SAN JOSE, Calif. — When Nick Emmanwori blows out his 22nd birthday candles on Saturday night on the eve of Super Bowl LX, there’s a reasonable chance the celebration will take place in one of the defensive position group meeting rooms in the San Jose Marriott and Convention Center.

From the seat of Seahawks general manager John Schneider and headset of coach Mike Macdonald, Emmanwori has been handing out gifts to Seattle’s defense for nine months and counting.

“My goal is a Gold Jacket,” Emmanwori said. “I want to be one of the greatest ever.”

As determined as Emmanwori is to get there, let’s backpedal to how he became a Seahawk.

With the clock ticking on the final picks of the first round in the 2025 NFL Draft, Seahawks general manager John Schneider was on the phone trying to find a trade partner.

One of the top players on their board, South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori, was still there in what Schneider considered a stunning turn of events given their vision of what the 6-foot-3, 220-pound hybrid defensive weapon could do in Macdonald’s defense.

Already the Seahawks had selected Senior Bowl star and North Dakota State offensive lineman Grey Zabel with the No. 18 pick.

There was no trade match for the Seahawks as a nearly consummated swap with the Philadelphia Eagles fell through, but Seattle had put in place a deal to move up.

“Everybody was passionate about getting him,” he said.

They’d be in position with the third selection in the second round to hit their home run with Emmanwori with the 35th overall pick. Schneider gleefully parted with picks 52 and 82 to take 35 from the Titans.

“If we would have come out of the draft without him, we would have been disappointed,” Schneider said.

A linebacker background combined with the safety transition at South Carolina was enough for the Seahawks’ scouting staff to be more than enamored with the possibility of pairing Emmanwori with 2023 first-round pick Devon Witherspoon. Then came the Scouting Combine and show-stopping numbers. His workout quickly became the stuff of legend. With borderline linebacker size, Emmanwori became the only safety in at least 23 years at the combine with a 4.38-second 40, a vertical of 40-plus inches (43) and a broad jump of at least 11 feet (11’6).

He didn’t mind telling peers at the Scouting Combine what he could do, even if they didn’t know the depths of his truth.

“I don’t think you’ve ever seen a safety like me,” he said at the 2025 Combine. “Well, there are a lot of dudes that came through this league, but a safety like me hasn’t come through this league for a long time. My size, my speed, my ability.”

As more eyes were opened to Emmanwori’s potential impact on the field with Witherspoon — the fifth pick in the 2023 draft — injuries stunted his push for a starring role early in the season.

Confidence was still off the charts from Schneider, Macdonald and defensive backs coach Karl Scott, the only holdover from Pete Carroll’s coaching staff. Schneider had the long view and context of knowing what a “Legion of Boom” secondary would potentially do for Macdonald, the defensive mastermind who calls Seattle’s defense. Macdonald, though, admits he didn’t fully digest what Emmanwori was capable of on the field.

His thought process to start training camp was to test Emmanwori while giving him time to absorb the pass-fail processes of daily workouts, linking him closely with Scott and safeties coach Jeff Howard to develop a mental processing and details-driven toolbox to pair with his natural athletic gifts.

And you know what? The 21-year-old was even better than the Seahawks thought he could be as a rookie.

By September, after missing three games with an ankle injury, Emmanwori was proving he had the intelligence to meet the demands of being cross-trained at multiple positions. He went to meetings and film sessions with multiple position coaches. Then regurgitated the Xs and Os like a 7-year-old taking an alphabet test.

Again, the player is not surprised.

His goals-driven approach and “be great” mindset are a literal application of training as the youngest of five boys in his home. Emmanwori’s parents are educators — his father teaches engineering and thermodynamics at South Carolina State — and allowed him to escape South Carolina and college football only with a solemn vow to earn his degree.

Macdonald shared openly he “never really had a player like him” and it was necessary to “make it up as we go” in the “Nickel Emmanwori” set with three safeties — Julian Love, Witherspoon and Emmanwori — on the field at the same time.

In 768 regular-season snaps, Emmanwori lined up in seven different positions. He played in 14 regular-season games and tallied 81 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 11 passes defended and an interception.

When Patriots quarterback Drake Maye began watching film of the Seahawks, he quickly discerned there’s a “Where’s Waldo?” element to reading Seattle intentions in pass coverage. On that resume tape: Emmanwori all but erased 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey as a receiver. He ran stride for stride with Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson in coverage on the same series he aligned at defensive tackle. Macdonald had him spy quarterbacks, blitz every gap on the line and play 20 yards off the line of scrimmage.

Then he asked Macdonald, what’s next?

“He can do everything,” Witherspoon said. “He’s smooth. He can run 4.3. He’s big. He can literally do everything.”

Emmanwori might sound confident or cocky, but teammates and coaches have a different perspective.

“I think he has approached us with a lot of humility and approached us, coaches and teammates, for advice,” Love said. “He always carries a chip on his shoulders. He is making plays.”

–Jeff Reynolds, Field Level Media

Two teams headed in opposite directions in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings will meet for the first time in Berkeley, Calif., when Georgia Tech and Cal duel on Wednesday night.

The Golden Bears (16-6, 4-5 ACC) enter the contest riding the momentum of two of their biggest wins in the last decade – an 84-78 home triumph over then-No. 14 North Carolina in their most recent home contest and an 86-85 road victory at Miami (Fla.) on Saturday.

Having won three of its last four, Cal suddenly finds itself being discussed nationally as an NCAA Tournament bubble team as it pursues its first Big Dance visit since 2016.

The focus must be on Georgia Tech, Cal coach Mark Madsen insisted in the wake of the dramatic win at Miami last weekend.

“We’re hoping for a nice, long postseason opportunity,” he assured reporters. “But we have to focus on the present right now. Our message is … focus everything on recovery, on preparation, on film, on exerting every ounce of energy on practice and the games.

“Exert yourself on the process of what we’re trying to do. If we do those things, we’re very hopeful.”

The Golden Bears will get their first opportunity to exact a measure of revenge against Georgia Tech (11-11, 2-7), which pulled out a 90-88 overtime thriller at home when the clubs dueled for the first time as ACC foes last February.

It could prove to be a tall task for the Bears, who were down to their fourth big man – seldom-used DK Dut – due to injuries and foul trouble for a key stretch of the Miami game. The South Sudan native, who had played a total of 26 minutes previously, had a difference-making tip-in and two blocks to help stall the Hurricanes.

The key to a repeat success over Cal, Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire indicated this week, will be to get the type of production from big man Baye Ndongo that he had in a 26-point, 13-rebound performance against Cal in last year’s meeting.

After having been held to a total of 25 points in his previous three games, Ndongo came to life with a 27-point explosion in a 91-75 home loss to North Carolina last Saturday, which was the Yellow Jackets’ sixth defeat in their last seven outings.

It could have been a bigger game for the 2025 All-ACC selection if not for a general inability to get the ball inside which resulted in just 12 shot attempts for the dominant big man.

“We just have to be better in our decision-making,” Stoudamire said. ” … You can’t have live-ball turnovers. That’s a killer. It’s like a pick-six in football. You know what I mean? It’s draining.”

-Field Level Media

By winning 63-53 Saturday at West Virginia, Baylor snapped a four-game losing streak.

Now comes the hard part for the Bears – winning at home.

Entering Wednesday night’s Big 12 matchup in Waco, Texas against Colorado, Baylor (12-9, 2-7 Big 12) is 0-4 in league play at Foster Pavilion. Three of those came against top-15 teams in Iowa State, Houston and Texas Tech, while the other occurred on Jan. 24 to TCU, 97-90.

“Our Big 12 schedule at home hasn’t been easy,” said Bears coach Scott Drew. “We’re not a top-10, top-15 team. At the end of the day, we’d like to get there but we’re not there.”

Baylor took serious steps in the right direction at West Virginia, particularly on defense. It limited the Mountaineers to 36% shooting from the field, including 5-of-19 from the 3-point line, and snapped their 16-game home winning streak.

Cameron Carr led the Bears with 16 points and 12 rebounds, more than offsetting his seven turnovers.

“As a coach, you want guys playing as hard as they can and leaving it all out there,” Drew said of Carr. “And he did that today.”

Carr paces Baylor with 19.4 points per game, while freshman Tounde Yessoufou scores 17.3.

Meanwhile, Colorado (13-9, 3-6) is coming off perhaps its best win of the season, an 87-61 rout of TCU on Sunday in Boulder. Sebastian Rancik came off the bench to score 17 points and lead five Buffaloes in double figures.

Colorado connected on 35 of 63 attempts from the field, including 11 of 23 3-pointers, and collected 24 assists. It was the result coach Tad Boyle desired after changing three-fifths of his starting lineup in an attempt to stop a six-game losing streak.

“We hadn’t seen that Colorado team in November, December or January but we finally saw it on February 1,” Boyle said. “I told our team better late than never on that. It just shows how good this team can be.”

Isaiah Johnson leads Colorado in scoring at 16.5 ppg.

–Field Level Media