Elvis Akpla is a difference-maker. Everyone associated with Montana State University’s football program agrees on that point. Identifying his most significant area of impact, though, begins the debate.
“Elvis is a real nice receiver,” says senior cornerback Arnold Briggs, who hones his own skills covering Akpla in practice. “He has a lot of speed, he’s quick, he can get off the line (of scrimmage). He makes me get better, and I’m happy to have a receiver like that on our team.”
Bobcat secondary coach Noah Joseph concurs with Briggs. “Elvis has great size, athleticism, ball skills,” said Joseph, who helped recruit Akpla as a transfer from the University of Oregon. “He has all the tools.”
MSU head coach Rob Ash takes a more universal view, citing Akpla’s production – and his potential to increase that production. “Elvis has the speed to be a playmaker, to get vertical down the field, and he has the hands and ball skills to make big catches. He’s a guy that can make plays. When he can consistently make tough catches over the middle in big situations of the game, that’s when he’ll go from being a talented receiver to a great receiver.”
Talk to Akpla about the ways he can make the biggest difference, though, and his list conveys an entirely different perspective. For the junior pre-med major, football is only one entry on a long list of priorities. “I have to keep my priorities straight,” he says. “I’ve got to study, go to class, I’ve got to lift, got to watch tape, I have a lot of things on my list I’ve got to do.”
Very high on that list, though, is to repay the opportunity he has been presented by helping others. He wants to make a difference.
“I’ve been helped by a lot of people my entire life,” Akpla said of his decision in high school to study medicine. “I wouldn’t be in this position if I wasn’t, and I knew that I wanted to help people. I want to use my intelligence, and med school is what I had in mind. I’m good with the sciences, I’m interested in the body, I’m an athlete and to an athlete the body is everything.”
While most of his teammates filled the summer with football work and as summer jobs, Akpla pounded the text books. “This summer I took organic chemistry and bio-chemistry, woke up at 7:30 am every day from May 18th until finals on August 5th for both those classes. It helps me in the sense that I’m smart enough to do it, but it also helps keep my focused.”
The source of Akpla’s motivation, and his inspiration, lies close to home, but far away. He spent his first eight years in Dakkar, the capital city of the African nation Senegal, before his mother left a possible career as a lawyer to move to America. “She gave up a lot to move here to the United States so I could have a good future,” he says.
That future would include a heavy dose of academics and the opportunities afforded by education. “(Akpla’s mother) worked two jobs, she was never at home, I was usually by myself. She could have moved, got a car, got a better job, but she (worked two jobs and) sent me to a private school. Even though I was mad at her because she was never home and I didn’t get things I wanted, she gave me the base that I needed,” Akpla says.
Still, the changes a move from Africa to Portland wrought on an eight-year old’s life were seismic. “It’s just a different universe,” Akpla says, “everything from personal space to hygiene to the language, a lot of things. Everything. I felt like I was born again, just a completely different world that I had to get adapted to.”
Akpla’s adaptation included competitive athletics, and excelling in football and track led him to the University of Oregon to compete in both. After two years, he narrowed his dream down to a career in Division I football, a path which led him to Montana State.
Along the road, an aptitude for academics and a thirst for learning fueled Akpla. That characteristic applies to his football career, as well. “He’s tremendously analytical,” says MSU receivers coach Brian Von Bergen. “Everyone looks at his talent, his explosion and his physique and his reach, all these physical traits, but if you get to know Elvis he’s a pretty big thinker. That’s what I thought coming out of last season, part of his dilemma on the field was to analyze instead of just play and react. That’s what we’re seeing (this) fall, he’s able to play with the same speed as when he’s not thinking. He’s a heavy thinker, and I think that’s an advantage for him because he understands what’s going on, but the goal this year for him was just to play fast.”
Joseph, the secondary coach who helped bring Akpla to Bozeman as MSU’s recruiting coordinator, also sees the receiver’s evolution from a process-oriented player who thinks things through thoroughly to a fluid, gifted pass-catcher as a work in progress. “Elvis is a very studious kid, a smart kid, and he plays football like that,” said Joseph, himself an academic all-conference player at Drake. “He’s kind of a nerd, in a good way, a very well-rounded kid. To sit down and talk with him (is great). He just needs to not think and over-analyze stuff while he’s playing.”
Akpla also understands that the biggest challenge in reaching his potential is mental, starting with experience. “I’m a smart guy, I’m pre-med, so I know that every single rep I get in football I get that much better. I don’t take one rep for granted. For instance you take Bleskin, he’s a young guy, when you compare him from last year to this year, he’s the same guy, but the difference is experience and confidence. That’s what I’m trying to build, too, experience and confidence. If you can build that, that’s all a receiver needs.”
The next step forward for Akpla as a receiver comes after securing the football. “Playing after the catch,” Von Bergen said in defining the area of Akpla’s next big step forward. “He runs his routes, he blocks, he’s physical, but just play the game after the catch. The play starts when he gets the ball, that’s the receiver mentality. You have to do something with the ball after the catch.”
Individual improvement accompanies gains made by the receivers as a group in fall camp, Akpla says. “(Last season) was Julius’ first year, Everett’s first year, and my first year, playing DI football,” he said. “We went through ups and downs, but I’ve taken it in stride. I’m all the way back, coming into the season healthy.”
And that, says receivers coach Von Bergen, is the biggest road block between Akpla, who has battled several injuries and multiple surgeries since arriving at MSU, and greatness. “We just need to keep him healthy.”
At the end of the day, Akpla’s goals remain simple – continue improving as a football player, and continue paying tribute to those that have helped him along the way by helping others. “I’ve been working hard my entire life, my mom instilled that in me,” he said. “She works really hard. I just put my responsibility on my shoulders and I realized that this team needs me to step up and make big plays, help out the young kids, just get the offense going. I’m doing what I have to. When the ball comes my way I go get it.”