Eyabi Okie on his transfer to Michigan: 'I'm coming home'
Life has gone full circle for Michigan defensive end Eyabi Okie. His stints at Alabama and Houston are well-documented but he's not afraid to take on those answers head-on.
During his recruitment coming out of high school, Michigan was one of the finalists for him before he chose Alabama. One could argue that the Wolverines ended up being a close runner-up for him.
Meeting with the media for the first time since his arrival in Ann Arbor, Okie discussed the journey he went on to get to Ann Arbor late in training camp.
"At the end of the spring ball at my old school, I looked at my credits, how much credits I had left, I talked to my grandmother," Okie said. "My grandmother was just like, 'You need to graduate as soon as possible.' Ever since with Bama, with me transferring, I've tried to listen to whatever my grandma says. All I'm trying to worry about is graduating. I graduated at the end of July, I had a couple schools reach out to me. Some Power Five. I was still being patient, waiting around, and then looking to see the right fit. Hoping that some of the old schools that offered me would offer back. Then they started coming in towards the end.
"Michigan had reached out. I just said, oh yeah, I'm coming home. Definitely coming home. Original school I was looking at and I have some of my guys here, Blake Corum, Nikhai Hill-Green and Derrick Moore. Just a perfect fit."
On paper the fit seemed to be a match made in heaven, how does that stack up now he's five weeks into the season?
Not much has changed in that regard.
"I feel like they're pretty equal," Okie said. "This is like a blue-collar team, what you see is what you get. You work for every snap. The other day, Coach Jay Harbaugh said something, I want to say like two weeks ago, about recommitting ourselves every single week, every single day. That's what we have with this team. You have to recommit every single day. It's football, no one is going to feel great but how bad do you want it? We're playing for the man next to you. The man next to you is going 100% so why are you going to half-ass?"