2020 BC Spring Practice: Oghobaase Energy "Permeates Through The Whole Organization"

The first thing you notice about Vince Oghobaase is that he looks like a defensive lineman.

He's the kind of person who commands a presence as soon as he walks through an open door. At six feet, five inches, he's still massive, the kind of monster interior defensive lineman who owned offenses for Duke in the mid-2000s. He still looks like he would have no problem getting into a full stance on the gridiron, and anyone trying to block him would fail.

That physical size, though, becomes secondary once he starts talking about football. His personality and aura create an atmosphere capable of penetrating an entire room. It reveals a human full of football spirit, unveiling a person clearly ready to assume a favored role in the new Boston College era.

"I'm naturally a jovial, energetic guy," Oghobaase said. "So whenever someone is excited about a team, it will permeate naturally. It's very critical, being a younger staff and having a young football team. It's important to have energy every day. It starts with the staff, in order to permeate through the whole organization."

Oghobaase is more than just an endearing character; he was once one of the most feared defensive linemen in the ACC. He was part of Duke's first recruiting class after the conference expanded to 12 teams, and he quickly earned a reputation as a disrupter in opposing backfields. He amassed 165 tackles over a four-year career spanning 2006-2009, including 36 for lost yardage and 14 sacks.

It made him a central cog in the breakout of a previously-downtrodden program. Duke shocked the ACC in 1989 with an 8-4 record and a share of the conference championship, but observers and analysts otherwise knew the program for its lack of consistent victories. The first three seasons of the expanded ACC produced two victories, including one over Oghobaase's freshman and sophomore years, but the number jumped to four in 2008. In 2009, Duke narrowly missed a bowl game at 5-7, but it set a tone for the rise to prominence in the early 2010s.

Oghobaase was a fixture for that entire era. He returned to the Blue Devils as a graduate assistant after testing professional waters in 2010, and in 2012, Duke won six games to qualify for its first bowl game since 1994. The next year, Oghobaase departed for a graduate assistant's position at Ohio State, but Duke went onto win the Coastal Division as a 10-win football program.

"I was on the Coastal side when I was at Duke," Oghobaase said. "I won't see (the Blue Devils) until we see them, but I know it's a highly-competitive conference that produced a number of great players. The ACC hasn't changed other than the number of teams in it."

It set Oghobaase on a fast coaching career trajectory. He left Ohio State in 2015 to take an assistant defensive line coaching position with the San Francisco 49ers, staying there for two seasons to work under both Chip Kelly and Kyle Shanahan. In 2018, UCLA hired Kelly to revive its fortunes, and Oghobaase became a full-fledged position coach.

"In this profession, being in different places throughout your career (forces) you to adapt to different coaches and different personalities," Oghobaase said. "This staff is very special, pulling together guys that have worked together in the past. I coached with Coach Hafley when he was with the 49ers, so there's a lot of guys who have crossed.

"It's a natural mesh," he said. "The guys that I hadn't met before have the same vibe and vision as Coach Hafley. It made for an easy transition (to BC)."

It was in San Francisco when the former defensive tackle met a secondary coach named Jeff Hafley. Hafley was already a fixture with the 49ers, having arrived in 2016 after stints with the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The two found each other as kindred spirits, and this offseason, when Hafley accepted the head coaching position at Boston College, Oghobaase found himself drawn to a school with which he had no link other than a late-season game during his freshman season at Duke in 2006.

"I just soaked up football knowledge (in San Francisco)," Oghobaase said. "My office was one away from Coach Hafley, and we bounced ideas off one another. It was really about learning to scheme different teams, since it's all about football (in the NFL). There's an investment in players because it's at such a high level."

It's an attitude likely to infuse the defensive line with a new attitude and outlook. Oghobaase occupied a large presence on the Duke interior defensive line, but he played the position with a deceptive first step quickness. He moved incredibly agile for a defensive tackle, and it harnessed his strength in a brutally destructive fashion. Muscle memory fused new lessons for edge rushers, generating versatility and movement through the entire front.

"When you have different guys from different backgrounds, it allows input and ideas into a very objective fashion," Oghobaase said. "Everybody always can bring something to the table. Sometimes a staff, without that experience, (doesn't allow) speaking up on a concept. So it's very, very good to have that, to have something that we feel we can bring any idea or concept that might mesh well with what we're doing. There's just collaboration (between coaches)."

"There's going to be some carryover from what we did in the past with the 49ers," he elaborated. "We're going to be a primarily four-down front, which is how we can create separation and havoc when we run down the gaps. It'll be what I'm used to from the past when I was with the 49ers and at Ohio State, not so much from when I was at UCLA. There will be some crossover."

Boston College opens spring practice on Saturday with its first of 15 sessions. It all leads to the annual spring game on April 4.

Boston College Athletics

2020 BC Spring Practice: Oghobaase Energy "Permeates Through The Whole Organization"

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