NFL Draft: Oak Ridge's Ossai, Stuard In Mix To Get Selected

CONROE, TX — The 2021 NFL Draft begins Thursday night, and there is a good chance the Oak Ridge and Conroe communities will have cause to celebrate as Joseph Ossai will likely be selected within the first three rounds.

Ossai, who played three seasons at Texas, and former Oak Ridge teammate Grant Stuard, coming off his senior season at the University of Houston, have a chance to be the first players in Oak Ridge program history to be selected in the draft.

Former Oak Ridge head football coach Dereck Rush, now the assistant director of student health, fitness and athletics at Bryan ISD, saw that potential - and the drive necessary to fulfill it - when he coached the pair in high school. Both players were on the team’s leadership council under Rush.

“Both of those guys were self-motivated to be the very best they could possibly be,” Rush said. “They were high-energy guys, no matter what they were doing. They were competitive.

“Both of those guys changed the culture at Oak Ridge in helping them get to the playoffs.”

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Ossai racked up 104 tackles, including 25 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks for the War Eagles during the 2016-17 seasons, according to 247Sports.com. His senior season, he earned honorable mention on the TSWA Class 6A All-State Team, was named a defensive player of the year finalist by the Touchdown Club of Houston and earned a spot on the Houston Chronicle’s All-Greater Houston first team.

Ossai signed with Texas in 2018 and made an impact early, recording 20 tackles in 14 games his freshman season. He capped his first year with a team-high eight tackles in the Longhorns’ Sugar Bowl win over Georgia.

In his sophomore year, Ossai had team highs with 90 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss and five sacks, and he finished the season with another strong bowl performance, earning Valero Alamo Bowl MVP honors with nine tackles, six TFLs and three sacks against Oregon State. He was a consensus All-American his junior season after recording 55 tackles, 16 TFLs, five sacks and three forced fumbles in just nine games in a coronavirus-affected 2020 campaign.

“I knew about his intensity on the field,” Rush said. “You saw it against Oklahoma this year when he got that winning sack in overtime. That was definitely pleasing to see him perform at that level.”

Stuard was a three-year starter for the War Eagles and had 154 career tackles, including 10.5 TFLs and 7.5 sacks, according to 247Sports.com. He was named first-team all-district as a linebacker his junior season and was a repeat first-team pick as a safety his senior year.

At Houston, Stuard worked his way into a starting role his junior season, earning second-team All-American Athletic Conference honors in 2019 and following it up with a first-team All-AAC season in 2020. Stuard finished his collegiate career with 190 tackles, including 17 for losses and two sacks.

Stuard, who is listed at 5 feet, 11.5 inches tall and weighs 230 pounds, is far from the player who switched from linebacker to safety his senior year at Oak Ridge, and Rush has seen his transformation over the last four years.

“Grant looks totally different than he did in high school,” Rush said. “He did all the things he needed to do in high school, but with track and 7-on-7 [out of the way], he finally bulked up and got bigger in college.”

Ossai is the 32nd-ranked prospect in the draft, according to USA Today, and mock drafts in the spring have slotted him being drafted anywhere between the late first and third rounds. He was projected to be drafted at the end of the second round, No. 64 overall, to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Pro Football Focus’ latest seven-round mock draft.

Stuard isn’t likely to be drafted as high but has a chance to be a late Day 3 selection and is likely to sign an undrafted free agent contract if he isn’t picked, especially after he impressed scouts with his high motor at the Reese’s Senior Bowl in January.

“It’s something special to have two defensive guys that played together at Oak Ridge projected to go in the NFL Draft,” Rush said. “It definitely says a lot about those two young men’s character, development and effort that it took to get them to this point in their lives.”