Antwine is a key piece to OSU’s run defense
AUSTIN, Texas — In 2019, just before the start of the season, the Oklahoma State football team held a talent show, and defensive tackle Israel Antwine was the winner with his impersonation of Barack Obama.
Coming from one of the team’s quietest, most reserved personalities, the performance was a shocker, and it still lives on in the Cowboy locker room.
“I’ll be like, ‘Mr. President!’ every time
he walks into the room,” fellow defensive lineman Tyler Lacy said.
Antwine, because of his laid-back demeanor, can be a surprising figure when he comes out of his shell. Tales of his weight-room performances are a thing of legend.
But there will be no surprises on Saturday. It’s all business on the field, and Antwine will be in the middle of 12thranked Oklahoma State’s biggest battle of the year to this point when it faces Texas at 11 a.m. Saturday at Darrell K Royal Stadium.
The game pits the Big 12’s best running back, Bijan Robinson, against the league’s best run defense. Robinson is averaging 132.3 yards per game, while the Cowboys are surrendering only 91.0.
And Antwine is a central figure in the Cowboy run defense. He moved from the outside defensive tackle position to nose guard this season, and has excelled at filling gaps in the middle of the line.
“He’s kinda gotta do the dirty work for us,” senior safety Kolby Harvell-Peel said. “He has to eat up a lot of blocks. He’s crazy strong, so he does a great job. For him to be able to get that little shine every now and then is awesome. Plus, everybody on the team loves him. So for him to be able to make plays and us rally behind him is always fun.
“(Defensive linemen) don’t get all the love and recognition. They make it so much easier on us when a quarterback is having to scramble. When they play great, we play great on the back end. So I appreciate all those guys and I think they need more love than they be gettin’.”
Antwine had one of his best games against Kansas State, when the Cowboys held star running back Deuce Vaughn and the Wildcats to 62 rushing yards in a 31-20 win.
The 6-foot-3, 305-pound Antwine had three tackles, including two for loss and one sack.
“He’s just a big body in the middle,” Lacy said. “He can hold his own, especially on the double-teams. He’s really a strong guy. I feel like he’s a good weapon for us, especially plugging up the middle, and we can stop the run that way.”
Antwine, who is from Millwood High School, originally went to Colorado, where he spent one season as a defensive end. He transferred to Oklahoma State and has move to tackle, where he is just cracking the shell of what he can become as he better learns to use his strength to get off blocks.
“He’s a big, 305-pound guy who can get in a gap,” OSU head coach Mike Gundy said. “He’s really strong, and he’s improving at disengaging off of blocks. When he got here, he was a long ways away from being able to disengage and go make a play.
“Offenses have somebody to block everybody on the field except one person. To just be a big guy in a gap is not helping us. We needed him to disengage and get off and make a play. He’s learning to do that over the last six weeks. He’s improved in that area. He has the physical characteristics. He’s got the size and the strength. Now we just need him to improve technique and fundamental-wise, then disengage and go make plays in space.”
OSU offensive lineman Josh Sills gets a first-hand view of Antwine’s improvement in practice.
“He anchors really well against double-teams,” Sills said. “He’s really hard to get moving against. Super-strong and he’s another person that’s just superathletic. When you get a guy like that that can bend well and anchor well against double-teams and hold his own, he causes problems.”
Everyone who talks about Antwine will tell you how strong he is, particularly because of his exploits in the weight room.
“He’s crazy-strong,” Harvell-Peel said. “In the offseason when we do all our tough workouts, we have to do pullups. Skill guys bust out pullups. We only weigh 200 pounds. But linemen, they’re heavy. They can’t do pullups.
“I looked up one day and Izzy had eight chains on his neck doing pullups. For a D-lineman to be able to do that, he’s a freak. To see it translate, and he be making plays, it’s awesome.”
Added defensive tackle Brendon Evers: “Big Izzy, he’s made of iron. Me and Izzy are workout partners. We push each other. We get into arguments about who’s gonna add five more pounds on that next set. Most of the time, (strength and conditioning coordinator Rob) Glass has to reel us back.
“I attribute a lot of what I do in the weight room to him. He’s a driving force. Some of the stuff he does, being as heavy and as big as he is, it’s incredible. You’d think he’s an outside linebacker with some of the stuff he can do.”