Through season's first half, Jayson Oweh rises to the top
Blue White Illustrated's newest magazine has been printed and mailed to all of our subscribers. Order your annual magazine subscription HERE.
The following story appears in the November issue:
When Bruce Feldman of The Athletic put Jayson Oweh on his “Freaks List” a few months ago, it was intended as a salute to the redshirt sophomore defensive end’s extraordinary athletic prowess. Before every season, Feldman compiles a list of players who possess the kind of speed, size, strength and/or power that mark them as outliers even in locker rooms full of exceptional athletes. Oweh, with his 6-foot-5, 252-pound frame, 36.5-inch vertical leap and 4.33-second 40-yard time, easily fit that description. Feldman even listed him ahead of teammate Micah Parsons, who was being hailed by many at the time as the premier defensive player in college football. “On a team with a lot of Freaks,” Feldman wrote, “this is the most explosive one of the bunch.”
The compliment did not go unnoticed at Penn State, or unappreciated. But Oweh did take his Freaks List mention a little bit differently than perhaps it was intended.
To the first-year Nittany Lion starter, the designation seemed to apply even more readily to his style of play than to his measurables. Oweh got off to a late start in football, taking up the sport as a junior at Blair Academy in New Jersey after transferring from a school that didn’t have a varsity football program. As a result, he never picked up on some of the finer points of the defensive end position, relying instead on raw athleticism to chase down opposing quarterbacks. That worked pretty well; he finished his high school career with 20 sacks and 15 tackles for loss. And it continued to work pretty well in his first two seasons at Penn State; he racked up seven sacks despite playing in only 17 games and starting just one.
So Oweh’s conception of his own freakishness has more to do with his lack of polish than with his abundance of athletic ability. “I’m just going out there and doing whatever I can to try to get the quarterback or get to whoever has the ball,” he said. “It hasn’t always necessarily been the most technical way. I’m just trying to get there. So it might be freaky. It might not be conventional, but I feel like Bruce’s list... yeah, that’s a good representation of what my game is like.”
No matter how one might choose to describe Oweh’s game, or his athletic ability, this much is certain: Penn State fans are going to be seeing a lot more of both this fall. After two seasons as a backup, the former Rivals.com four-star prospect has joined the starting lineup and is in the midst of a breakout season.
(Editor's note: Through the first four games, Oweh stands as Penn State's top-graded performer on the team with a score of 84.2.)
Oweh’s spot in the first-team defensive front opened up when last year’s sack leader, Yetur Gross-Matos, opted to forgo his final season and headed off to the NFL. Gross-Matos, now a starter with the Carolina Panthers, had 17.5 sacks in his two starting seasons at Penn State. As a team, the Nittany Lions finished with 47 sacks in 2018 and 45 last season, ranking in the Big Ten’s top three both years.
With Oweh stepping into a more prominent role this fall, Brent Pry is looking for Penn State to post similar numbers this fall – or at least get as close as possible in an abbreviated season. Said the fifth-year defensive coordinator, “We lose good players every year and somehow manage to scrape our way to 40-plus.”
One of the keys for Penn State’s defense will be whether it can affect opposing passers without having to use the linebacker corps or the secondary to bring pressure. “I think we’ve got a ton of guys who can rush the quarterback, and not just at the D-line positions, but at [linebacker] and even a couple of guys on the back end,” Pry said. “So we’re going to find a way to [create] pressure. But one of the questions you always ask is, can you get there with four? We’ll figure that out. I feel like we’ll be able to. We’ve checked that box each year, so hopefully we check it again and feel good about rushing four.”
It was Gross-Matos who helped get Oweh’s hype train rolling last spring when he told NFL.com that his younger teammate had beaten him badly in a footrace. “I think I’m pretty fast,” Gross-Matos said. “I ran against him and I got smoked.”
Another teammate, tight end Pat Freiermuth, called Oweh “a mismatch nightmare.”
“He’s so fast off the edge,” Freiermuth said, “and he’s so strong.”
Even with just one start and a handful of sacks on his college resume, Oweh was being talked about in September as someone who might sit out the season in order to focus on the draft. That speculation gained credence when he headed to California along with Parsons and linebacker Jesse Luketa to train with former Penn State great LaVar Arrington. Parsons had already announced his intention to sit out, and Oweh, who had been cited in one online mock draft as a potential first-round pick, seemed as though he might have a decision to make.
He didn’t.
“There was never any decision,” Oweh told reporters during Penn State’s virtual media days in early October. “I was always coming back. I believe there’s always a narrative being written, and that’s because you guys are the ones who are writing it. But I was always coming back. I just used that opportunity to go train out in California with my brothers, get better and relax. And it was a good opportunity. I’m glad I did it.”
Now that he’s back in action, Oweh is looking to bring a bit of refinement to his typically freeform style.
Under former position coach Sean Spencer, the Nittany Lions’ defensive linemen were known as the Wild Dogs, and they lived up to that nickname. Said Oweh, “We were doing a lot of stuff based on raw will. It wasn’t always the most technically sound way. It wasn’t the most conventional way.”
Spencer left for the New York Giants during the off-season, and his successor, John Scott Jr., is more of a technician. Penn State’s linemen are also working this year with new graduate assistant Deion Barnes, a former Nittany Lion defensive standout. Oweh is benefitting from their expertise, and he’s also stayed in touch with Spencer, who is giving him the perspective of an NFL coach. The result? A more well-rounded skill set that blends Oweh’s off-the-charts athletic ability with a better understanding of what offenses are trying to do to neutralize him.
“I’m getting better in the run game,” he said. “In the run game, my steps are better. Before, I was taking these elongated steps, I was rising up. That’s why defenders were able to get in my chest. So I’m better with that. I’m moving more horizontally than vertically.
“In my pass rush, I’m having more of a plan, I’m seeing the hands. It’s not just a rush on the outside, because defenders, they start catching on to that and they decide to push you outward, so I’m taking inside moves as well. I’ve worked on my long arm and my bull rush, because you can’t always rush on the outside. You have to apply [inside] pressure sometimes, so I’m working on that. On my pre-snap reads, I’m getting better with formations. My knowledge of the game, in every aspect I’m getting better.”
Oweh’s freakish athleticism has given him a playmaking capacity that few can match. But the reason he’s able to do the spectacular is that he’s also willing to do the more mundane things that often go unnoticed. Sometimes he ends up standing atop a quarterback. Other times, the play goes in another direction and one of his teammates ends up making the stop. Either way, Oweh’s motor doesn’t stop.
“I feel like that’s the most underrated thing that people don’t notice about my game,” he said. “I feel like I’m very productive. When I’m in there, I do my work, and I try to do it to my best ability. I work, I run to the ball, I try to clean up plays. I just go out there and try to ball, you know? And I feel like on the snaps that I’ve gotten, I’ve been productive. I got 300-some snaps last year doing what I had to do. I feel like with the opportunity to have more, I can be even more productive.”
Having watched Oweh’s preparation, Luketa sees that as an inevitability. “He’s going to go out there and do what he needs to do, and he’s going to have fun doing it,” the junior linebacker said. “Jayson Oweh is going to be a household name.”
Blue White Illustrated has put the finishing touches on our latest issue, mailed to our print subscribers and on newsstands regionally. Our annual magazine subscribers have received their copies in the mail. Take a look at some of the other features in the latest issue:
THE RUNDOWN:
THE BIG PICTURE - BWI editor Matt Herb opens our football package with a look at the opportunity tight end Pat Freiermuth turned down to return for another season with the Nittany Lions, albeit abbreviated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What do players owe their schools in loyalty these days? Freiermuth provided his perspective in his decision to return.
PHIL'S CORNER - Blue White Illustrated publisher Phil Grosz examines the breakout players that must answer the bell for the Nittany Lions as the 2020 season progresses. From cornerback Joey Porter Jr. to receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Grosz touches on the names and faces that will shape the Nittany Lions now and for years to come.
RECRUITING - As always, BWI recruiting analyst Ryan Snyder has your Penn State football recruiting fix with a deep dive on the Nittany Lions' top targets in the Class of 2022, plus an exclusive interview with Drew Shelton.
FOOTBALL - With the Nittany Lions transitioning through a sea change of new players producing this season, we break down the names and faces that emerged through the weeks leading into the season and the first weeks. That, plus a look at Penn State's new cornerbacks unit and the push of Jesse Luketa into one of the Nittany Lions' key contributors among the linebackers. Features on Juice Scruggs, the offensive line, Cam Sullivan-Brown, Zack Kuntz and others round out our coverage this month.
These are just a few of the many stories and features that come with every edition of Blue White Illustrated's magazine! Be sure to order your print subscription here:
Or, call our office during normal business hours at 1-800-282-1629.
*******
HOLIDAY SPECIAL: Get FREE gear with new annual online subscription!
• Talk about this article inside The Lions Den
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue-White Illustrated
• Follow us on Twitter: @BWIonRivals, @NateBauerBWI, @RivalsSnyder, @DavidEckert98
• Like us on Facebook