Iman Oates May Be the Captain of "Talking Season"

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FRISCO, Texas – Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy only took three players to Frisco, Texas and the Big 12 Football Media Days. Like Phil Steele of Phil Steele’s College Football Preview magazine said, “Oklahoma State may be the hardest team in the nation to preview this year. They brought in a lot more guys this spring and many of them are going to play.”

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Gundy at Media Days.

Gundy said it in Frisco, “We still don’t know a lot of our team. They just arrived in June and we still haven’t seen them in pads and in practice.”

The Cowboys head coach does know what he has in defensive tackle Iman Oates. Oates started all 12 games last season in the worst of Gundy’s 20 previous seasons at the helm and only the second losing season of his tenure. The defense allowed 35.6 points a game, 125^th in the nation in scoring defense. They allowed 500.6-yards a game and were, worse, 132^nd in total defense. Oates had 25 tackles, 3.0 tackles-for-loss, and 2.0 sacks. He tied up blockers. He tried and it was hard. 

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Oates is a happy, but intense defensive tackle.

“Iman is a good team guy,” Gundy said. “He’s a product of his past. He went to Tulsa Edison, not the fancy facilites or the entitle high school program. He went to NEO and we know junior college football usually breeds toughness, but then he’s got that personality of wanting to please people and wanting to be a part of something.”

I have to admit, I thought I knew Oates well. My son recruited him to Northeastern State and then helped guide him to NEO A&M. What I didn’t know was this.

“You know I have a twin brother, so I’ve had someone with me everyday of my life to have fun with and to go through things with,” Oates revealed. “I just think it is a testament to character. You go through things and I’ve always been a people person, so I like to please people. I like to laugh a lot and I’m joyous. If I can make people happy then I’m happy.”

Until it comes down to playing football and manning a tough position like defensive tackle. Oates is a three-technique, which is to say he is not at the nose but he generally in on the outside eye of a guard and he’s mixing it up every play.

He gets being tough. He gets being physical and playing the game with a meaness of joy. Now, he has coaches that will ramp that meaness and that intensity up. Watching the Cowboys defensive staff and especially the work with the defensive line is not for the timid or those that struggle with four-letter language.

Jerod Hill/OSU Athletics

D-line coach Ryan Osborn is loud.

“Coach Oz (Ryan Osborn) and Coach (Todd) Grantham, they are d-line guys,” Oates said. “You know Coach Grantham (defensive coordinator) is a d-line guy. They are loud.”

Some folks don’t like it. Heck, head coach Mike Gundy discouraged it, but after last season understands that the intensity needs to be greater. Oates is great with it.

“I don’t care. I love it that way because I know they are passionate,” he said of his coaches. “If I know they are passionate then it makes me passionate too. Having them two here, I’m excited about it.”

Maybe one of the most exciting things to happen since spring football. Exciting for Oates and exciting for the defense as a whole is the arrival of another Tulsa-are prep football graduate to help in the defensive line. De’Marion Thomas was an All-State two-way lineman at Tulsa Union. The 6-2, 337-pound nose tackle transfer from Vanderbilt will play inside next to Oates and may become Oate’s brother on the football field. The two of them have a chance to really help each other and together help the Cowboys defense rebound big. 

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Thomas at Oklahoma State.

“He is a great guy,” Oates said of Thomas. “I’m happy he is here and happy he decided to come back to Oklahoma and play. He’s just a stallion of a human being, he is big, strong, and physical. That is what you want to play on the d-line. To play next to him, I’m really looking forward to it.

“It took a little while for him to open up,” Oates continued and he is a guy that gets teammates to open up. “It is a new environment, but he has opened up and he is a funny guy when you get to know him. I just can’t wait to play with him for sure.”

Watching Thomas on video he was a big reason that Vanderbilt last season beat Alabama and nearly beat Texas. SEC offensive centers and guards had no fun with him. Overall, he had 24 tackles, 1.5 tackles-for-loss and 1.0 sack. Numbers often don’t tell the story for players like Thomas and Oates. It is how much havoc they can create and how many offensive linemen it takes to block them. Those two will help each other this season and you can count on Oates to lighten the mood, when it’s needed.