Cornerback Okonye brings veteran pulse to Purdue secondary

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Technically, Josh Okonye hasn’t played cornerback in a college game.

His on-field experience at Wake Forest was either at safety or nickel, lining up against opposing team’s slot receivers.

But on Day 1 of Purdue’s training camp, Okonye found himself with the first-team defense at cornerback, opposite returning starting Da’Wan Hunte. And, despite the lack of game experience, it’s exactly where Okonye expected to be.

"I feel as if they told me that I’d have a position in a starting role," Okonye said Friday. "But just like anything, nothing is promised. I can lose it any day, if I’m not playing as well as I should be. I take it as something to push me, keep me motivated to keep my spot because at the end of the day, we’re all competing to play.

"I may be starting, but I’m going to play as if I’m not, as if I’m fighting for a position like I’ve always been. That’s how I plan to take this role.”

Despite the lack of game experience at cornerback, Okonye has landed there, in part, because Purdue needs him there the most, Coach Jeff Brohm said.

With last season’s starter Tim Cason not getting first- or second-team reps this camp apparently while Purdue waits on grades, the other returning options at corner had little game experience. Walk-on Antonio Blackmon has played some but mostly at nickel, and JUCO transfer Kamal Hardy missed most of last season with an injury. Those have been the backups at corner for much of camp, though sophomore Josh Hayes, who missed all the spring with an injury, may be in the mix, too. Freshmen Dedrick Mackey and Kenneth Major probably would be the next two in line.

So Okonye's value to the roster is considerable, even if none of his 500-plus game snaps or two starts last season were at corner. He still logged 98 snaps (at safety) against Clemson, for one, and that's to go with the nearly 480 snaps he got as a redshirt freshman and sophomore at Wake.

And that experience has shown up already in West Lafayette.

"The confidence he has, first, and the level of play he’s been playing at, you can tell he has a lot of game experience," Hunte said. "He’s been in a good system, so he connects well with (position) Coach (Derrick) Jackson. Those little things, you can see by the way he plays and the way he carries himself, even off the field. It’s going to be exciting to have him out there with us and he’s definitely brought a bonus to our defense."

The reason Okonye ultimately played safety and nickel at Wake: His physicality.

He looks like a safety and could pack a pop, with a broad chest and shoulders and biceps more significant than most of Purdue’s cornerbacks. He said he weighs about 197 pounds, though that can fluctuate from 195-200, and he uses that, too. He calls himself a physical corner and said he’s not to stick his head in and make a tackle.

“I have the body of a big corner, safety, but I can still move. That’s the thing that’s kept me around the (corner) position,” Okonye said. “I have the quickness and footwork of a corner. I’m able to guard on the outside, and that’s what allows me to play nickel, too, guard the slots. I feel like that’s one advantage for me. I don’t always have to rely on my feet, I can rely on my physicality as well. I have multiple aspects I can bring to the game.”

Okonye said he’s made some plays on balls so far this camp, but he’s hoping that frequency increases not only the more he’s in Purdue’s system but the more he actually gets cornerback reps.

Jackson recruited Okonye to Wake Forest and coached him there for four years and said Okonye has made a smooth transition to the Boilermakers’ defensive system and corner. But both Jackson and Okonye know there’s work still to be done.

“I just have to work on my technique,” said Okonye, who has spent entire springs at Wake playing corner and was in gameplans there but just was behind eventual first-rounder Kevin Johnson. “Being switched around a lot, sometimes I didn’t have too much time to develop at one position. So that’s one of the things I’m working on, working on honing my techniques specifically for the corner position right now.

“I’ve still got things to work on, there’s always room for improvement, but I still make plays every day. I’m trying to make more any way I can.”

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