Joltin’ Ojomoh : CSUN Linebacker Tackles Role as Defensive Leader With Vigor

Jim Warren knew what Cal State Northridge was getting when Joseph (O.J.) Ojomoh arrived on campus in August.

Warren, a Matador fullback, became closely acquainted with Ojomoh (pronounced oh-JOH-moh) last fall in a junior college game between Orange Coast and Riverside. On Warren’s first carry for Orange Coast, Ojomoh wrapped Warren up and threw him to the ground five yards behind the line of scrimmage.

On the next play--to Warren’s dismay--Ojomoh burst through the line again and stopped him for a three-yard loss.

“No one could block him,” Warren said. “He is relentless.”

Ojomoh, an inside linebacker, made believers of the rest of the Northridge team in the 1991 opener against Eastern Washington. He made a team-leading 10 tackles--five of them unassisted.

Two weeks later, he set the CSUN single-game record for tackles with 22 against Cal State Fullerton.

Ojomoh, the second-leading tackler on a 2-2 team that allows an average of only 250 yards a game, knew he would fit in even before he came to Northridge.

After being introduced to the Matador players by Coach Bob Burt during a visit to spring practice, he was greeted as though he were a long-lost friend.

“The funny part of it was that I wasn’t on the team yet,” Ojomoh said. “Coach told them I was a great player. My eyes were wide. There were about 70 guys surrounding me. I was right in the middle of all of them. And coach told them that I work at McDonald’s in case they wanted some free food.”

Ojomoh didn’t just flip burgers under the golden arches. He worked his way up to manager and has shown similar leadership skills at Northridge where he calls the defensive signals.

“He’s one of our leaders as a junior,” Burt said. “His personality is magnetic. You’re automatically drawn to him.”

Ojomoh, who played nose guard for Riverside, caught Burt’s attention one game when he was moved to linebacker.

“Every once in a while they (put him at linebacker),” Burt said. “We saw him (at linebacker) one game, and we knew he was under-recruited because he was out of position. We could see that he could run and jump and had good speed.”

At 6-foot-1, 218 pounds, Ojomoh would seem undersized for either position. Yet Burt points out that Ojomoh is built in the same mold as the player he replaced, Terrell Taylor, an All-Western Football Conference linebacker.

“At that spot, the person has to be a great athlete,” Burt said. “If you have to give up something, it is size, it can’t be speed. It can’t be strength.”

Burt does not time his players in the 40-yard dash, but he knows Ojomoh is fast enough.

“He plays so hard,” Burt said. “He only knows one speed.”

As for Ojomoh’s strength, it is the product of determination.

Three years ago, Ojomoh’s teammates at Redlands High got a laugh at his expense when he could not bench-press 90 pounds.

“They laughed and said I was weak,” Ojomoh said. “So I told myself I was gonna break all the (weightlifting) records.”

By the end of the year, Ojomoh was bench-pressing more than 300 pounds and squat-lifting more than 400, according to Jimmy Cruz, the former Redlands High offensive coordinator.

Ojomoh, a native of the Virgin Islands, grew up swimming, fishing and playing soccer. He was curious about football, but he needed a nudge.

Cruz provided it when Ojomoh enrolled in his badminton class.

“He was so competitive,” Cruz said. “He had never played badminton before, but by the end of the quarter he was giving me a pretty good game.

“One thing led to another and he tried out for football his senior year.”

When Redlands’ starting fullback was sidelined by an injury early in the season, Ojomoh stepped in and ran for more than 500 yards.

“He had the drive, the will to learn and to be the best he could be,” Cruz said. “If there was something he didn’t know, he’d ask the coaches for help.

“And for a guy who hadn’t played football, he wasn’t afraid to hit anybody.”

Cruz and the Redlands coaching staff considered putting Ojomoh on defense, but they didn’t want to confuse him.

“He was so new to the game,” said Cruz, who often teased Ojomoh about wearing colored dress socks to physical education class.

Ojomoh laughs at the memory. It is a throaty, repetitive laugh that reminds his current coach of actor Eddie Murphy.

Burt, who loves to holler “Edd-ie, Edd-ie, Edd-ie,” believes Ojomoh also bears a likeness to Murphy.

Ojomoh’s reaction?

Another Murphyesque laugh, and a Murphyesque line: “It is not funny to see a black man blush.”

O.J. is the sixth of seven children of Oliver and Kay Ojomoh, who still live in the Virgin Islands.

O.J. left when he was 8 to live with his oldest brother, Tharrison, and the rest of his siblings in Brooklyn, N.Y.

In 1988, the Ojomoh clan moved to the Southland. The only obvious remnant of their island heritage is a decidedly British accent.

Combined with a deep baritone, O.J.’s accent is Matador fodder for yet another nickname, “Thunder”--after the way he emphasizes that word in the defensive alignment, “Left base thunder.”

Ojomoh views nicknames as a measure of respect.

“Any time I see a real good player, I give him a nickname,” said Ojomoh, who calls roommate Gerald Ponder “Bazooka” because of his hard hits.

Kenny (K. V.) Vaughn also qualifies.

Vaughn, the Matadors’ top tackler with 49 tackles (two ahead of O.J.), plays next to Ojomoh at inside linebacker.

“What makes me play better is when Kenny Vaughn plays hard,” Ojomoh said.

Ojomoh’s efforts to keep up with Vaughn have resulted in his twice receiving CSUN player-of-the-week honors. Ojomoh also was named WFC defensive player of the week for his game against Fullerton.

“I broke the record (for tackles) but it doesn’t matter because we lost,” Ojomoh said. “If I had zero tackles and we beat Fullerton, I would be happy. I just want to win and go to the playoffs. When we do that, then we can sit around and joke about a guy who made a big hit or knocked a guy down.”

Unfortunately for Ojomoh, most of his teammates aren’t waiting that long.

“All the time,” Ojomoh said. “I know they joke about me.”

But he can count on Warren for respect.

“I’m just glad,” Warren said, “that Juice (nickname No. 4) is on my team.”