lot of things like [Sintim],” Attaochu said. “That was a great compliment.”
Last year, Attaochu (pronounced ah-TAH-oh-chu) played 12 games, all but one as a backup, making 23 tackles with three sacks, learning the college game and the defense on the fly. Since then, he has studied video, gone from 224 pounds to 238 and developed under Groh’s tutelage this spring. He has been working with the first-string defense.
This fall, his playmaking acumen could lift a Tech defense that finished ninth in the ACC in both total defense and scoring defense.
“He’s made leaps and bounds,” defensive end Jason Peters said. “With his athleticism and tenaciousness to the ball, we’re going to need him.”
Both literally and metaphorically, Attaochu is a long way from the boy who spent his first eight years in Ibadan, Nigeria, kicking a soccer ball made of rags held together with twine. Paul Attaochu left Nigeria for the Washington area, studying, working and living by himself until he could bring his family to the United States.
In time, his son was captured by football, watching on television and practicing by himself at home. Playing for Archbishop Carroll, Paul Attaochu said, “He was a live wire.”
Mr. Attaochu may know more football than he lets on.
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