Cutco knives, pancake blocks and syrup bottles: How Ikem Ekwonu became a top draft prospect

Cutco knives, pancake blocks and syrup bottles: How Ikem Ekwonu became a top draft prospect
By Joseph Person
Apr 26, 2022

The play that convinced N.C. State coach Dave Doeren that Ikem Ekwonu would start on the Wolfpack’s offensive line as a freshman was not a block, but one that nonetheless resulted in an opposing player on his back.

Ekwonu, a senior at Charlotte’s Providence Day School who had already committed to the Wolfpack, was playing at offensive tackle against North Stanley in a game that featured several Division I prospects. Providence Day was driving when a North Stanley defensive back picked off a pass, and had run it back about 10 yards before Ekwonu laid him out.

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Doeren turned to N.C. State offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford, who’s now with the Falcons, and expressed his approval.

“I just looked at him and said, ‘This guy’s unbelievable, man,’” Doeren recalled. “In 28 years of coaching, you see a lot of things when you recruit. But the way that guy played, he played so hard. He played both ways. He never took a play off. And then you see an interception return where he turns into a defender and just annihilates a guy. I told our staff after that game that he would play as a true freshman on the O-line, and that doesn’t happen very often at any place.”

Ekwonu did, in fact, start as a freshman, when he began his three-year assault on defensive linemen and, in turn, the suppliers of maple syrup in the Raleigh-Durham region. Three years later, the 6-4, 310-pound Ekwonu has pancake-blocked his way to near the top of many draft boards and could be the Panthers’ long-needed answer at left tackle, provided he’s still available when they pick sixth.

Ekwonu — nicknamed ‘Ickey’ by a former coach who thought he looked like popular ex-Bengals running back Ickey Woods — might not make it past the Jaguars at No. 1.

“I’ve worked really hard throughout my years at N.C. State and throughout the offseason. I wouldn’t be shocked if I went No. 1 overall,” Ekwonu said at the combine. “I feel like that is something I put the work in for it. I feel like when the time comes, I would deserve it.”


Former Providence Day coach Adam Hastings has a photo on his phone of Ickey with his twin brother, Osita, taken at picture day before their freshman season. Ekwonu was only 6-2 and weighed about 220 pounds, and played mostly JV until the starting varsity center had to come off for a play to repair his equipment against Marvin Ridge.

Providence Day faced a fourth-and-1 and Hastings sent Ekwonu into the game with these words of encouragement: “Don’t screw it up.”

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“I threw him out there to the wolves,” Hastings added, “thinking to myself: ‘Why in the world am I going for this? I should be punting the ball.’”

Providence Day ran an outside zone run that called for Ekwonu to reach-block the defensive tackle and keep him from penetrating. He did, and the Chargers running back picked up the first down.

“He gets in there and he reaches a one-technique like flawless. I was thinking to myself, ‘That’s not normal, so maybe he’s just lucky,’” Hastings said. “And he came out, had this big ol’ smile, like, ‘I told you I wasn’t going to screw it up.’ He just always had this really fun-loving attitude. There’s never a bad day with Ickey.”

Ikem Ekwonu with his brother and parents when they played for Providence Day in Charlotte. (N.C. State photos)

Ekwonu went on to become an all-state football player and a state-champion wrestler, while lettering in track in the throwing events — in addition to the meet when he ran the anchor leg on the winning 4×100-meter relay team.

“We didn’t have a lot of depth at Providence Day. It really kind of hurt his recruiting potential, but I think it set him up to excel at the next level,” said Hastings, now coaching at another Charlotte-area high school. “Ickey was our starting defensive tackle. He was our starting offensive tackle. He never came off the field. He didn’t want to come off the field.”

Ekwonu picked up early offers from Charlotte and Appalachian State. But many of the bigger schools were interested in his brother — a linebacker who went to Notre Dame — and talked to Ickey as kind of a plus-one, according to Hastings.

Hastings said at least one recruiter believed Ekwonu’s knock-knees would keep him from succeeding at the next level. But that wasn’t an issue at N.C. State, where he had 37 pancake blocks as a freshman when he began cornering the market on maple syrup.

The day after games, Wolfpack coaches would recognize every player who had a pancake block with a bottle of syrup, which would go on the wall in the offensive line room. Ekwonu nearly had his own wing.

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“As you can imagine, over time, there’s a lot of bottles on that wall. It’s like an IHOP in there,” Doeren said in a recent phone interview. “But he’s got a lot of them.”

By his third season with the Wolfpack, Ekwonu earned All-American honors, won the Jacobs Award as the ACC’s top blocker and grew his pancake stack to 154 for his career.

“He’s the best finisher that I’ve ever seen on the O-line, whether it’s a kid that I’ve coached or coached against. I just think he’s a generational guy when it comes to how he finishes plays,” Doeren said. “He literally tries to put people on their backs every single play, and he’s been doing it for three years.”

Ekwonu’s parents had athletic backgrounds in Nigeria. His mother, Amaka, was a track sprinter, while his dad, Tagbo, played college basketball before going to med school. Ekwonu’s older brother is an animator for a Canadian-based company; his sister is in med school at the University of Chicago.

Ekwonu said at the combine he isn’t sure what he’d be doing if he weren’t playing football. But his mom thinks it would be something in sales or marketing after Ickey made a few thousand bucks in three weeks selling Cutco knives the summer before his freshman year at N.C. State.

“He took it very serious,” Amaka said. “He got dressed up. He wore a suit and tie, (and) came downstairs to sell to us at the dining room table.”

Amaka said she hasn’t followed the pre-draft process enough to guess where Ickey might land. She just wants him to go to a situation where he can “grow and flourish” while living up to his given name, Ikemefuna, which means, “my effort will not be in vain.”

“Culturally, they were raised like most children in Nigeria are raised, which is respect for elders, respect for self,” Amaka said. “Knowing that your name doesn’t only belong to you. It belongs to the entire lineage, and being careful how you carry yourself that you maintain that good reputation.”

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Doeren is confident Ekwonu’s reputation — as a pancake-loving finisher and as a man — will remain intact wherever he ends up playing.

“It’s hard for me to tell you about the other (highly rated) guys. I don’t want to make anyone else feel less than,” Doeren said. “I just know whoever takes him is gonna get more than they’re thinking they’re getting. He’s really, really a special guy to have on your football team.”

(Photo: Rob Kinnan / Getty Images)

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Joseph Person

Joe Person is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Carolina Panthers. He has covered the team since 2010, previously for the Charlotte Observer. A native of Williamsport, Pa., Joe is a graduate of William & Mary, known for producing presidents and NFL head coaches. Follow Joseph on Twitter @josephperson