All eyes on Oliver’s follow-up
Ed Oliver was going through a recent workout when he abruptly stopped and had the urge to grab his cellphone.
From there, in what he called a “reflection moment,” the University of Houston All-American defensive tackle posted a message on social media that resonated well beyond 140 characters.
Oliver’s impulse tweet was in response to an unidentified person who once told the former five-star recruit from Westfield that signing with the Cougars — after being offered by most major programs in the nation — was “career self-destruction.”
“(Some) said I wouldn’t be nothing if I came here,” Oliver said. “Look at me. I was kind of reflecting in the middle of my workout and just tweeted that.” Oliver put down his phone. “And then, I kept on grinding.” As the Cougars opened preseason camp Monday, all eyes are again on Oliver and how he can follow-up a dominating freshman season that produced 23 tackles for loss, five sacks, nine pass breakups and lots of headaches for opposing quarterbacks. Just ask Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and Louisville’s Lamar Jackson, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
Now only a sophomore, Oliver is being called one of the best defensive players in the nation, if not the best. Sports Illustrated rates him as the fourth-best player (regardless of position)
in college football. He’s on every major preseason award watch list, and, further down the road, he is already being mentioned as a top-five NFL draft pick when he becomes eligible after the 2018 season.
Self-criticism
“Age has never been a factor,” Oliver said when asked about his quick rise as a freshman. “I used to play with my brother and he’s two years older, and I was just as good as him. Age has never deterred me. I’ll play with anybody.”
While his stats jump off the page, Oliver said he was mostly unsatisfied after several games last season.
“Actually, I was upset after a lot of games,” Oliver said. “I didn’t think I played good in a lot of games, especially the Oklahoma game (in which he had two sacks and two tackles for loss while facing mostly double-team blocks).
“A lot of people just see the big picture and don’t break down the film. But I got better throughout the year and began to become satisfied with how I was playing.
After a lot of games, I went and broke down the film: ‘You could have had this, you could have had that.’ ”
On national TV against Louisville, Oliver had two of the Cougars’ 11 sacks of Jackson, three tackles for loss, two pass breakups and a forced fumble. He did not finish the game after suffering a knee injury, however.
“Even though that’s the most talked about game, I didn’t want to watch it because of what happened toward the end, and I didn’t get to finish,” Oliver said.
Taking another step
What does Oliver plan for an encore? During the spring, the 6-2, 290-pounder set lofty goals in the “30 tackles for loss region … probably 60-70 tackles and 10 sacks.”
“He’s never satisfied,” junior safety Garrett Davis said. “He wants more out of himself.”
Maybe more importantly to UH coaches, Oliver said he continues to soak up knowledge.
“Every year, the game gets slower and slower to me,” he said. “I’m able to see a lot more during the plays. It just comes with experience; you get better.”
To make it even tougher to prepare for Oliver, the Cougars plan to move him around him the line this season, including as a pass rusher off the edge. While offensive coordinator at Texas, first-year UH coach Major Applewhite got a firsthand look at how that strategy can work with how Ndamukong Suh (Nebraska), Gerald McCoy (Oklahoma) and Lamarr Houston (Texas) were used.
“It’s a little bit harder to put your head around where he might be each snap based on down and distance,” Applewhite said. “We’re going to move him around more this year.”