AUSTIN, Texas — The Nigerian immigrants named their first-born son Samuel Onyedikachi Acho.
The first name was an acknowledgement of their new country. The middle one was from the old country, with the name translating to one "who is like God."
 Ricardo Brazziell/Cox Newspapers Sam Acho is a dedicated and multitalented starting defensive end for Texas, as well as a business honors student who has been honored for academic excellence. For a larger, high resolution image, click HERE |
They enrolled Sam at the prestigious St. Mark's School of Texas, an all-boys academy in Dallas, when he was in the second grade. Down the road, the hope was for their son to use the expensive education for a coveted Ivy League berth.
Then prime-time football mussed the parents' plans. Sam, once he turned 11, discovered the sport and a talent he didn't know he had.
"All of a sudden, Samuel started dominating everybody," his father, Sonny Acho, recalled. "He created havoc."
Sam Acho is creating havoc now at Texas. But that's to be expected of a defensive end who made an instant impact, notching a sack two years ago against Texas Christian on his first play as a Longhorn.
It took him two plays to create chaos this season.
Acho, after biding his time as a backup for the past two years, started his first game against Louisiana-Monroe. On his second play, Acho fell on a loose ball to set up the Longhorns' first touchdown of the season.
The guy with the lofty IQ broke down the play in the simplest of terms:
"I saw the ball and fell on it," Acho said.
Later in the game, Acho recovered another fumble. His other stats in Texas' 59-20 victory: four tackles, two pass breakups and a quarterback pressure. The coaches selected Acho and linebacker Roddrick Muckelroy as co-defensive players of the game.
He may be capable of making that kind of impact for the rest of the season, taking advantage of the attention offenses are paying to his fellow defensive end, Sergio Kindle. If Acho continues to cause mayhem, offenses may be forced to pay a bit of attention to him, freeing Kindle, a preseason All-American, to pursue the quarterback.
"Sam's getting his own identity," said defensive tackle Lamarr Houston. "I like that."
Until this season, Acho's identity mostly centered around his academic achievements, although he was a high-quality reserve in 2008, playing behind Brian Orakpo and Henry Melton. By the time Acho enrolled at Texas, he already had placed out of nearly a semester worth of classes. In addition to Texas, he considered attending Southern California, Oklahoma, Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth.
At the end of his sophomore year at UT, Acho was the football team's recipient of the Arthur Ashe Academic Achievement Award. In May, Acho represented the team at an NCAA leadership conference in Orlando, Fla.
"I would say I'm an overachiever," said Acho, who turned 21 Sunday and could graduate a semester early.
He's overachieving at UT in the business honors program, with an emphasis on marketing.
During the summer, Acho worked a 10-week executive management internship with Target, where he learned all parts of the business, even stocking the shelves.
"The guy is serious," Kindle said of Acho. "He's in the business school, and in football, he's playing three positions."
Acho can play each defensive end spot, be it on the weak or strong side of the line. And on passing downs, he's moving inside to tackle.
Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp paid Acho his highest compliment earlier this week.
"He plays with a high motor," Muschamp said. "Football is extremely important to him."
He added: "God's blessed him with a lot of ability. And he's enhancing it off the field."
Suzanne Halliburton writes for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: shalliburton(at)statesman.com.
