Dean Still Pursuing Mechanical Engineering Degree
April 28, 2023 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Nakobe Dean might be living his football dreams now as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, who won the NFC and played in the Super Bowl during his rookie season, but the former Bulldog linebacker has unfinished business at the University of Georgia.
A Mechanical Engineering major, Dean returned to campus this spring to take a couple of classes and continue working toward his degree. Because spring semester began in January and the Eagles advanced all the way to the Super Bowl in February (losing to the Kansas City Chiefs, 38-35), Dean did his first month of classes online before coming back to Athens.
"Being away for a year and then coming back, it's a different feel, and being in class is kind of weird. But it feels good to be back," Dean said.
After helping the Bulldogs win the 2021 College Football Playoff national championship, and winning the Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker, Dean opted to turn pro after his junior season. He was taken in the third round by the Eagles, who had drafted teammate Jordan Davis in the first round.
"Having Jordan there helped a lot because he was somebody that I could talk to right off the bat. When you get to a new place sometimes, you don't know who to trust and everything like that, but with J.D. I know I can trust him with whatever," Dean said. "We went through our rookie season together and it was our first time living in that type of city, living that far north, and living by ourselves.
"Just having that immediate friend and brother right there helped a lot."
Dean, from Horn Lake, Miss., knew when he turned pro that he was going to come back to finish. When you work as hard as he did in one of the most difficult majors on campus, and maintain a 3.55 GPA, you're not going to leave all that behind. Dean, who has taken so much inspiration in his life from his mother, Neketta, was determined to get back to his studies quickly.
"There were a couple of things in college than I wanted to do and didn't do, and one of them was graduate. I plan on graduating no matter how long it takes. I'm going to come back and chip away toward my degree," said Dean, who was back in Horn Lake last weekend to see his No. 17 high school jersey retired.
"I've only got 26 hours left — I can do it."
For Cory Kopaniasz, Georgia's Assistant Athletic Director of Academics, Dean's approach to working toward his degree now is no different than it was when he was a full-time UGA student-athlete.
"He's a gifted student, but he doesn't settle for just what he knows. He is very intellectually curious," Kopaniasz said. "His effort doesn't allow him to be anything less than an A student."
Dean took two classes this spring — a pair of whoppers: Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics. The classes go hand-in-hand, Dean said, and everything that follows at the higher levels of the Mechanical Engineering major requires a firm grasp on those two subjects.
Even while in the thick of helping the Eagles win division and conference titles, advancing to face Kansas City in the Super Bowl, Dean was in contact with Kopaniasz and his professors about his classes.
"He'd get out of team meetings and while everybody else went on to do other things, he opened up his laptop and got to work," Kopaniasz said. "He was able to balance the two, and that's super impressive. ...
"It was so much on his mind that I remember he called me after they won the NFC Championship Game. He called me within like an hour of the game ending because he wanted to know how to get the calculator he needed for one of his classes."
One of the things Dean would like to do with his degree is own a business that builds and designs prosthetics. His mother is a veteran, and she would take her family to the V.A. when they were young, so Dean was introduced early on to veterans that lost limbs.
"That thought came back to me when I was trying to decide what I wanted to major in," he said.
Neither Dean nor Davis, two of college football's biggest defensive stars in 2021, were high-impact rookies on a very talented Eagles defense last season. But their futures look very bright. Sports Illustrated NFL writer Albert Breer wrote recently that the Eagles "are really high" on where the two former Bulldogs "are going into their second years" with the team.
For Dean, who went from the Butkus Award, first-team All-America honors and making plays all over the field in 2021, his first NFL season saw him mostly playing on special teams. He said he had no problem going from being a cornerstone of Georgia's defense to having to work to get on the field in Philly.
"That was not a problem, and that should never be a problem for anybody. Work is work, and you've got to get to it," said Dean, who made 13 tackles last season.
Dean and Davis won't be the only Bulldogs on the Philly defense next season. On Thursday night, in the first round of the NFL Draft, two of their former teammates on that legendary 2021 defense, defensive tackle Jalen Carter and linebacker Nolan Smith, were selected by the Eagles.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
