‘Laying it all on the line’: Auburn linebacker Owen Pappoe

AUBURN, Ala. – When adversity hits, Auburn linebacker Owen Pappoe has a permanent reminder on his arm to keep pushing through.

Just because you’re going through a dark chapter, it doesn’t mean it’s your whole book.

Everyone gets their share of the rain, but the sun will shine on you again.

It’s a tattoo he got in the summer of 2020. Little did Pappoe know at the time that it would carry even more significance the following year when a leg injury forced him to miss the majority of the 2021 season. It was the first legitimate injury of Pappoe’s career, and in a season in which he was voted captain by his teammates and was draft-eligible for the first time, he was stuck watching from the sideline.

“That's probably the biggest bit of adversity I've faced in my life so far,” Pappoe said. “But just talking to my family, my teammates, all the people closest to me – it kept me in good spirits. You can get in your head a lot when you're down, but I learned from it.”

Pappoe had always heard former players or coaches come in and say things like, “Take advantage of the game because you never know when it can get taken away from you.” But it took on a whole new meaning during that 2021 season.

“It makes you want to play every game like it’s your last,” he said.

Healthy again, Pappoe returned with a new fire this season. He’s coming off a career-high 16 tackles against Ole Miss, and his 58 tackles through seven games ranks ninth in the SEC. He’s also forced two fumbles, broken up a pass and made the hit of the year to this point when he laid out Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford last month.

The senior linebacker has more than lived up to his nickname, the Freak.

The nickname itself originated when Pappoe began playing football in the seventh grade. He didn’t know what he was doing, had no technique and yet was racking up sacks. His coach at the time said Pappoe reminded him of Pro Bowl defensive end Jevon Kearse, better known as the Freak. So, Pappoe started going by the same name and has embraced it ever since.

“I feel like it's just always been in me,” he said. “Because I'm a competitor when it comes to everything. It especially started blowing up when I used to go to The Opening and do all the combine stuff. Just putting up freakish numbers, the name started amplifying. And then of course my play on the field matched that as well.”

“I’ve always seen the kind of person that he is and just the freak of nature that he is,” added teammate Derick Hall who came to Auburn with Pappoe. “Coming in from day one, he was a starter. He was that guy.

As athletic and as talented as Pappoe was when he first got to Auburn, it was his leadership that stood out to Hall from the jump. There was a presence about him. He was more than just a freak athlete who could make plays on the football field.

“Owen is an amazing player, but he’s a better person,” Hall said. “He treats everybody the same, treats everybody with respect. He’ll talk to the janitor just like he does the head coach. He’s a guy when he walks through this building, you feel his respect and you feel his presence. He’s a great football player but a better person.”

After serving as a team captain last year, Pappoe was selected as a captain again this year along with Hall and John Samuel Shenker. The senior from Lawrenceville, Georgia is just the fourth player in Auburn history to be named team captain twice, joining Curtis Kuykendall (1944-45), Gusty Yearout (1966-67) and Reese Dismukes (2013-14).

“It's a huge honor,” Pappoe said. “I just try to show up every day and be myself. Be as consistent as I can in the way that I work, in the way that I treat other people, impacting others in a positive way.”

The clock is ticking on Pappoe’s time at Auburn. There are only five games remaining in the regular season, and graduation is right around the corner. He’s on track to earn his degree in December, becoming the second sibling in his family to graduate college.

The plan after that is the NFL, a dream Pappoe has been chasing since he started playing football. It’s what drives him, what makes him do the extra rep in practice.

“I want to make both my parents proud,” he said. “I want them to see me make it to the highest level and not just make it there but have a successful career in NFL. I want to be able to help bless them and the rest of my family and be able to reach back to the community and inspire other people to chase their dreams.

“Also, I plan on having a family myself, and I want to give my wife and kids the world. I want to make them feel special. I know football will help open the door.”  

Pappoe credits his parents, Lorenzo and Rhoda, for instilling a work ethic in him and showing him how to chase success. They came to the United States from Liberia in the middle of a civil war. They essentially had nothing when they arrived and worked to get to a point to where they could provide for Owen and their other children.

His father, Lorenzo, currently works for ADP as a lead application analyst while his mother, Rhoda, is a business owner who runs her own healthcare agency. 

“Just seeing how hard they work every day, it inspired me to be like them,” Pappoe said.

Now it’s Pappoe’s turn. He’s so close to achieving his dream, he can taste it. But the journey hasn’t come without adversity. Like his tattoo reads, he’s had his share of rain. He’s pushed through it, though, and will leave Auburn a different person than when he first arrived.

He will leave an Auburn man, and that’s how he wants to be remembered.

“I want to be known as the personification of what the Auburn Man is supposed to be,” Pappoe said. “Showing up every day, giving everything 100 percent, impacting everybody around me in a positive way, and being a dog on football field, laying it all on the line for this for this program. Someone who truly loves Auburn and gave my all for them.”