Arizona State football: Meet four-star Tony-Louis Nkuba

Just a few short months ago Arizona State football was able to pick up one of its biggest signings in year one under Kenny Dillingham. Meet Tony-Louis Nkuba, a four-star defensive back and receiver out of Lewisville, Texas.

Nkuba is a four-star according to Rivals and a top 50 player in the state of Texas, one of the best states for high school football in America.

Our Cooper Burns interviewed him to find out a little more about his background and why he chose Arizona State.

Nkuba’s background

As a kid, Nkuba did not grow up playing football or even living in the United States at all until his early years.  Nkuba came over from Africa in the fourth grade and did not even begin playing the game of football until seventh grade.

“So you see I came from Africa as a kid, so I came over here in fourth grade my first sport was soccer when I first came down here,” Nkuba said. “So I started playing football in seventh grade and I was on the team in seventh grade.”

When Nkuba began playing the game in seventh grade he did not take it seriously at all. He even admitted that he was not very good.

Beginning of his football career

It took Nkuba a long time to turn into the four-star, Arizona State football commit that he is today.

Despite not being good at the game, to begin with, Nkuba started to grow a love for the game and began to take it on a more serious level. Taking his mindset to another level from middle school to high school allowed him to put up some serious numbers.

“I was not that good, and then freshman year I took it more seriously,” Nkuba said. “And then I got to varsity my junior year and I had a crazy season, seven interceptions.”

Not many can say that they had seven interceptions in their first season playing varsity football, but Nkuba can.

Trying to make a name for himself

Despite having a monster junior year the offers were not coming in from colleges.

Unlike many who would have been concerned about the lack of offers, Nkuba kept working hard and knew his shot would come. If he wanted to have a shot he admitted that he was going to have to wait because of the immense talent that he shared the field with.

Along with himself, Nkuba shared the field with the likes of Caden Jenkins, DB at Baylor, Cameron Jenkins, and Jada Hardy.

All three of those players currently play at the Division One level.

One of the things he learned while sharing the field with those great athletes was that he was going to be targeted on the field.

Most teams did not throw to the D1 commits, instead, they threw to Nkuba. Even though it was his first season on varsity, the pressure did not get to him when the ball came his way.

“I was young coming in so I knew I was going to be the one with the most targets,” Nkuba continued. “So I just came in a mindset that I would just be going to get a chance to get to pick every game. So that’s what I knew.”

Tough decisions 

Before the future Sun Devil’s breakout junior season, he had some tough decisions to make.

“My freshman year in high school, I was a backup. So my sophomore year I had a chance to play varsity my sophomore year, but if I went to varsity, I would have been a backup varsity,” Nkuba said. “I’m just getting reps to get experience so I can come out my junior season. So it was just like just working on my craft, that’s all” Nkuba said. 

Nkuba understood coming in that everyone wants to get to varsity right away, but that isn’t always what is going to happen.

In learning that, Nkuba took the JV route knowing that down the road it would eventually be the right thing to do.

“I just feel like I understood that everybody has their own path, like football,” Nkuba continued. “Everybody has their own path. And some people just don’t know that. And people want to get on varsity as fast as possible, but they might just not be ready for it. So it’s like I just felt like I understood that I have my own path and if I put my mind to it, I know I can make it happen.”

Multisport athlete 

As so many football players do, Nkuba runs track at Lewisville High School.

In the spring of 2022, Nkuba ran an 11.52, 11.88, and 11.55 100-meter dash along with a 23.48 and 23.83 in the 200-meter dash.

“You know, being a receiver and a defensive back, I feel like track just helps you gain speed in the off-season,” Nkuba explained. “Because if you’re not doing it in the off-season, you’re going to lose.”

For most athletes doing multiple sports may be very time-consuming and stressful but not for Nkuba.

“I feel like all you have to do is just have a balance. Just know it’s a time for everything,” Nkuba said. “When it’s football time, football is on my mind. When it’s track time, track is on my mind, and when I gotta go to school, I can’t talk about football I’m a student-athlete and have to focus on school. You cannot get anything without school, that’s one thing you cannot rule out.

The Recruiting Process

After all of his interceptions, tackles, forced fumbles and so many great plays on the field, Nkuba began to receive interest from schools all over the country.

During the early stages of the process, Nkuba began to realize that people were watching him and he was going to be watched with a keen eye.

“I feel like you have more of a magnified eye (on you). So you just have to make sure you have your P’s and Q’s all the time. You gotta be focused and you gotta act right because you have it on you,” Nkuba emphasized. “So you have an image behind you, right behind anything you do, you’re being watched.”

When he first started to get offers from schools he did not necessarily pay attention to all of the offers he was getting, he kept his mentality… an underdog mentality.

Nkuba has always had an underdog mentality, even through all of the attention.

“I like being the underdog,” Nkuba said. “I feel like because when you’re the underdog, you’re always somebody. Nobody’s, like, waiting for you to lose when you’re the underdog.”

What did Nkuba enjoy about the recruitment process

Every player is different during the recruiting process. Some players like to go on visits, some do not. Some like posting about all of their offers, and some like to remain away from the spotlight. For Nkuba, he loved the recruiting process and going to all of the campuses.

The main reason?

He wanted to make sure he was finding the right people and the right place for himself. 

“The most important thing is you want to make sure that somebody wants you and to build that relationship based on what you want and you want it to be valid,” Nkuba explained. “I wouldn’t look at the logos. You want to be valued, emotionally valued.”

What led Nkuba to Arizona State football

After talking and visiting with Arizona State football head coach Kenny Dillingham, it sealed his commitment to play for ASU.

Nkuba raved about Dillingham and the staff during his visit in June.

“See, like Coach Dillingham, he’s just a guy with a bunch of juice, a bunch of energy. So if you’re with him, you’re going to have some fun,” Nkuba said. “So, there was a bunch of love and we went out to eat. We just had fun bowling. And I love the city, too, because the city is really beautiful. I kind of fell in love when I went there.”

Additionally, Nkuba once again added on to wanting relationships with coaches and felt that Dillingham and defensive backs coach Bryan Carrington are the right fit for him.

On Dec. 7, Carrington and Dillingham visited Texas where they stopped by Lewisville to see Nkuba only furthering his commitment to ASU.

“I feel like it’s just that’s more of what I was talking about,” the four-star explained. “Building a relationship, because you don’t want to just get separated because you want to keep talking.”

Nkuba will be signing with the Sun Devils during this upcoming class period and will begin playing for Arizona State football beginning next season.

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