From walk-on safety to linebacker leader

When the Pitt football coaches hosted recruits for a Monday night clash with Duke at the Petersen Events Center in January 2014, there were plenty of familiar faces.

Local commits like Alex Bookser and Elijah Zeise and Alex Paulina, among others, were in the stands, and since they had all been committed for some time (even Bookser had been on board for a month at that point), they were well-known as Panthers-to-be.

But there was one other face in the crowd that night, a recruit who wasn’t as well-known and wouldn’t be for a few years.

It was Oluwaseun Idowu, a teammate of Zeise’s at North Allegheny, where he played multiple positions but never emerged as a Division I prospect. He joined Pitt as a walk-on safety that summer, and while Paul Chryst wanted to build a strong walk-on program, the odds didn’t favor Idowu ending up as a contributor on scholarship.

Three and a half years after he went to that hoops game, though, Idowu isn’t just a contributor on scholarship; he’s a leader, the elder statesman of the linebackers and the defense.

It’s the kind of rise that even surprises Idowu.

“At the beginning of camp, I was kind of looking back like, wow, it wasn’t really that long ago,” Idowu said Monday.

In the roughly 42 months since he visited Pitt in January of 2014, Idowu has gone from being a walk-on safety to a special teams contributor to a linebacker who had a shot at the two-deep. Last August, he earned a role as a reserve at the Star position - the linebacker position that plays on the wide side of the field - and was awarded a scholarship at the end of training camp.

He was actually listed as the starter on the first official two-deep of the season, but when Pitt’s defense took the field for Youngstown State’s first possession of the season opener, it was Zeise who got the call.

That didn’t last long, though, as Zeise suffered a season-ending injury in the first quarter, thrusting Idowu into a job he would hold for the rest of the season.

“You find yourself in a spot and you just go with it,” Idowu said. “You were handed an opportunity and you used it the best that you could, and you just have to keep it rolling from there.”

Last year, Idowu kept it rolling into 74 total tackles, the third-most on the team, two tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. In the wins over Penn State and Clemson, he recorded 16 tackles (including a career-high 10 at Clemson) and two forced fumbles.

But even after a career season, Idowu hasn’t let up. The coaches cite him as one of the hardest workers on the team, as he is still carrying the work ethic that got him on scholarship and onto the two-deep in the first place.

“There’s always something to get better at every day,” Idowu said. “Little details, minor details can take you to the next level. Everybody’s looking to get to the next level; what can you do to get better every day?”

“There’s no job that’s final and that’s weekly, all week long during the season: whoever plays the best is going to play,” linebackers coach Rob Harley said last week. “He’s a guy that’s taken that to heart and every day it’s competing. He’s going to help the younger guys but he’s not going to give up the spot and he’s going to play tough, and that’s really what you want.

“He’s like a program guy: great athlete and he does everything correct, and you can’t get any better than him.”

Harley, defensive coordinator Josh Conklin and head coach Pat Narduzzi have other players in mind as they look to replace three-year starting middle linebacker Matt Galambos, but that doesn’t mean they won’t rely on Idowu to be a leader for the position. His 12 career starts are more than the rest of the group has as a whole, and he’ll draw on that experience this season.

“Coach Harley drills it: knowledge, knowledge, knowledge will get you where you need to go,” Idowu said. “It’s a big part of the game, and that’s what I picked up from last year to this year, getting in the film room more and more and learning as much as I need to, to get better.”

“He’s consistent; that’s the word you’d use for Seun,” Harley said. “Every day, you know what you’re going to get: great energy, great effort, and the guy is just meticulous about the details. He’s been a big-time leader for us through the summer. Obviously last year he played basically every snap for us and we’re looking for him to be a guy that really leads the entire defense this year, not just the ‘backers.”