An age-old question for Amobi Okoye

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -The opening question is always the same. Always.

When NFL personnel first meet Amobi Okoye, they don't ask the former Louisville star how he molded himself into one of the top defensive line prospects in this year's draft. They don't wonder about his work habits or pester him about what it was like growing up in Nigeria.

Their question is much simpler, often spoken in hushed tones to let Okoye know it's OK to finally drop his guard and let them in on the secret they think he's keeping.

"They're always like, 'Are you 19? Really?"' Okoye says, shaking his head. "They say 'You can tell me. I won't tell anybody."'

Okoye sighs and lets out a little laugh. The questions he's hearing now are the same ones he heard four years ago after joining the Cardinals at age 16, a time when most players are getting ready for their junior year of high school.

"I'm used to it," said Okoye, who turns 20 in June. "People have always been asking me about it. In my head, when I hear it now, I'm like, 'Again?"'

Don't get Okoye wrong. He's not ungrateful for the attention or exasperated by the somewhat skeptical look in a scout's eyes whenever they watch him work out.

It's just he's ready for people to start looking past the date on his birth certificate and concentrate on what's made him a virtual lock to go in the first round: the never-idle motor he spent three seasons harnessing before finally letting loose; the lighting quick way he gets off the ball; the nimble footwork that makes double-teaming him nearly impossible.

"I'm a player, you know?" he said. "Let's talk about football."

Okoye understands the skepticism. Everything about him, from his cerebral, quiet nature to his 6-foot-1, 300-pound frame, suggests he's all grown up. His deep voice rumbles from somewhere out of his thick chest. His words are measured, polite and exact.

"You hear about his age, and you wonder how he's going to fit in," said Atlanta defensive line coach Kevin Wolthausen, who coached Okoye at Louisville before following Bobby Petrino to the Falcons. "But it just goes back to his parents and the way he was raised. He's never known anything different."

When Okoye moved from Nigeria to Alabama at age 12, he spent two weeks in middle school before voluntarily testing into high school so he could be with his older brother and sister. He joined the football team at Lee High in Huntsville, Ala., after one of his friends told him he'd probably get "broken" if he tried to run with the big boys.

"So I was like, 'You know, just for that, I am going to go out there,"' he said.