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Colleyville Covenant’s Enow Etta is a computer wiz ... who also has 48.5 career sacks

Etta, a senior committed to Michigan, has 48.5 career sacks, a 4.2 GPA and just began playing football three years ago.

COLLEYVILLE — Enow Etta stood there on Colleyville Covenant’s football field and explained why he committed to Michigan over the summer. The lure of Wolverine alums like Aidan Hutchison and Rashan Gary — two defensive ends, like himself, who were picked in the first round of the NFL draft — certainly helped.

But academics, he explained, might’ve played a bigger role. Etta will study computer science, and Michigan’s program was enough for a teenager to turn down Nick Saban and Alabama, which offered him a scholarship in February, and choose the Wolverines.

“I just love computers,” Etta said. “And building computers, things like that.”

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“I built my first one for like $600,” the 6-5, 260 pound edge rusher said. “Market value right now is like $2,400.”

Excuse me?

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“My first one took me like two hours,” Etta said. “It’s really just like building Legos.”

Understand this: Etta, a senior, is one of the nation’s best football players. 247Sports.com rates him a four-star recruit, a top-100 player in the country and the 10th-best defensive lineman. He’s No. 17 player on The Dallas Morning News’ class of 2023 top 100 recruits list, and through three seasons and some change at Colleyville Covenant, he’s recorded 48.5 career sacks and led the state of Texas in quarterback takedowns last year.

And, it turns out, he can build computers. He did so for the first time in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic began. That was just a few months before he logged 17 sacks as a sophomore and helped Covenant win a TAPPS Div. III state championship. That season came just one year after he played football for the first time.

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“Just to watch him morph into the player he is now,” Covenant coach Phil Towe said. “He’s so coachable. He’s a great kid, and it’s hard not to root for him.”

Colleyville Covenant's Enow Etta had 22 sacks as a junior, which led the entire state of Texas.
Colleyville Covenant's Enow Etta had 22 sacks as a junior, which led the entire state of Texas.(Colleyville Covenant Christian School / Colleyville Covenant Christian School)

‘He’s going to be pretty good, and he doesn’t even know it’

Etta was ready to quit football.

On Day 1 of his freshman year.

“I had never gone through something like this,” Etta said. “We were doing bear crawls, the field was like 100 degrees. Man, I’m a basketball player. I’m not trying to get myself killed out here doing this stupid stuff.”

Etta, who’d moved to Texas from Jacksonville, Fla., prior to his freshman season, held firm in his conviction that he’d play Division I basketball. His father had hopes that he’d play college hoops at Princeton. His grandfather, Etta said, was 7-feet tall. But at Covenant in 2019, Towe — an assistant athletic director, assistant basketball coach and head football coach at the time — decreed that the basketball team had to play football, too, to bolster the latter’s participation numbers.

So there was this freshman, who measured in at about 6-2, 230 pounds, who had never played football before. He began as a backup tight end, but an injury on Covenant’s defensive line forced the coaching staff to move Etta to the front seven. He finished the season with three sacks.

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Towe figured Etta was special. How special, though, he wasn’t quite sure. Not until Dallas Cowboys legend DeMarcus Ware — whose children attended Covenant — strolled into practice one day, worked a bit with Etta and declared that “he is going to be really, really good.” So, too, did defensive line coach James Reed (a former NFL defensive lineman), running backs coach Correll Buckhalter (a former NFL running back) and offensive coordinator Vernon Wells (a three-time MLB All-Star).

“Immediately you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, he’s going to be pretty good’,” Towe said. “And he doesn’t even know it.”

But, remember, Etta was a basketball player. At least he thought so, and continued to play the sport for Covenant through his sophomore year. At an offseason football camp before his second season, Etta faced something of a wake-up call combined with a motivator.

“I was the skinniest guy there,” Etta said. “I ended up getting pancaked [by Northwest Eaton offensive lineman Hunter Erb, who now plays at Texas A&M], I’m not afraid to admit it. [Reed] pulled me aside and said, ‘We’re never letting that happen again.’”

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Etta hit the weights and switched to a protein-based diet. He grew a few inches, added about 30 pounds and returned for a sophomore season in which he led all of TAPPS in sacks with 17 (in just an eight-game season), made 124 tackles and helped Covenant go undefeated and win its third state title. His first scholarship offer came that following offseason from Arizona State.

“That’s when it really clicked,” Etta said. “I had been playing basketball my whole life and never really got anything out of it. I play football for a year and I already had my first Division I offer. It was time to put my eggs in the right basket.”

Etta carded 22.5 sacks as a junior, earned 29 more scholarship offers and in June committed to Michigan over Alabama, Stanford and Michigan State. The underclassman iteration of Etta relied on speed and finesse to glide past offensive linemen. Now, with some added weight and an 81-inch wingspan, he’s combined agility with brute strength to overpower opponents. He has six sacks this season for Covenant (0-4), and is one of two seniors on a roster comprised almost entirely of underclassmen.

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“[Football] started off as a social thing, to hang out with the guys here,” Etta said. “Now the rest is history, and it’s become something that has laid the foundation for my future.”

Colleyville Covenant senior Enow Etta committed to Michigan over Alabama, Stanford and...
Colleyville Covenant senior Enow Etta committed to Michigan over Alabama, Stanford and Michigan State.(Shawn McFarland)

‘He’s just super analytical’

Let’s get back to those computers.

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Etta took coding and engineering classes in middle school. His interest piqued when his laptop broke and he cracked it open and became fascinated by the wiring and mechanisms. By 2020, he’d built that first computer, and said he’d even considered creating a business where he makes them for friends, but the rising cost of parts made it unsustainable.

“I just couldn’t picture myself doing anything else,” said Etta.

Etta explained that building a computer isn’t as hard as it seems (though that may be easier for someone with a 4.2 GPA to say) and that it’s all about having the correct parts and understanding the complexities that come with the wiring. Frustrations, of course, do occur.

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“Even when I built my first computer, I screwed up so many times putting wires in the wrong place, screws in the wrong place,” Etta said. “I think it did help me in football. That’s one of the things in life that taught me patience. Just because you screw up once, you still have the next opportunity.”

How many other blue chip recruits can say that their computer science background helps their football skills?

“He’s a monster,” Towe said.

On the football field and in the computer lab, too.

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Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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