All Sooners

OT Isaiah Autry Ready for 'Hard Working, Straight Forward' Experience at Oklahoma

Autry is one of four offensive linemen in the 2024 recruiting class who are all eager to get to work at OU under Bill Bedenbaugh.
John E. Hoover|
OT Isaiah Autry Ready for 'Hard Working, Straight Forward' Experience at Oklahoma
OT Isaiah Autry Ready for 'Hard Working, Straight Forward' Experience at Oklahoma

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Oklahoma Sooners

NORMAN — Isaiah Autry isn’t afraid of the expectations.

Oklahoma’s freshman offensive tackle will get to Norman in January with a clean slate, and he’s eager to get as much coaching from offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh as he can possibly stand.

“I’ve already seen how he coaches and everything,” Autry told AllSooners. “I already know he’s a hard-working, straight-forward guy with you. He’s gonna push you and everything. I’m ready for basically everything.”

At 6-foot-7 and 300 pounds, Autry signed with OU last week as a consensus 3-star recruit, the nation’s No. 30 offensive tackle prospect as ranked by 247 Sports, No. 38 by On3, No. 42 by Rivals and No. 64 by ESPN.

He also comes to Norman with All-America credentials, landing a spot in the U.S. Army Bowl in Frisco, TX, last week. He couldn’t play, unfortunately, because he sustained a minor knee injury during the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game the week before.

“I got hit in the knee on a pull play and my knee started acting weird,” he said. “We just decided it was best for me to go ahead and (sit out) and and get better.”

At his National Signing Day press conference last week, OU coach Brent Venables described a little something about each prospect the Sooners signed. About Autry, he identified two overriding characteristics.

“He’s got great length to him,” Venables said, “and tremendous athletic ability.”

Considering Autry’s lineage, his athletic ability jumps out. His mom, Pashen Dent, played basketball at Tennessee for Pat Summitt. One of her cousins is former Sooner running back legend Marcus Dupree. Dupree has shown his family pride for Autry as well as a grandson who has matriculated into college football.

But having a family member at OU, where he starred as a freshman in 1982 and then moved on to another fate in 1983, makes Dupree beam with pride.

“Him and my grandson (junior college prospect Ja’Naylon Dupree) used to play together all the time,” Dupree said earlier this year. “Since he moved to (Fulton), he’s gotten better and he’s a man now. He’s gonna get bigger, too. Taller, I mean. He’s powerlifting, he’s doing all the things he’s supposed to be doing. And he’s a smart kid.”

Autry knows Dupree’s legacy and even said, “I have all his movies.”

“I know he’s happy,” Autry said. “I told him I was going to OU and everything, and they were in my top five, and he didn’t know and everything. When I told him, that’s when he got excited I was going up there.”

Dupree wasn’t the only one who was excited. Autry has liked OU for a long time, and eventually he chose the Sooners over Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Ole Miss and others.

“I feel like it’s gonna be pretty good,” Autry said. “Like I said, I wanted to go ahead and find a home, and then when I found OU and made it my home, it just felt — it took a lot of stress off me and everything.”

Autry was the first of the four offensive linemen in this class to commit to Oklahoma, and he said he’s struck up a great relationship with the other three, Josh Aisosa, Daniel Akinkunmi and Eugene Brooks. He’ll room with Brooks when they report for the spring semester, and Autry said they all four have the same mindset when it comes to working and growing under Bedenbaugh.

“I’m pretty good with them,” Autry said. “I talked to Eugene yesterday, and the rest of ‘em, we talk on the daily. And we’re all ready to get up there. Majority of us in this class are gonna be there early.

“I pretty much just want to work my tail off and try to get on the field in any way to help the team as much as possible, if it’s special teams, if it’s me playing on the line as a freshman. Just going there and doing what I got to do.”  

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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