New Member of Coaching Staff Likes 'Things to Be Difficult'

Simply put, Kenechi Udeze could ball.

A three-year starter for USC under Pete Carroll, Udeze finished his college career with 135 tackles (51 of them for loss). He tallied 28 sacks and forced 14 fumbles as well. In his final season, he was a first-team All-Pac-10 selection and was a consensus first-team All-American.

The NFL took notice, and the Minnesota Vikings selected him in the first round (20th overall) of the 2004 draft.

His first four years as a professional went according to plan. He started all but four of the 51 games he played for the Vikings defense and had five sacks with 15 quarterback hits in 2007. However, on Feb. 11, 2008, Udeze was diagnosed with Leukemia. He underwent chemotherapy to treat his cancer, but the very thing that saved his life ended his playing career because it caused nerve damage.

"I'd be lying if I said it was easy," Udeze said when he announced his retirement. "There was never an easy point. The first time I went back to USC and started working out with the fellas, I fell. I took two steps and I fell.”

Eventually he got up and set his sights on coaching.

Now, Udeze is the newest member of the Tennessee Titans’ staff. The team formally announced his addition as assistant defensive line coach – along with a handful of other moves – Friday. Based on his approach to the job, he should fit right in with the way head coach Mike Vrabel likes to do things.

“I actually love getting in there, putting my hands-on shoulder pads because I’m fairly young, especially in the coaching world,” Udeze, who is 37 years old, said in 2017 during an interview with the Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. “So, being on the field allows the guys to instantly relate to you, not only by me being a defensive linebacker in the past, but also by still showing them how to do things and interacting with them during practice.”

Thus far, his coaching career has been spent almost exclusively in the college ranks. He spent the 2020 season as linebackers coach at Vanderbilt. A year earlier, he was a defensive analyst at LSU when that program went undefeated and won the College Football Playoff national championship. He started as assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Washington in 2009 and later spent time at Pitt and at USC, where he spent three years as a defensive assistant.

It was during his stretch at USC that Udeze became known as a great recruiter for the defensive line. He helped bring in five-star players like Marlon Tuipulotu and Jay Tufele, Caleb Tremblay. He also helped target All-Americans Siaki Ika and Ty Robinson, proving he has an eye for great

defensive line play.

With the Titans, he will work to get more out of a pass rush that produced just 19 sacks and was an almost constant source of consternation throughout 2020.

“If you saw me on a day-to-day basis, you would see that I am very passionate about the game of football,” he said in that 2017 interview. “I just miss football. There is nothing like dedicating yourself to something and being told that you couldn’t do it anymore. I had to say bye to the sport I loved when I was only 24 years old.

“… I’m one of the people that thrive in situations of (adversity). I never like things to be easy. I like things to be difficult.”