Following the 2022 season, Ovie Oghoufo faced options he didn’t even know were available to him.
After graduating from the University of Texas, Oghoufo had the option of playing one more season due to COVID-19, which gave him an extra year of eligibility.
Oghoufo used that opportunity to enter the transfer portal, leaving Texas, where he played two seasons. He spent the two prior seasons at Notre Dame.
“The COVID year kind of threw me off. I didn’t know that I really had an extra year when I was at Texas,” Oghoufo said. “It gave me a great chance to like you know, really just think about everything with my family.”
Once in the portal, it didn’t take long for Oghoufo to find his next destination. Exactly one week after entering the portal, Oghoufo committed to LSU and was instantly touted as a player with potential to have an instant impact.
“Coming to see Coach Kelly, talking to Coach House, figuring out how the defense works and everything like that kind of made the decision easy,” Oghoufo said.
Having played his first two seasons at Notre Dame, Oghoufo already had a relationship with Brian Kelly and was familiar with his coaching style. This made his decision easy, finishing his college career in a system where he was already comfortable.
Despite the change of scenery, Oghoufo doesn’t think Kelly has changed much since his time at Notre Dame, making the adjustment easy. Oghoufo quickly acclimate himself to the new program.
“The transition was pretty easy. Just because he’s the same person. All this stuff that’s on the board was on the board at Notre Dame,” Oghoufo said. “I kind of knew what I was coming into, a kind of new mindset coming into the school. I’ve been upholding the standard and trying to bring people along as well.”
During his time at Texas, Oghoufo was an important piece of the Longhorn defense, making 20 starts in two seasons. In 2022, Oghoufo tallied 54 tackles with 8.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks, achieving career highs in all three stats.
With the loss of BJ Ojulari and Ali Gaye to the draft, LSU brought in Oghoufo to help replace those pieces. He was already a proven starter at a Power Five school and has more experience in that position than anyone else at LSU.
But, as a key part of a Texas program that looks to have momentum going into 2023, why did Oghoufo leave?
Another factor that excited Oghoufo about LSU was the opportunity to play in the SEC.
“It’s exciting. I played Alabama twice and those were like two of my most exciting games,” Oghoufo said. “I look at the schedule every day over there, and just seeing [Alabama] on there, Florida on there, schools that I grew up watching, and now these are schools that I’m game-planning.”
Both of Oghoufo’s games against Alabama ended in heartbreaking fashion for him.
In the 2020 season, Oghoufo faced Alabama with Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff. Alabama dominated, winning 31-14 and ending Notre Dame’s chance at a national championship.
Last season, Oghoufo faced Alabama with Texas in the regular season. Texas looked to be the better team for most of the game, but Alabama made a field goal with 10 seconds remaining, beating Texas despite the Longhorn defense holding the Crimson Tide to just 20 points.
With those two losses still in his memory, Alabama is the game Oghoufo said he’s most looking forward to.
“I want to beat Alabama so bad, so bad,” Oghoufo said. “You play a team like Alabama, you watch them on TV, they’re winning national championships, and you just want to take them down right?”
When comparing LSU to the other schools Oghoufo attended, he joked about the often unpredictable Louisiana weather while also crediting the football culture in Baton Rouge.
“Man it rains a lot,” Oghoufo joked when asked what makes LSU different from Texas and Notre Dame.
He went on to talk about how invested the fan base and city is in LSU football and the support he feels from the community.
“You could just feel just the football family and everybody is like ‘LSU, LSU.’ I go to Walmart, all they talk about is LSU football. I’d probably say that’s the difference. They really love football,” Oghoufo said.
As spring practice winds down, Oghoufo and LSU prepare this week for the Spring Game, the last practice opportunity before fall camp begins in August.
Even for an established player like Oghoufo, he believes the spring is important to prepare for fall camp and to develop before the summer. He and his team will have that opportunity Saturday, as LSU will take the field at 1 p.m.
“I think it’s very beneficial. I think it gives you a kind of a look at where you’re at going into the summer and things you’ve got to work on,” Oghoufo said. “This is not the end of what we’re gonna do, we’ve still got fall camp going on. And so just being able to critique yourself and figure out like, ‘okay, look, this is what I need to work on into the fall.’”
