According to an article on GoDucks.com, Oregon senior defensive back, Ifo Ekpre-Olomu has been named as one of 15 finalists for the Jim Thorpe Award. This yearly award for the best defensive back in college football was established in 1986 and named after Jim Thorpe, considered by many to be the greatest all-around athlete in history. Thorpe was a running back, passer and kicker on offense and also a defensive back. To be nominated for this award is an honor in itself. The winner will be selected from three finalists and announced live on the Home Depot Awards on Thursday December 11th, 2014 on ESPN.
One of our reporters for FishDuck, Caleb Couturie, interviewed Ekpre-Olomu this morning at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex.
Although he has been recently nominated for the Thorpe award, Ekpre-Olomu remained focused on preparing to face Stanford Saturday night. When asked if the players tune out what happened the last couple of years against Stanford, Ekpre-Olomu said, “It’s two different teams, they’re not the same team they were last year and we’re not the same team we were last year.” Every year teams change, they lose players and gain players and that gives and takes away from specific qualities of the team. In fact, every week teams change. Some weekends the Oregon defense maybe stronger than the weekend before or the run game is working better than the passing option.
Ekpre-Olomu was also asked how they tune out what people say about the defense. He said, “I’m not really too worried about what people have to say, they’re not really playing. They just want to look at the stats after the game.” He went on to explain that you have to look at all the stats and how many plays there were for each team.
Ekpre-Olomu is the prototypical player for the University of Oregon. A player that works hard every time he gets an opportunity, represents the team and University well and tunes out what people are saying. Let’s see how Ifo Ekpre-Olomu performs this Saturday against Stanford!
Top Photo by Kevin Cline
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McKalie Bellew just moved to Oregon from Arizona. She is a sophomore at Lane Community College and moved here to pursue her dream of studying Sports Journalism and Broadcasting at the University of Oregon. Her passion for sports is admirable and her determination and hunger for success in the sports field is fascinating; if you ever have the chance to talk to McKalie face-to-face about sports, you’ll know how much she loves these games just by the way her eyes light up during the conversation. When unable to attend Ducks home games you can find her in front of a television on the edge of her seat, cheering her crazed-fan-head off. McKalie appreciates your feedback and constructive-criticism to help her become a better writer and reporter.
