Shawn Oakman's NFL dreams may yet become reality. After being acquitted late last month of second-degree felony sexual assault charges, the former Baylor University defensive lineman has renewed hopes of continuing his football career at the game's highest level.

“I think God will set the right path for me but I don't feel like I have to beg for anything, it's not a begging matter,” Oakman told John Caroll of Waco's KWTX earlier this month. “I don't want anybody to hand me anything. I want to earn it and everything I get. I want to play football at the highest level and just really finally get my chance.”

Oakman, a chiseled 6-foot-9 and 275 pounds during his playing days, was once considered a blue-chip NFL draft prospect. After a breakout sophomore campaign in which he tallied 11 sacks and 19 tackles for loss, Sports Illustrated projected him as the early favorite to go first in the 2016 NFL Draft. That prognostication and others like it were more a reflection of Oakman's surreal blend of overall size, musculature, and raw athleticism than his prospects of developing into a superstar the next level. He was eventually graded as a second- or third-round pick.

On April 13, 2016, Oakman was arrested after a woman accused him of sexual assault. He subsequently went unchosen in the 2016 draft.

It wasn't the first time Oakman had a run-in with the law. In January 2013, a police report was filed in Waco that accused him of physically assaulting a woman. Two years earlier, as a redshirt freshman with Penn State, Oakman allegedly assaulted a female cashier at a campus store who had accused him of stealing a sandwich.