MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It still requires an interviewer’s persistence to pry much from Noble Nwachukwu. The kid doesn’t waste syllables. He carried the same stoic, almost expressionless, disposition back in high school at Wylie, Texas, which factored into his limited recruitment.
“You couldn’t talk to him on the phone, was hard to talk to him in person,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “Just not very sociable.”
Some recruiters couldn’t envision the passive, soft-spoken kid possessing the mean streak needed to play defensive end. Others couldn’t envision the 6-foot-tall tweener fitting their schemes. Some thought he was too raw after not playing football until his junior year. But Daron Roberts, the former West Virginia assistant Holgorsen credits fully for signing Nwachukwu, saw something too promising to ignore.
“Yeah, he was undersized for his position, but watching tape on Noble, you saw his quickness off the ball was extraordinary,” Roberts said. “In talking with other coaches, some didn’t think he could stand up and play inside linebacker, and they didn’t think he could be a nose. I was coaching cornerbacks, but I knew there must be something we can do with him.
“I thought if someone doesn’t find a place for him, then that’s the coach’s fault. Maybe it was a recruiter’s optimism, but in my heart I knew he could play and I thought we could get him at West Virginia.”
Assigned to recruit Dallas and East Texas, Roberts saw loads of college-ready talent being courted, pitched and picked over by plenty of other schools. Nwachukwu had offers from Iowa and Kansas, but aside from a few conversations with TCU and Texas Tech, he wasn’t a priority for other Power Five programs. So West Virginia, new to the Big 12 conference, had its window.
Then it was up to Roberts to establish a line of communication with Nwachukwu’s parents, immigrants from Nigeria who Holgorsen recalled as speaking “broken English.” They weren’t football fans, and upon speaking with Roberts, they cared little about defensive schemes or launching their son into the NFL.
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Though communication with the parents was clunky at times—and football jargon a complete non-starter—Roberts recalled “it was not hard to get them to talk about Noble.” Nwachukwu’s mother, Isabel, was particularly interested in WVU’s campus culture and how her son might fit in.
“She asked me so many questions about student life, majors, the party scene, and where the football players hung out,” Roberts said. “We spent a lot of time talking through those questions. It was very obvious—even beyond a mother’s affection for her son—that he was the center of her life and she was going to be very influential in the decision.”
Soon Roberts had questions of his own. Teachers and coaches at Wylie East High School vouched for Nwachukwu’s character, and Roberts even received a telling affirmation from a janitor.
“They all told me Noble was the nicest kid you’ll ever meet. And they talked about how different he was on the football field in terms of aggression.”
Roberts’ next step? Convincing Nwachukwu to visit West Virginia, a prerequisite for then-defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich to extend a formal scholarship offer.
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During one of WVU’s summer camps in 2011, Nwachukwu visited with his father, Emmanuel, and a Wylie East teammate. The three spent an hour with Roberts and Kirelawich before getting back in their car, which is when the coaches learned they had driven from Dallas.
“I asked Noble where they were staying the night and he said they were driving straight back,” Roberts said. “I said, to Dallas? And he said yes.”
Before the car had left the parking lot, Kirelawich told Roberts how much he liked Nwachukwu and that the offer was good.
“Other schools were sort of keeping him on the line, but I told him we’re not going to pulling that offer if we get other kids,” Roberts said. “We were going to make him a priority.”
What does Nwachukwu remember about flying back to West Virginia for an official visit that fall?
“That it was 80 degrees in Texas, so I came up wearing shorts. But it was snowing in Morgantown.”
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Hearing that Nwachukwu made the preseason All-Big 12 team, Roberts swelled with pride. The ex-coach, who now directs the University of Texas Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation, considers Nwachukwu one of his favorite signees in two years at WVU.
Before the Mountaineers or other colleges became involved, Wylie East football coach Bill Howard had to recruit Nwachukwu away from basketball.
“You would not believe the time and effort it took trying to convince him, with AAU basketball coaches telling them how great they are,” Howard said.
“Basketball seems pretty easy when you get to stay in a gym with air conditioning. But football is hard work, especially with our offseason when it’s 110 degrees outside. The practices are long and hot, and Noble was a little bit reluctant to come out and have to work that hard.”
Nwachukwu had tried football briefly in middle school, when he fancied himself as a receiver only to be moved to offensive line.
“It wasn’t fun back then,” he recalled. “I really wasn’t feeling it.”
That changed before his junior year when Howard and Wylie assistant Jimmy Carter finally convinced Nwachukwu the scholarship prospects were much brighter for a 6-foot defensive end than a 6-foot post player.
Nwachukwu promptly had “a phenomenal year,” Howard said, and Wylie went five rounds deep in the state playoffs.
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Nwachukwu still owns the high school’s record in the discus and reached the Texas state track championships, though that’s not a rarity in his household. His older sister Michelle was a sprinter at Baylor, and his younger sister Andrea is a freshman long-jumper at Texas A&M.
“It’s a real competitive family,” he said. “Just watch us play basketball.”
Nwachukwu’s younger brother Andrew is a 6-3 junior receiver at Wylie who Howard calls “a legit D-I prospect.” And when big brother recently returned to town and addressed the team, it was a stirring moment.
“For the old Noble, who wasn’t outgoing at all, that would’ve been like pulling teeth,” Howard said. “But he did a great job talking to our kids and being honest about what it takes to make it.
“West Virginia took a chance on him and he’s grown into what they wanted. The culture at West Virginia must be pretty good, because the way Noble has matured and come out of his shell a little, that shows they’ve done a great job with him.”
From Holgorsen’s perspective, Nwachukwu, now a fifth-year senior and a preseason All-Big 12 player, fits West Virginia’s profile for fostering under-recruited talent.
“It’s been really fun and rewarding,” Holgorsen said, “just watching him develop into what he is now.”
