By Thomas Grant Jr.
Pictured above-Irmo head football coach Aaron Brand and Nick Emmanwori. (Photos by Aaron Brand)
Irmo High graduate Nick Emmanwori got his long-awaited call from the NFL last Friday.
The University of South Carolina safety was picked 35th overall and was the third player selected in the second round by the Seattle Seahawks.
“I was excited,” Emmanwori said on a conference call. “Genuinely, I’m happy they came and got me. I felt great when I went up there for the visit, talked to the coaches, and had a great visit. I felt the most connected with them. So if it was anybody to do it, I knew it was going to be them.”
“Seattle is getting a great football player,” Irmo head coach Aaron Brand said in a television interview.
Safety Nick Emmanwori, who played at Irmo High School and the University of South Carolina, watches the NFL Draft with family and friends.
Emmanwori was one of five Gamecocks selected in the draft. Defensive tackle T.J. Sanders (Buffalo Bills) and Demetrius Knight Jr. (Cincinnati Bengals) were also second round and Bronko Nagurski and Blanchard-Rogers Trophy winner EDGE Kyle Kennard (Los Angeles Chargers) and defensive lineman Tonya Hemingway (Las Vegas Raiders) were picked in the fourth round.
An All-State safety with the Yellow Jackets under Brand, the 6-foot-3, 222-pounder started 36 of 37 games in three collegiate seasons. A freshman All-American and first-time All-American last season, Emmanwori finished with 244 career tackles and six interceptions, two returned for touchdowns.
Emmanwori, a 6-3, 222-pounder from Irmo, S.C., started 36 of 37 games over three seasons for the Gamecocks. A Freshman All-American in 2022 and a First-Team All-American in 2024, he was credited with 244 career tackles and six interceptions, returning two for touchdowns.
His play has drawn comparisons to former Seahawk safety Kam Chancellor. Ironically, both played under South Carolina defensive backs coach Torrian Gray.
“Coach Gray coached him and he coached me, so Coach Gray used to tell me all the time that we have a lot of similarities, he used to compare our games a lot,” Emmanwori said. “Kam Chancellor is one of my favorite safeties ever, so it means a lot going to Seattle. I used to watch him all the time on TV; I used to pull up his highlights before games. It’s crazy.”
Emmanwori becomes the first Gamecock safety taken in the draft since D.J. Swearinger in 2013. He also joins another former Irmo player in the NFL. Defensive tackle Trajan Jeffcoat is signed to the New Orleans Saints’ practice squad.
“I tell him all the time that he’s our hero,” Brand said. “He was kind of the start of when we started getting back good and just the fact that he stayed in this area…he had so many people throwing so much at him last year in between his sophomore and junior year. He could have taken million dollar contracts from a bunch of places. But, I think people forget about that part of Nick, about how loyal he’s been to this program and how he’s brought to this city of Columbia and to Irmo High School and to the University of South Carolina. I think his name is going to go down in the history books and we look forward to great things out of Seattle, Washington also.”
(Photos by Aaron Brand)
