Texas Football: Joseph Ossai Thrived Close to the Line in Alamo Bowl
With nine tackles, five for loss and three sacks, Texas linebacker Joseph Ossai's performance in the Alamo Bowl left little doubt who the game's defensive MVP would be.
Ossai single-handily wrecked the Utes' offensive gameplan at times, living in the backfield and looking downright unblockable despite facing a moble quarterback and talented offensive line.
So how did a guy who recorded just two sacks through the whole season explode for such a big game in the postseason? Because the Texas defensive gameplan took finally took full advantage of one of their most dangerous weapons.
"What was going on out there was just us having fun, and us having confidence in the defense, the defensive scheme," Ossai said. "The coaches, I know they put a lot of time into preparing this game for us, and they wanted to put us in the best situation and the best situation possible."
Ossai had been playing a more hybrid role through most of the season, often dropping into coverage in Todd Orlando's zone blitz system.
Don't get it wrong. Ossai was a great player all season. He had interceptions in each of the first two games of the year and recorded 81 tackles in the regular season, but playing on the line and being asked to get into the backfield is clearly where Ossai feels the most comfortable.
"We just trusted them (the coaches)," Ossai said. "We bought in 100 percent and went out there and executed. I think that was the key thing tonight was executing. We’ve done a poor job — I myself have done a poor job in the past of executing, and today I feel like we executed at a high level and the result was pleasing."
So what does this mean for the future? Well interim defensive coordinator Craig Naivar won't be concocting the scheme going into 2020, but new DC Chris Ash was certainly watching and taking notes. We'll all have to wait and see if he applies what we all learned.
