This is the third installment of an annual DawgNation series on the “Next Generation” of Georgia football players from each signing class. 5-star Joseph Jonah-Ajonye enrolled in January. He was rated the nation’s No. 6 DL and No. 25 overall recruit for the 247Sports Composite. He was the No. 6 DL and No. 29 overall prospect for the On3 Industry Ranking.
Joseph-Ajonye is massively strong. Especially for his age. Or any age.
He turned 17 back in November. That’s very young for a college freshman. Especially one that stands six feet and four inches tall and is 275 pounds.
The 5-star freshman in Athens was already benching 420 pounds, squatting close to 600 pounds and power cleaning 370 by the time he enrolled early in January.
The Nigerian native packed approximately 30 pounds to his frame from his junior year in a remarkable ascent that saw his prospect status reach the 5-star range. At this time a year ago, he was ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the nation’s No. 194 overall prospect.
He didn’t have the Georgia offer that he wanted yet. So he worked for it.
That’s what he does. He grinds. Then he climbs. He has to.
That’s because the 17-year-old has big goals. He wants to be a millionaire before he turns 20. That’s possible given NIL funds if he is an established star at UGA by the end of his junior season.
He could also be ready for the NFL after his third season at UGA. That would mean he’d be drafted at the age of 20. He will not turn 21 until November of 2027.
He wants to win national championships, then Super Bowls and wear a gold jacket one day. That takes his football dream to the ultimate.
The Bulldog freshman is tough. Driven. Dedicated.
He gets all of that from him Momma.
His mother Omovigho Ajonye is a single mother, but she has been an example for him throughout his life.
“That’s definitely where I get my strength from,” he said last December. “Physically. Mentally and emotionally.”
She is the strongest person in their family. Omovigho will work 12 hours per day as a certified nurse’s assistant at a children’s hospital She will work anywhere from 12 to 16 days straight.
“He has no choice but to be strong like me,” his mother said. “That’s what he says.”
Then she will come home and cook meals for her two children.
“I just kind of copied that from her,” Joseph-Ajonye said back in December. “She’s definitely stronger, you know? She’s always been.”
“For a while, I’m going to be second place but eventually, I’m going to take that number one spot.”
That’s not just sentiment. But for a lot of reasons.
“I don’t want Joseph to suffer at all,” his mother said. “I want him to eventually find a good woman like me. Because only a good woman would flee an abusive marriage with her two kids. And up until today I still don’t have that relationship anymore. I just want to see my kids succeed.”
The depth of that story is something she will tell one day. But that’s enough for now. She moved her family from Nigeria to Maryland in 2015. They moved from Maryland to Texas in 2016.
His mother said “his determination” stands out most about her son.
“I never knew that determination was there until he insisted on playing football,” Omovigho Ajonye said. “As much as I tried to discourage him from playing football and sticking with basketball.”
His father, she said, was a professional basketball player back in Nigeria.
When he’d come to her for money to play for football camps, she’d deal with it but wasn’t hopeful with the sport. She would buy $50 cans of protein powder to help him gain weight.
“He’d say ‘Mom I am going to go and I’m going to play football, make it in college football and go on to the NFL’ when we’d talk about it,” she said.
Joseph-Ajonye has told her he wants to retire her one day. To set her up in her dream home. So she doesn’t have to work 15, 16, 17 days straight without a day off.
“That’s the goal,” Joseph-Ajonye told DawgNation back in December.
Joseph Jonah-Ajonye has dreamed of being a Georgia Bulldog
For the fans who now cite on social media, they are done with the twists and turns of recruiting because of NIL or impulsive kids, then Joseph-Ajnonye is your guy.
If you’d rather wait until they sign to start following their careers closely, he is already your ‘Dawg.
He moved to Athens in January, but his love for Georgia runs deep. Especially so for a young man who played soccer in Nigeria before his mother moved their family to the United States in 2015.
He sounds like a Georgia fan trapped in a 5-star’s body. Well, that’s because he was until he joined the team.
“It’s a blessing,” he said back in December. “It has been a dream of mine ever since I started playing football to be a part of the greatest defense in college football. Just the development and just the people. So it’s amazing.”
He shared a story of working out at a middle school back in Texas before enrolling at UGA. That’s when some local kids recognized him and came up to him.
“They said ‘Oh it is that No. 1 Georgia commit’ and it made me smile,” he added. “Because I am associated with Georgia and it has helped my brand a little bit. It is special. I’m blessed really.”
Since his first visit to UGA, he said that defensive line coach Tray Scott asked him what number he wanted to wear. When he told him he wanted to wear No. 99 made famous by Bulldog legend Jordan Davis.
Scott reserved that. It was waiting for him.
When on his official visit, he then saw Jordan Davis. He couldn’t speak at first. Joseph-Ajonye has massive hands, but No. 99 had him beat. He said Davis was “built like a bus” to him.
“I was geeking out,” Joseph-Ajonye said.
That chance meeting inspired his entire family during that trip.
“Joseph has a five-year scholarship by Georgia but he wants to get drafted before his fourth year,” his mother said. “The dream is to make it to the league and be a millionaire in dollars before he turns 20. He wants to achieve that but says ‘Mom I’m going to work hard to make it’ and he looks up to Jordan Davis.”
“That’s why when we saw Jordan Davis on that official visit, he said ‘Mom we have to get a picture with him’ and we did and Jordan Davis signed his cap for him and it made my son almost pass out. He was so happy to meet Jordan Davis.”
She said her son kept looking at that hat when flying back to Texas from Athens.
“He wouldn’t even let me put it in the bag,” his mother said. “He was worried about crushing it. He was like ‘Mom that is Jordan Davis man’ and Joseph is just crazy about Georgia.”
When DawgNation visited his high school last October, he won a friendly “Who’s the Smartest ‘Dawg?” competition with his 5-star teammate Justin Williams. Joseph-Ajonye took that competition seriously.
Given how things are going, his mother said she might be moving to Georgia.
“I can not be too far from Joseph,” she said.
Her daughter is also considering moving to Athens. She wants to be a nurse. It will also allow his mother to avoid plane trips. She does not like airline travel at all.
“One of those other things to know about Joseph is he loves his mom’s food,” she said. “When we first came to America, I thought he would be about all the food we don’t have in Nigeria. But no, he didn’t really take to that. Most American food would always have cheese and a lot of salt.”
Her meals weren’t like that.
“All of my meats and my chicken everything we eat we get straight from the farm,” she said. “It has to be organic.”
She doesn’t go to the local store. Ajonye will go to the farm herself on Sunday and come back with dozens of chickens. She slaughters goats and mixes those meats into his favorite meals.
He loves steak and all types of meats, but Jollaf rice is his favorite. That’s a traditional Nigerian dish.
“If I have Jollaf rice in the refrigerator, he will sit and eat it Monday through Friday,” she said.
She keeps making it even though it is not easy to prepare.
“We just eat fresh food,” she said. “Joseph loves what I cook for him and the way we prepare it and that’s where he gets all his strength from.”
Joseph Jonah-Ajonye: The Georgia football connection runs deeper
Ajonye pays attention to the milestones in her son’s early career. He took to football quickly despite just starting to play in high school. He had a goal to play on the varsity early on. She was proud of him when he came home to tell her he achieved that.
Then the offers started coming. It began with a small trickle and quickly to 15, 20 and 30 offers.
He had approximately 34 offers, but still no Georgia.
“He came into my room and was almost crying,” his mother said. “I’d never seen my son almost tearing up like that.”
She even yelled at him and told him to be grateful considering how his American dream had unfolded in a new sport after moving from Nigeria. He didn’t even start playing football until his freshman year of high school.
But Joseph-Ajonye held his ground. He told his mother if Georgia offered, that would be it. It would soar ahead of his other offers, including the relationships he had built with other local Power 5 schools.
That offer finally came on April 19, 2023.
“When he got the offer he came home jumping up and down, but I wasn’t smiling,” his mother said. “I asked him ‘Why did it take Georgia this long?’ when he told me that.”
She would eventually look Georgia defensive line coach Tray Scott in the eye on the official. To ask that same question. She wanted to know why he wasn’t good enough for a time.
Scott told him he needed to see her son get bigger. He was 240 pounds as a junior. That’s not a defensive lineman’s size at Georgia. But when he packed on that 30 pounds late in his junior year of high school, then his evaluation changed.
When he got that April offer from the ‘Dawgs, he started to look at his future differently. Jonah-Ajonye knew he needed to be developed for the NFL and that offer from UGA afforded him the best possible chance.
That offer did not slow his determination. That’s when he started to say he wouldn’t have made it until he started paying the mortgage for her home.
“He would say then you won’t have to work 12 days straight like you always do,” he said. “He would say you can just work your regular shifts and ‘I will take care of you’ after that.”
“Then he would say for me to pray for him at Georgia and for him to make it to the league. He’d say ‘When I make it to the league then you are not working no more’ and I’m not looking at Joseph saying I don’t need all of that but that is his dream and that makes me proud.”
It didn’t take her long to see what her son felt in Athens on that official visit.\
“I was swept off my feet,” his mother said. “And I won’t lie to you I silently committed to Georgia coach Kirby Smart. I didn’t wait for Joseph to do it. If you know what your kid wants, every parent wants their kid to be happy. When I got to Georgia, I saw everything he was talking about.”
“The Georgia staff. The school itself. Everything that makes up Georgia football. I don’t think anybody can compare. .. You know who someone talks to you and you know in your spirit and know that person is not lying? I’ve had other people talk to me and I can see all the lies. Not the real thing. My son loved Georgia and his dream was to play for Georgia and I did not have to fight it one bit anymore. I wanted my son to be happy and he was very happy there. I believed right away that he was making the very best decision.”
Joseph Jonah-Ajonye badly wanted his 5-star teammate to choose UGA
While on that official visit, his mother openly shared with his 5-star teammate Justin Williams and their family that they planned to sign with UGA. It was out in the open, but the Williams circle was discreet about his choice between Georgia and Oregon.
He wanted their family to pray for Justin to choose UGA.
Jonah-Ajonye still wasn’t sure the day Williams made his decision. But they invited him to his decision ceremony that streamed live nationwide.
When he chose UGA, he was ecstatic he would get to continue playing side-by-side with Williams.
“When Justin committed, Joseph was as happy as he was on the day Georgia offered him the scholarship,” his mother said. “It was crazy.”
She had a picture from their official visit enlarged last fall. Her son didn’t know about it but was surprised to see it when he came home.
“I put it on the console and was getting in the shower and right when I was getting in the shower he got home and I heard him yell ‘This is amazing’ and I didn’t know what he was talking about and I came downstairs and asked why he was yelling.”
It was that picture.
“Look at you,” he said.
“Look at me,” he added. “And look at Kirby Smart. Look at coach Scott.”
But there was something else about that red and black. It links to his father’s family roots in Nigeria. It is tradition for the people in the Benue region to wear a specific set of colors.
“The tradition of wearing for the Doma people is to wear red and black,” she said. “Yes, I swear to you. He wore that for his 16th birthday last year. There is a cloth that you wear around your neck and head.”
“To think that he is going to be wearing red and black for Georgia in college? I think there’s something spiritual about that. I am a very spiritual person. There’s something spiritual about this.”
“If Joseph were getting married today, we would have a traditional marriage and a church marriage. At that traditional marriage ceremony, he must wear red and black. There’s no two ways about it. And his uniform is going to be red and black? For all the years to come? That’s God made. That’s amazing.”
There’s another picture to discuss. Jonah-Ajonye usually hates to flash his full smile and teeth taking pictures.
He made an exception for this one.
It became his favorite picture even with a Jordan Davis-sized smile.
“When we take a picture he’s always on the run and says ‘Mom be fast about it’ but that time he was not in any hurry to get his picture taken,” his mother said.
It captured the moment when Georgia assistant coach Chidera Uzo-Diribe came out waving a big Nigerian flag. Uzo-Diribe’s family roots are also from Nigeria.
“He said ‘That was the greatest surprise of my life’ when his coaches did that,” his mother said. “I never expected them to do that. He never expected them to do that.”
Joseph-Ajonye now calls himself “The Nigerian Nightmare” as a nod to former Kansas City RB great Christian Okoye. He wants to bring his version of terror upon opposing offenses.
He hopes to make an impact on the Georgia fan base. If he could look to the stands one day and see Georgia fans waving a Nigerian flag after he makes a play, it would mean everything to him.
Joseph Jonah-Ajonye first had to change his Mom’s mind about UGA
There was a time when Joseph disagreed with his mother which made her very proud. She tells that story fondly.
“The proudest I’ve even been was when we had a tie between Georgia and Oklahoma,” she said. “Even though I was pushing for Oklahoma because it was the closer to home. I could then just drive five hours and I’m at Oklahoma. Because I don’t like flying. I kept telling him ‘Just go to Oklahoma it is closer” but he said ‘Mom it is not about you. I am the player. I know what I want. I play defensive end’ and he said ‘If I want to make it to the league I have to go to Georgia’ with that.”
The next thing she brought up was their official visit to Georgia.
“When I went to Georgia for the official visit, I realized everything he was saying,” she said. “I was somewhat ashamed of myself for trying to talk him out of what he wanted to do, but he convinced me. I was so proud. He knew what he wanted and he knew what was his dream and he went out for it and he got it.”
“That’s why I was so proud of him. I didn’t know he knew what he wanted and where that was. I was proud of him that he already knew that much.”
When her son plays, she will call him by his “pet” name. He’s had that since he was seven months old.
“When I yell and call him that name,” she said. “Everyone turns around and looks at me. His friends will be asking him. Like what is your Mom saying when you make a big play.”
They hear her say “Two Punchy” and don’t know why that is special.
“When Joseph was a baby we were playing on the bed and he realized what it means to throw a first at me,” she said. “I would throw a fist at him so when I punched him I was like ‘I will give you one punch’ and ‘I’ll give you two punch’ and we never got to three punch or four punch. We just got stuck at two punchy. So I just decided to call him ‘two punchy’ and right from there I started calling Joseph that.”
She used to not come to his game. She was weary of him getting hurt. But he eventually insisted. He told her he’d play even harder if she watched him. He wanted to make her proud.
When he did, she let him know.
“When he made that tackle I yelled ‘Two punchy that’s my son number 99′ and he knows I am the only one who would call him ‘Two punchy’ and he smiled and waved at me,” his mother said. “It was fun. It was nice.”
She was once concerned about all of the concussions in football she saw while working at her hospital. The rough tackles. When she finally got used to football, she started to give him some inspiration before games.
Joseph-Ajonye would tell her that he’s the one making tackles. He would be the one making the big hits.
“He started calling himself ‘Nightmare’ because that is what he would bring to people,” she said. “He’s going to be their nightmare.”
She relented with her worries about football. Her strong will came out.
“I told him to tackle who he wants to tackle,” she said. “Bring down who you want to bring down and he said ‘Mom you are talking like a Bulldog Mom now. You are talking like a ‘Dawg. And I said you’re right. I’m one. The mother of a ‘Dawg is a ‘Dawg.”
Joseph-Ajonye gets every bit of that from his Momma. How could he not?
Check out the “Next Generation” video breakdown on Jonah-Ajonye embedded below.
DawgNation “Next Generation” series for 2024
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