Texas Football: Joseph Ossai proves his stardom in upset of OK State

Junior Texas football linebacker Joseph Ossai is on a firm ascent to stardom after what he did in yesterday’s win over Oklahoma State.

One of the absolute best performances that we saw out of junior standout Texas football linebacker Joseph Ossai came in the massive Oct. 31 upset win on the road against the No. 6 Oklahoma State Cowboys in overtime. Ossai was one of the best players on either side of the ball for Texas in their 41-34 win over Oklahoma State this weekend.

In this narrow victory for the Longhorns, Ossai registered a whopping 12 total tackles, six tackles for loss, three sacks, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery. The amount of sacks and tackles for loss that Ossai racked up this weekend were single game highs for him in his three years playing for Texas.

He’s now up to 46 total tackles, a dozen tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, two pass deflections, three forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery for the season to date. What’s more impressive about the performance from Ossai was the fact that he missed no tackles, got eight third down stops, and didn’t have a single penalty called against him.

Both Ossai and senior defensive end Ta’Quon Graham had big games in the win over Oklahoma State. Graham registered five total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack, and one fumble recovery. That one fumble recovery for Graham came at a key point in the second half, and the Longhorns offense was able to capitalize on that drive with points.

Ossai and the Longhorns were mostly able to shutdown the Oklahoma State offense down the stretch in the second half. After putting up 24 points in the first half, the Longhorns held the Pokes offense to just 10 points in the second half and overtime combined.

And it helped that junior cornerback D’shawn Jamison provided a key kick return for a touchdown in the third quarter.

This front seven did a great job limiting star running back Chuba Hubbard on the ground. He registered just 72 rushing yards on a whopping 25 carries (less than three yards per carry), and no rushing touchdowns.

There was a huge boost that Ossai provided for the Longhorns pass rush in this game. To go along with those three sacks, he had an additional six quarterback pressures and one QB hit. He played a nearly spotless game, all while dealing with what looked like a nuisance of a shoulder injury.

Texas now holds a record of 4-2 (3-2 Big 12) after pulling off the upset of Oklahoma State on Oct. 31. They nabbed the No. 22 ranking in this week’s AP Poll, and could really build some momentum off this performance.