NaNa Osafo-Mensah Has Been Different From The Start
“He’s different.”
Since being hired as Nolan Catholic High School’s head coach back in April of 2016, David Beaudin has uttered that simple phrase countless times in what clearly seemed to him an impossible effort to sum up NaNa Osafo-Mensah. There's no mistaking Beaudin means "different" in a good way.
The 2019 Texas defensive end just announced his decision to bypass the lure of the in-state Longhorns to verbally commit to Notre Dame following his team’s spring game on Saturday.
“He wants to be different,” Beaudin said again earlier this week. “He accepts that challenge. Everybody expected him to stay close to home, so this is something that makes him unique and special.”
Osafo-Mensah is certainly different from any player Beaudin coached in four years at St. Mary’s Hall in San Antonio or as a Division-II college assistant in Massachusetts before that.
Long before the Fort Worth native received his first offer from Texas A&M back in March of last year, his coach knew the Power-Five offers would be coming. Osafo-Mensah’s talent and potential were different, but that’s not really what his coach was referring to.
“He’s obviously an elite talent, but what jumps off for him – and has and always will – are the intangibles he can add,” Beaudin explained. “The reasons he’s so unique and special is because he’s an elite talent physically, but then you add in his character, leadership skills, his faith, who he is as a person, the time he puts in, how respectful he is.
“You add that to an elite talent and that’s why you have something special with him. He’s almost sort of created out of a machine. It’s unbelievable. He’s one of the nicest, most humble kids I’ve ever been around and he’s obviously one of the most talented kids I’ve ever been around. That’s a rare combination. I think the sky is the limit for him. I think he’ll make any locker room better.”
“Everyone sees him as that hybrid guy, but in college, I think he could probably carry 265, 270. I think the thing that’ll jump out to people is that he’s going to add some weight because his frame can hold it and then I think he’s going to be a lot better against the run than I think people are giving him credit for. I’m not sure people are necessarily knocking him, but everyone talks about him being an elite pass-rusher and for good reason.
“But when he gets to the training table and in a college weight program and just physically matures, he’s going to add some serious weight and be stout in the run as well. I think he could play that strong five-technique. I think early on in the process, people didn’t see him there. They just saw him as that Drop guy. I guess he’ll still have the athleticism to drop, but me personally, if I’m them, you want a guy like that getting after the quarterback. You may drop him some, but to me, you don’t waste guys like that dropping them into coverage. Go make quarterbacks miserable.”
-Beaudin on what Osafo-Mensah brings to the Notre Dame defense
Raised by a surgeon and an anesthesiologist, education was always going to be of utmost importance, which is why Stanford emerged as an early contender. But even beyond academics and athletics, the faith of Osafo-Mensah and his family set him apart from other prospects as well.
Beaudin knew one school that looked for and appealed to the kind of “different” he was seeing, which is why long before Osafo-Mensah was on Notre Dame’s radar, the Irish were on theirs.
By the time Notre Dame extended an offer in May of last year, Osafo-Mensah’s offer sheet had grown to include Georgia, USC, UCLA, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State along with the Aggies. It would eventually balloon to include Texas, Alabama, LSU, Michigan and several others.
Notre Dame essentially assured itself a spot among his favorites with the offer, but it wasn’t until a trip to South Bend for the Irish’s Junior Day this past January that they truly secured a spot among Osafo-Mensah’s finalists.
In February, he presented a list of 10 favorites to his coaches and they advised him to trim it down further to a more manageable number. They didn’t expect to be convinced that the expanded list was actually better until Osafo-Mensah explained the list wasn’t about him as much as it was about keeping the spotlight on his teammates as long as possible.
But soon, Stanford, Texas A&M, Alabama, LSU, Michigan, Oregon and Florida would all fade and only Texas would remain as a true threat to the Irish.
The Longhorns actually moved from threat to favorite on the strength of an unofficial visit to Austin in March. But when Osafo-Mensah returned to Notre Dame for an official in April, the Irish reclaimed their spot atop his list and wouldn’t relinquish it even after an official to Texas earlier this month.
Earlier this week, Beaudin was repeating his old refrain again.
“I think for him it’s having a purpose and he could see the brotherhood with the guys on the team and obviously some of the recruits in his class,” Beaudin said. “Then just everything that goes along with Notre Dame, all of the stuff in addition to football. I think it’s special to him, obviously the academics, the faith piece, the community piece.
“And then just being a little different.”
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