Obi Melifonwu Named to American Athletic Conference Five-Year Anniversary Team

As the American Athletic Conference Media Day festivities get underway Monday evening, the conference started by announcing the members of the its five-year anniversary team. The 30 honorees include 22 players currently on NFL rosters. As one might expect given UConn’s performance since the conference’s inception, only one former Husky, current Oakland Raiders safety Obi Melifonwu, is the only UConn player on the squad.

The Grafton, Massachusetts native played for the Huskies from 2013-16 and really broke out in his senior season, finishing second in the conference with 9.8 tackles per game and setting the UConn record for tackles in a game with 24 in his final collegiate game against Tulane.

After he was done at UConn, Melifonwu turned heads with an incredible performance at the NFL Combine, finishing as the top performer in the broad jump (11 feet 9 inches, second best ever behind fellow Husky Byron Jones), vertical leap (44 inches) and also ran a 4.4 40-yard dash. This performance led to Melifonwu being selected with the 56th overall pick by the Raiders in the 2016 NFL Draft.

Melifonwu joined former UCF safety Clayton Geathers as the only safeties on the team. Other notable names on the anniversary team include Connecticut native Tyler Matakevich, current Philadelphia Eagles kicker Jake Elliott and UCF linebacker Shaquem Griffin.