COLUMBIA, Mo. — It’s a chilly Saturday night after a Missouri football win, and the two Albert Okwuegbunams are walking toward the football complex. The elder is wearing a Mizzou sweatshirt and Mizzou cap, the gold outlines glaring beneath the moon. The younger is wearing a Mizzou uniform and helmet. Both Albert Os are smiling, seemingly brighter with every step, and they’re smiling because they have a good reason to.

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Okwuegbunam, the son, has just turned in a six-reception, 159-yard, three-touchdown performance. He has just excited Memorial Stadium, and now, as his dad sits down in a chair inside the facility, he is about to speak with reporters in the football complex’s lobby.

“I pride myself on being a mismatch for anybody you line up on me,” Okwuegbunam says. “You can put a big linebacker on me that’s my size, but he’s not as fast as me. You can put a defensive back on me that can run with me, but that’s a physical mismatch.”

Some of the reporters smile while listening to this response. They smile because they know legendary Missouri tight end Kellen Winslow was at the game, and he marveled at Okwuegbunam just like so many had marveled at him.

“Does that mean anything to you, playing well in front of a guy like that?” a reporter asks.

“Definitely,” Okwuegbunam responds. “It makes me proud.”

He glances at his dad, who is lounging yet looking over, as if he’s watching a movie. His dad is also beaming as proud fathers do when they look at their sons. His dad is beaming as if he never imagined a day like this could come.

Through seven games, Albert Okwuegbunam ranks second in the country among all tight ends in catches (37) and TD catches (6), and he’s third in the country in receiving yards (400).

Of course, this should not be a surprise. Last year, Okwuegbunam caught more touchdown passes than any other tight end in the country.

As a freshman.

So how did this 3-star recruit from Springfield, Ill., become the 6-foot-5 specimen that has NFL scouts salivating? Well, it all starts with the name. Not the pronunciation — oh-coo-WAY-boo-nahm — but the meaning.

Evil cannot bring us down.

Okwuegbunam, the dad, left Onitsha, Nigeria, at the age of 19 in search of an education and a better life. He was accepted into the University of Illinois-Springfield, but he did not receive any financial aid. This meant working three jobs at places like Pizza Hut and a local post office.

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“As you grow up, you realize how hard that actually was,” the younger Okwuegbunam said.

The dad met Lisa Raehl at school, and they married in 1997. Raehl gave birth to young Albert a year later.

“When you have a kid and you have a son, you try everything,” the dad says. “You love him. That’s what I felt when I had Albert. I said I want to give him my name. I don’t have too much money, but I have my good name, and he should maintain the good name.”

Raehl remembers so many moments from those early days, but none stands out more than when young Albert first attempted to walk. The determination he showed remains the determination he now shows.

The stubbornness, too.

Both the elder Okwuegbunam and Raehl sat in the living room, 10 feet away from their son. He stood from a crawl, took a couple steps and fell down. Raehl got up and started to pick her son up.

“He screamed bloody murder,” Raehl says, “because he wanted to go back where he started — by himself — and do it again.”

When she figured this out, young Albert stopped screaming.

“And when he finally got up again,” Raehl says, “he was so proud of himself.”

Raehl can’t pinpoint where his determination came from, but she can explain his height (6-foot-5). The elder Okwuegbunam’s father back in Nigeria was nearly seven feet tall, and his mother was close to six feet. Playing sports was a given for young Albert, but not football.

“He tried to play for a long time,” the elder Okwuegbunam says, “and I refused because I thought it would be dangerous.”

The dad finally gave in when Okwuegbunam entered fourth grade. The sport became his first love, yet he was just as good at another: fishing.

When Okwuegbunam was 13, his family took a trip to Destin, Fla. The Okwuegbunams spent time on the beach and at the pool, of course, but they decided to go deep-sea fishing one day. As the boat rocked back and forth, mother Lisa and daughter Ellie caught very few fish. Yet there was the son, young Albert, reeling them in like Kevin VanDam. He caught nearly 20 red snapper that day, impressing the 20 or so people on the boat. Not long after, he began impressing with his football talent.

“Albert was a touchdown machine in high school,” his father said.

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Okwuegbunam attended Sacred Heart-Griffin in Springfield and caught 44 passes for 891 yards (20.3 yards per catch) and 17 touchdowns at the Class 6A level during his senior year. He also tallied up offers like they were fish. There was Cincinnati and Indiana and Iowa. But there was also Mizzou, which at the time was a year removed from back-to-back SEC East Championships. That’s where Okwuegbunam wanted to go.

He redshirted his freshman year at Mizzou, doing a lot of fishing in his free time. Yet he remained determined, and it showed in 2017.

“I always knew that Albert was a good football player,” his dad says. “I really love it when he has an opportunity and good plays are called for him to get touchdowns.”

Last year, Okwuegbunam quickly became a big part of Missouri’s offense. He made over-the-shoulder catches and plays up the seam, and he improved his blocking. This year, with senior wide receiver Emanuel Hall missing time, Okwuegbunam has been quarterback Drew Lock’s primary target.

“He obviously has some really good traits,” first-year offensive coordinator Derek Dooley says. “I think Albert’s biggest challenge is to be the best version of himself on a consistent basis. Because when Albert is the best version of himself, he’s a really good player. That’s a challenge for every player. He was always going to be a big part of our offense. The more consistency he plays with, the more production he’s going to get. ”

Okwuegbunam is still speaking with reporters as the Saturday night sky darkens. He touches on his performance, saying he thought he could have made another grab. He gives credit to his teammates, saying they made his plays possible.

His dad, still beaming, watches as his son wraps up the interview. He’s still watching as if he’s watching a movie, and this flick is just getting started.

(Top photo: Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)