A winning lottery ticket, a bold Twitter DM: Kader Kohou’s unlikely journey to the Dolphins

Kader Kohou’s story is still being written.

But the overarching theme of a journey that has taken him from the Ivory Coast to the Dolphins’ 53-man roster has been opportunity. The opportunity Kohou’s father sought when he moved their family to the United States. The opportunity an under-recruited Kohou sought when he sent a Twitter direct message to a Division II coach to find his way onto a college team.

There was no grand announcement — or celebration — when Tuesday’s roster cutdown deadline passed and Kohou found himself as one of the fortunate bubble players. The 23-year-old just entered his next team meeting and began working toward the next opportunity. That one could come in the Dolphins’ regular-season opener against the New England Patriots on Sept. 11.

“I was excited, though. It was like a dream come true,” Kohou said.

Kohou was born and grew up in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, a West African nation that borders Ghana and Liberia. Abidjan, the capital of the country, was once a French colony and Kohou’s first language is French.

A winning lottery ticket from Kohou’s father changed the trajectory of their lives. Kohou’s family uprooted when he was 9 and relocated to a Dallas suburb, moving in with Kohou’s aunt until they got situated into their own apartment.

“He just wanted a better opportunity for his kids, so we moved out here,” Kohou said.

Kohou’s memories of his time in the Ivory Coast are faint — he hasn’t been back since moving but is hoping to visit one day — but his introduction to American football is still vivid in his mind.

In Kohou’s apartment complex, a set of buildings were situated together forming a rectangle, and between the buildings was a large field of grass. Kids would meet there, some playing basketball but the majority were throwing around a pigskin in the football-crazed state.

“That was a way harder transition — not speaking English and not knowing anything about football,” Kohou said. “But I used sports to make friends. From then on, things started stacking on top of each other. Learning the language was the biggest barrier though. After I learned the language, it started going along pretty smoothly.”

Kohou didn’t pick up football seriously until eighth grade. He started as a running back and moved to cornerback when he got to Trinity High School. Trinity served grades 10 to 12 with an enrollment of about 3,200 students. It held an A team junior varsity squad and a B team JV squad — both around 75 players — as well as a varsity team of close to 100 players.

Still relatively new to the game — and the country — Kohou spent time on JV his first two years before landing on varsity full-time as a senior.

“He was just kind of an under-the-radar athlete,” said Chris Jensen, Kohou’s high school coach. “Great kid, great grades. Strong, really strong. Skinny little kid but strong. ... I think it was the spring of his junior year when we were in the meat of the offseason when we really just went, ‘Man, this kid is coming on.’”

Kohou had a great senior season, earning first-team All-District honors. But that late into the recruiting process, few programs viewed him as a legitimate prospect.

On Nov. 18, 2015 — five days after Trinity’s season ended in the playoffs — Kohou sent a direct message on Twitter with his highlight tape to Caid Faske, then a defensive line coach at Texas A&M-Commerce. “I just saw they were looking for a dog,” Kohou recalled.

Jensen, a Commerce alum, alerted coaches to the talented player who was still looking for a home. Kohou impressed the coaches at a camp hosted on Trinity’s campus but Faske, now a defensive ends coach at Stephen F. Austin, had to sell his defensive coordinator on Kohou with DII programs limited to just 36 scholarships.

After a home visit, the coordinator was all-in.

“They just felt like they were striking gold with him,” Jensen said, “because his growth potential — he was just a baby.”

At the time Kohou enrolled at Commerce, Faske estimates Kohou only received about $1,500 in scholarships per semester. (Commerce moved to the FCS-level Southland Conference this season). But he worked his way to a full scholarship with his work ethic on and off the field. Coaches recall a quiet and humble player who lived in the weight room, filling out his skinny, 5-10 frame.

“If he had a muscle spasm, he could die,” said David Bailiff, Commerce’s football coach.

After redshirting his freshman year, Kohou became one of the top players in the Lone Star Conference. He was voted the conference’s best defensive back as a senior and earned all-conference honors three times. One of the most gifted athletes on the team, he also returned kicks.

“He’s got great man coverage skills, he’s intelligent and he’s got a linebacker mentality when it comes to hitting,” Bailiff said. “He’s not afraid to strike you.”

Kohou joined the Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in the spring, sold by the vision of defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, who has a history of unearthing and developing unheralded defensive backs. “He seemed like he was upfront and real with everything he was saying,” Kohou said.

In training camp, Kohou found similarities from college with the Dolphins’ heavy man coverage approach and worked to learn the playbook. At Commerce, the defense had just 15 plays. In Miami, the playbook is much more convoluted.

Injuries to players in the secondary opened another chance for Kohou and he took advantage. When the starting defense lined up for its first series in the preseason finale last week, Kohou was the starting nickel corner. “He, from the onset, let it be known through his play that this was not too big of a stage for him,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said.

With Byron Jones out for the first four games of the season and the Dolphins weighing their options, the season opener could be a number of firsts for Kohou, one of two undrafted rookies to make the team.

His first NFL game. The first Commerce alum to appear in a game since 2006 — and the first Ivory Coast native to do so since 2005.

More than anything, though, it’d be another opportunity for a player who’s made the most of each one he’s been handed.

“He seizes the day like we all should,” Jensen said, “with some appreciation about where he’s at. No matter whether he’s in the NFL or on the second-team JV.”