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1700 Miles of Brotherhood

It’s more than 1,700 miles to get from Fort Worth, Texas, to Ottawa, Canada. It’s around a six-hour flight. You’d be in the car for more than 27 hours.

But it’s a trip Oklahoma defensive lineman Kenneth Mann (Fort Worth) would make in an instant with OU captain Neville Gallimore (Ottawa) or vice versa.

Roommates can be a crapshoot. Some develop into lifelong friends, others you’re ready to disregard before the end of the first semester. Gallimore didn’t know one thing about Mann when they were paired up in fall 2015.

It was Gallimore who came to OU as the ballyhooed recruit. Announcing for the Sooners at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, Gallimore finished the 2015 Rivals rankings at No. 83 overall.

Mann wasn’t a slouch by any means, but as a three-star recruit, it was sort of a coin toss as to how big of an impact he’d make with the Sooners. A solid prospect but not talked about nearly as much as some of the other 2015 defensive class members.

The two remember their first encounter and just how quickly they clicked then and still going strong as they approach the end of their fifth season in Norman.

“I didn’t know who he was, actually,” Mann said. “I didn’t expect him to be that dude when I knew there was someone from Canada. We just hit it off from the first day we met.”

Mann didn’t know Gallimore, and Gallimore echoed that sentiment with Mann.

“I touched down at OU, and I was put in with Kenneth,” Gallimore said. “I knew absolutely nothing about him. I had never seen his face or anything. Man, God worked it out. We just clicked almost instantly.”

On the field, nothing clicked instantly. Obviously, the goal is to play immediately as a true freshman. Neither experienced that, instead both spending the 2015 season on the bench or not traveling on the road as redshirts.

Off the field, though, the connection continued to grow. What Gallimore remembers even to this day was how generous Mann was with Gallimore right from the jump.

Gallimore could only bring two bags with him from Canada, and the first couple of months in the United States were one heck of an adjustment. Playing football is one thing, but when you combine acclimating yourself to another country, it could have gotten rough.

It could have, but there was Mann helping Gallimore every step of the way. Even someone as prideful as Gallimore couldn’t refuse the assistance, and all it did was help build that bond.

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“He’s just a real guy,” Gallimore said. “He kept it 100-percent. I love him like a brother. I feel like I’ve known him my whole life when I’ve only known him since 2015. We’ve been through so many things together.

“I feel like if I had met him earlier in life like when we were 5 or 6 years old, we still would have been best friends.”

As the two got more comfortable off the field, they started to make a difference on the field. Gallimore became the man in the middle of the defense, while Mann started to see spot duty in 2017 and had five sacks in his redshirt sophomore season.

It wasn’t a surprise to either one that they started to show what they could do on the gridiron. Same mindset, same priorities.

“I think we just sharpen each other,” Mann said. “When you have those same goals, you’re always making sure you’re on top of things.”

Mann’s OU career was cut short when he suffered a season-ending injury a few weeks ago. He had his moments like his sack and fumble of Oklahoma State quarterback Mason Rudolph in 2017 Bedlam or his interception against Army in 2018.

Gallimore is still writing his story. He came up big in forcing the Chuba Hubbard fumble in last year’s Bedlam and had a dominating two-sack outing vs. Texas last month. With first-year defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, it was time to see what Gallimore could really do.

He dropped more than 20 pounds and was told to go after them. And he has.

“That’s my brother,” Mann said. “I don’t even consider him my friend. Nev’s definitely taken some huge steps and turned himself into a monster. He’s always been explosive and incredibly athletic. Once he dropped that weight, everything just skyrocketed.”

The two have lived together for the last five years and had one last Norman moment to remember last weekend with senior day.

The joke has always been that whenever you see one of them, the other is not too far behind. This time they had their families with them, too.

“I feel like I have an emotional attachment to his family,” Gallimore said. “Same with my family when they met him. Seeing how our families clicked made things that much better.

“Senior night, it was huge. The adversity that he’s going through right now and to see how far we’ve grown and how proud our parents are about what we’ve accomplished. Graduating on time, getting into grad school but still having our fun.”

The two have found inspiration and motivation in each other. It takes a while for either to get truly comfortable, but they’ve definitely reached that point.

They never expected to find their best friend more than 1,700 miles away from their upbringing, but they’re pretty happy it turned out exactly that way.

“If I didn’t have him, life would be that much harder without him,” Gallimore said. “If I don’t see my family for months at a time, it’s OK because I know I’m going through this with my brother.

“I’m so close to his family that I can drive down to Fort Worth and spend time with his family even if he’s not there. If he was ever in Canada, my family got him. That’s how close we are.

“His family is my family. My family is his family. There’s no denying it.”

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