position he thought he'd play in the NFL, Akwasi told them safety.
"The interesting thing is, the easiest thing is corner because you're just going to line up," secondary coach Dave Campo said. "There's other things involved, but if you've got great athletic ability just to line up and play corner, then that's probably the easiest. His thoughts in what's the easiest was free safety, because he's looking at it like IUP where you're in the middle of the field and that's all you really do. In our scheme, that's basically it.
"If you're just a center-fielder and you have a good nose for the football, you're athletic and you can run, then that's it."
Campo and assistant secondary coach Brett Maxie will get him started right away - in the classroom, learning different coverages and techniques. It'll be a crash course until he's healthy enough for camp in July.
They believe Owusu-Ansah can handle it, and with time, develop into an effective DB. His rookie chores likely will be on special teams. He worked as a gunner at IUP in addition to his specialty, returning kicks and punts. He averaged 11.3 yards on punt returns and 25.9 yards on kick returns.
"Teams talked about it a lot (before the draft)," he said.
As he walked through the Valley Ranch hallways Thursday, Owusu-Ansah said he was excited to be out of the shoulder sling and ready to begin rehab.
The "big fish" is ready to change ponds.
Dallas, Texas, is more like the Pacific Ocean. But the Cowboys wouldn't have drafted IUP's finest if they didn't think he could swim with the sharks.