Deal sealed: The Sooners’ make new, but mysterious, deal with veteran

Seth Littrell didn’t hesitate to add Febechi Nwaiwu to Oklahoma’s offensive line equation in 2024. The Sooners’ new offensive coordinator simply looked at his notes from coaching Nwaiwu at North Texas — Freshman All-American in 2022, team captain in 2023 — and made a quick pitch to offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh and head coach Brent Venables.
“You know, Freshman All-America, that speaks to what he’s capable of on the field, and then sophomore, being elected captain, speaks to the intangibles and the things he brings off the field,” said North Texas play-by-play announcer Dave Barnett. “Nobody knows this better than Seth Littrell. He recruited him. So there’s a reason he wanted him at OU.”

Barnett called Mavericks, Spurs and Rangers games for most of the last three decades. He’s been on the mic for the Mean Green since 2015. The radio team doesn’t usually form close bonds with players on the team, but they’re around them frequently on road trips and of course in interview settings. Barnett told All Sooners why he liked what he saw in Nwaiwu.

“He strikes me as kind of the strong, silent type,” Barnett said. “Just the way he goes about his business speaks and makes him a leader,” Barnett said, “and that’s what his teammates were responding to when they made him captain as such a young player.” Nwaiwu’s parents are from Nigeria. At Coppell, TX, he wasn’t a priority recruit in the 2021 class — 247 Sports and Rivals didn’t even have him rated as a high school prospect — even though he played interior offensive line at 6-foot-3 and 310 pounds. He also threw the shot put and discus in high school.

Nwaiwu had an offer from FCS Illinois State, but instead chose to walk on at North Texas. “Yeah, and that’s actually a fairly typical story at North Texas,” Barnett said. “There have been lots of walk-ons who turned into some of the best players. … That’s something that North Texas has had to do not having a steady stream of 4-stars coming through the door.”

Nwaiwu (pronounced “Fuh-BETCH-ee WEE-wu”) got minimal action for the Mean Green as a true freshman, playing just 16 offensive snaps in two games and taking a redshirt. He told the Denton Record Chronicle he figured he’d come to UNT to play center, but he wasn’t needed there as Manase Mose was entrenched — enough so that he set an all-time NCAA record with 62 consecutive starts in his North Texas career.