Inside The Huskies

African By Way of Oklahoma Pulls UW Offer

Edge rusher from Senegal has played just two seasons of football.

Dan Raley

Bai Jobe arrived in Norman, Oklahoma, from Africa to receive an American education and pursue his dream of playing in the NBA.

It was 2019, and he was tall and lanky, and he had grown up in Senegal watching basketball games on TV.

Yet living in the shadows of the University of Oklahoma, it wouldn't be long before Jobe was fully exposed to the game of choice for everyone in his new surroundings. After resisting at first, he was coaxed into giving football a try.

Two seasons later, Jobe is a 6-foot-5, 215-pound overly athletic edge rusher for Norman's Community Christian School and rated as Oklahoma's top high school football player and one of the nation's best for the Class of 2023.

“To be honest with you, I’m a football player now,” Jobe told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, explaining how he still plays basketball but his priorities have changed. “I’m working hard to be the best I can be.”

On Thursday, the University of Washington offered Jobe a football scholarship and entered into what should be a fierce tug of war with the Sooners and countless others for the young African's services. 

 The Community Christian Royals went 9-3 this past fall and their guy coming off the edge played at a very high level, finishing with 56 tackles, including 16.5 sacks.

Initially, Jobe knew nothing about football. It was comical at first. Growing up in the metric system, he had to ask what a yard was. He started watching football in YouTube videos. He caught on fairly quickly. He joined the Community Christian team at midseason in 2020.

Bai Jobe is a physical specimen.
Bai Jobe is a physical specimen.  / Twitter

In that first season as a sophomore, Jobe scored on a pair of fumble recovery runbacks in the same game, racing 34 and 20 yards for touchdowns in a 27-7 victory over Bethel. The legend began.

He's a smart kid, able to speak French, his native Wolof and, since arriving in Oklahoma, fluent English.

With two American football seasons under his belt, Jobe currently holds 21 offers, among them Arkansas, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Marshall, Miami, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Vanderbilt, Washington State and the Huskies.

“I love football,” Jobe said. "I have to do everything I can to get bigger and get better everyday for sure.”

So far, he hasn't wasted any time. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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