Benjamin Chinomso Banogu (born January 19, 1996) is a Nigerian professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

for the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Louisiana-Monroe The University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it became the Northeast Ce ...

and TCU.

Early years

Born in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, Banogu's family moved to U.S. six months after his birth. He grew up in

McKinney, Texas McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano and Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas. The U.S. Census Bureau l ...

attended nearby

Prosper High School Prosper High School is a class 6A public high school in Prosper, Texas, United States. It is part of Prosper Independent School District located in western Collin County, with a small portion of the district extending into Denton County. In ad ...

, where he played football and basketball for the Eagles, in addition to participating in track & field. On February 4, 2014, Banogu signed a letter of intent to attend the

University of Louisiana at Monroe The University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it became the Northeast Cen ...

on a football scholarship.

College career

Louisiana-Monroe

Banogu redshirted during his first season at ULM, but became a starter for the Warhawks as a redshirt freshman in 2015. He recorded 5 sacks and 14.5 tackles for loss to earn a spot on the All-

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — des ...

Newcomer Team, but chose to leave the program after the season.

TCU

After transferring to

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples ...

in January 2016, Banogu sat out the 2016 season and forfeited his sophomore year of eligibility due to

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

transfer rules. He became a starter for the Horned Frogs as a junior in 2017, totalling 8.5 sacks and 16.5 tackles for loss, earning First-team All-

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its fo ...

honors and helping lead the Frogs to the program's first-ever berth in the Big 12 Championship Game and a win in the

2017 Alamo Bowl Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...

over

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

. Banogu scored his first collegiate touchdown during his senior season on a 47-yard return of a fumble recovery in a home win against Iowa State in September 2018. He ended the season with 8.5 sacks and 18.0 tackles for loss to once again be named First-team All-Big 12, and helped lead the Frogs to a win over

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the

2018 Cheez-It Bowl The 2018 Cheez-It Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 26, 2018 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. It was one of the 2018–19 bowl games concluding the 2018 FBS football season. It was the 30th edition of a bowl game tha ...

. Following his senior season, Banogu graduated from TCU and was invited to participate in the 2019 Senior Bowl as a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

Professional career

Banogu was drafted by the

in the second round (49th overall) of the

2019 NFL Draft The 2019 NFL Draft was the 84th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2019 NFL season. The draft was held on April 25–27 in Nashville, Tennessee. The first round was held on April 2 ...

. During the season opener against the

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...

, Banogu recorded a half-sack in his first-career game. During the Week 8 game against the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

, Banogu sealed the 15-13 victory with his 4th-quarter strip-sack of Joe Flacco, both career-firsts. In Week 12 against the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

, he brought down

Deshaun Watson Derrick Deshaun Watson (born September 14, 1995) is an American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players ...

for a sack.

References

External links

Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks bioTCU Horned Frogs bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banogu, Ben 1996 births Living people People from McKinney, Texas People from Prosper, Texas Sportspeople from the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex Players of American football from Texas Nigerian players of American football American football defensive ends Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks football players TCU Horned Frogs football players Indianapolis Colts players