Emmanuel Ogbah Has Not Disappointed in Last College Season

Emmanuel Ogbah is Oklahoma State’s most important player.

I guess that should have been obvious coming into the season, but sometimes these things can be overthought. No. 38 will be the best college football player on the field in pretty much every game OSU plays this season, and he doesn’t need any preseason awards anymore to prove it.

Kyle Boone wrote a nice post on how immense the defensive line has been so far this season and Ogbah is its anchor. Its stalwart. He is all over the field. He’s in the backfield chasing QBs. He’s downfield chasing RBs. He’s everywhere.

Ogbah had six tackles, two and a half tackles for loss and two sacks against Texas. That led to Big 12 Player of the Week honors for him on the defensive side. He now has 19 tackles, seven TFLs and five and a half sacks in four games. Both his TFL and sack per game averages are in the top six for Big 12 linemen.

Ogbah has now had at least one sack in every game this season and at least one sack in 10 of the last 12 games. But it goes beyond the sacks. Watch how much attention Texas has to pay attention to him here.

Watch how he gets doubled here and frees Ryan Simmons and Miketavius Jones to chase Jerrod Heard 20 yards in the wrong direction (and Ogbah nearly gets in on the action at the end!)

This is a gift for Glenn Spencer.

The craziest part is that it seems like everyone has just grown to expect this. I looked for a quote or two from Spencer or Mike Gundy to throw in here about how good Ogbah was on Saturday. Maybe there’s something out there, but I couldn’t find it.

No. 38 has done this for so long, it’s become commonplace (which it isn’t). If the Pokes even remotely contend for the Big 12 crown this year, it will be on the broad shoulders of their best NFL prospect in years. I think he’s probably capable of handling it.