Brooks: Awuzie Hopes To Make His Mark Humbly, Like His Idol

BOULDER – Like most college football players, Chidobe Awuzie is drawn to watching NFL highlights. The draw is part admiration and awe, part fantasy, with the latter usually beginning long before college enrollment and sometimes lasting far beyond.

It was/is that way with Awuzie -- “Chido” to his University of Colorado teammates. A superb two-way player at Oak Grove High School in San Jose, Calif., the guys he most idolized in the NFL carried rather than chased the football.

Ironically, Awuzie would wind up a “chaser” (a very good one, too) but there was something different about Awuzie's must-see NFL clips. He focused on the runners, delighted by watching Emmitt Smith, Adrian Peterson, LaDainian Tomlinson and the like.

But the running back he admired most was Walter Payton, which was a little odd because when Payton died of a rare liver disease and bile duct cancer on Nov. 1, 1999, Awuzie was four years old. Even odder, the film clips that Awuzie craved most weren't of “Sweetness” stutter stepping and prancing to a then-NFL career record 16,726 yards for the Chicago Bears.

No, “Chido” wanted to see Payton at the post-game podium or in front of an on-field microphone, scrutinizing how he handled himself after record-breaking games in a record-setting career.  

“A lot of people watch highlights, I watch interviews and try to pick 'em apart and see why they're so great,” Awuzie told me. “I watched Payton's interviews . . . I really fell in love with Walter Payton. He was really a soft-spoken dude, a humble guy who didn't get in anybody's way. But when he got on the field he was an animal. That was something I really grabbed onto, something I respected.”

Awuzie still pays his respect, wearing the same style of white headband that Payton wore throughout an NFL career that spanned 13 years and ended in 1987. In those 13 seasons, Payton missed one game, that being in his rookie season (1975).

Playing running back still holds special appeal for Awuzie, who rushed for 1,285 yards (9.3 per carry) and 14 touchdowns as a high school senior. “I ain't going to lie,” he said about not carrying the ball anymore. “Sometimes I'll be joking around with the offense and tell them I can play receiver or running back. But I know that's not my role anymore. I'm just a DB. But if the chance opens up and the coach asks me to do it, yeah, I'll do it.”

TAKE A LOOK AT THE SHORT sentence, “I'm just a DB.” That's a snippet of Payton-esque humility. Awuzie can (and does) play every position in the secondary – corner, both safeties, nickel – and even finds himself inching toward the line of scrimmage as a linebacker if defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt's scheme requires it.

“Hands down, he's probably the most versatile guy I've ever been around,” said sixth-year senior safety Jared Bell. “He's so physically gifted; it's amazing the things he can do. He always comes up with something new you never thought he'd be able to do. It's crazy to watch him.”

Awuzie enjoys his vagabond role and the fact that the coaches “are finding a way to use my athleticism. I take it as a humbling experience that they expect a lot out of me and they expect me to make plays in those positions.”

Being able to play where asked is all about trying to master technique and assignments. “Chido” embraces the intense preparation required to hopscotch around the secondary. He ramped up his off-season preparation because he's in his next-to-last year of eligibility and he's yet to experience a winning season (6-18 in his first two years).

“I pride myself in how I prepare on my off days in the off-season,” he said. “I practice corner footwork, nickel footwork, safety footwork – all types of things. Blitzing, whatever. This (off-season) I tried to get on the field every day. It's not like basketball players; they can get in the gym, take a couple of shots and say they worked out.

“Us, we have to put on cleats, get the 'ladder' out, the cones, get another person to throw you the football. It takes a little more, but I've tried to do that every day. All of that prepares you, and when you come out here and learn the plays and apply that it works. It's definitely working for me right now.”

Awuzie reminds safeties coach Joe Tumpkin of a player – Jahleel Addae – he coached at Central Michigan. Addae also was a high school running back who wound up hunting ball carries and harassing receivers in college. And he eventually wound up doing the same in the NFL, signing and sticking as a free agent with his current team, the San Diego Chargers.

“A lot of the scouts said he understood the game and that helped him to play multiple positions,” Tumpkin said. “'Chido' is the same way, has the same tenacity, only he's bigger (6-0, 195). He has a great understanding of the concepts, he understands offensive formations, how they're attacking, the strengths and weaknesses of what we do in coverage, the checks, the whole system.”

Plus, Awuzie's leadership abilities have steadily developed. His teammates listen to him in the locker room and on the field, which Tumpkin calls “huge.” No surprise that he was voted by his peers onto head coach Mike MacIntyre dozen-member leadership council for 2015.

Awuzie started in the first nine games of 2014 but missed the final three after suffering a lacerated kidney in an early November practice. When injured he was leading CU in tackles, and despite his three-game absence to end the season he still finished third (64 total, 57 solo) overall.

RECEIVING A CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH to resume practice last spring, he earned the coaches' Hale Irwin Award as the most improved defensive back. As if needed, training camp has reinforced that decision. To Bell, observing Awuzie in August revealed a player “focused a lot more on technique. When you're in a tight game that's what's going to carry you – not your athletic ability. When you have both like 'Chido,' that really makes a big difference. And he's also learning more of the game from the defense as a whole. He's pretty cerebral as it is, very smart actually.”

Bell claimed he's never seen Awuzie relax, that Awuzie's goal is to play every defensive snap this season and that his intensity and energy remind him of that famous battery pitching bunny.

Said Bell: “He's always going, always going. He's just a great guy to be around. He's positive and always willing to work. Those are two things our football team needs. I'm grateful to be able to play with him.”

But among his peers when Awuzie was a kid, that wasn't the case. “I didn't get to play with a lot of the younger kids because they told me I was too rough,” he said. “When we were on the trampoline or playing (anything) that was a really rough game they wouldn't let me play because I'd be doing a lot of 'extra stuff.'

“But, yeah, now I try to be infectious to my teammates, give good energy, positive energy. And even if it's not energy, it's something positive. I don't want to bad-mouth anybody, bad-mouth a coach, a player. I just want to give them positivity. That's it.”

Awuzie is about to enter his junior season, and if the time comes later this fall or maybe next year to focus on one position, he'll do so. Tumpkin visualizes Awuzie's most productive spot for the defense at nickel back “because he's going to be in a lot of plays. Corner is important, don't get me wrong.

“But we've got guys we think are playing really well outside right now, and (Awuzie) gives us the best chance to be successful playing that nickel. He can pressure off the edge, he can cover man-to-man on slots, he can play zone, he's tough enough to set an edge on the run game. He does everything we want him to do in that spot.”

Playing tailback doesn't appear to be a possibility, but “Chido” will play where he's asked, when he's asked and where he fits at whatever time. “Not really,” he answered when I asked him if he has a preference. “I don't play D-line but if they told me to line up at nose guard, I might get knocked out but I'm going to be tough. That's just how I approach it. I shouldn't be scared or more comfortable in any one position. I just play football.”

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU