Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Oliver named FWAA’s Most Inspirational Freshman Sam Hutchens Assistant Sports Editor Racking up sacks leads to racking up awards. Collin Oliver, Oklahoma State’s freshman pass rusher, was honored on Monday night for his stellar season. The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awarded Oliver the title of “Most Inspirational Freshman Player” A true freshman, Oliver enrolled early at Oklahoma State, in the spring of 2021. Instead of preparing for his high school prom, he was preparing to wreak havoc on Big 12 defenses. “By the time he ended his sophomore season of high school, I had a pretty good idea he had a chance to be a very quality football player,” OSU defensive line coach Joe Bob Clements said. “By the time he signed with Oklahoma State as a senior I was most amazed with how quality of a young man he was.” Oliver’s preparation showed. He had 11.5 sacks in his rookie year. He broke the OSU single-season freshman sack record of nine, which Rodney Harding set in 1981. ““He’s achieved a lot of accolades because of the stuff he’s done on the field,” Clements said. “He led the nation in sacks (for freshmen), he led the team in sacks. He was rushing with a lot of other quality, good football players. A couple of those were game winners. Special moments for Oklahoma State.” Oliver had 15 tackles-for-loss, and his sack total was the 8th best in the nation. Perhaps his most important was his game-clinching sack of Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams in Bedlam. Oliver was also one of three finalists for the FWAA freshman of the year
Abby Cage
award, along with Georgia tight end Brock Bowers and Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud. Bowers won that top honor. Oliver was, however, names to the 2021 FWAA Freshman All-America Team. Previously, the last OSU cowboy
named to that team was running back Justice Hill in 2016. “This is kind of crazy,” Oliver said. “A year ago, I was in high school. All this stuff is coming right now. It’s pretty surreal. I’m trying to take it in little by little. Be humble and try to do
me out on the football field.”
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Cowboys rank No. 7 in preseason poll Daniel Allen Staff Reporter
On Tuesday, Oklahoma State placed seventh in D1 Baseball’s preseason top 25. Texas, ranked No. 1, is the only Big 12 program ranked ahead of the Cowboys in the rankings. The Cowboys return a good portion of their starting production from this past season as well as the majority of its members from a highly touted 2020 class. OSU also accumulated the No. 5 recruiting class in 2021, and reeling in one of the top transfer classes nationally this past offseason. OSU finished this past season 36-19-1, finishing fourth in the Big 12 with a 12-12 conference play record, a Big 12 conference championship appearance resulting in a loss to TCU and a regional loss hosted by Arizona.
sports.ed@ocolly.com
Joshua Cleary