Auburn linebacker Owen Pappoe reveals decision for 2022 season

Auburn linebacker Owen Pappoe is returning to the Tigers program for his senior season, he announced on Instagram.

“Gotta finish this thing the right way!” Pappoe said in his Instagram caption, which featured a picture of him and text that read, “run it back.”

Pappoe, a junior, was a returning starter for Auburn this season under first-year head coach Bryan Harsin. The 6-foot-1, 226-pound linebacker was hardly productive this season, logging just 23 total tackles (14 solo stops) and appearing in just five games — and that was, in large part, due to an early-season injury. Pappoe went down with a lower-body injury in the second half of Auburn’s Week 3 loss at Penn State and did not return. Four Auburn’s next four games — against Georgia State, LSU, Georgia and Arkansas — Pappoe participated in warmups and remained with the team but didn’t dress for the contest.

“Man, it was rough,” Pappoe said of his injury, via 247 Sports. “This is actually like my first injury during the season that caused me to miss this many games — other than back in high school, I missed one game due to a family emergency, so I don’t even really count that. As far as being hurt, this is the first time I’ve ever had to go through something like this, so this was foreign to me. Really just talking to all my coaches and teammates, giving me words of encouragement, and the trainers too, just telling me to take it day-by-day, try to do everything you can to get back on the field, get healthy.”

Pappoe briefly returned down the stretch of the 2021 season, appearing in games against Ole Miss and Texas A&M and logging eight more tackles in that two-game span. However, he missed the Iron Bowl and Birmingham Bowl, so his season ended early.

Prior to the 2021 season, Pappoe was a frequent contributor on Auburn’s defensive unit. Pappoe was a five-star recruit via the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, and ranked as the No. 2 linebacker, No. 2 prospect out of Georgia and No. 10 overall recruit in the 2019 recruiting class. Unsurprisingly, Pappoe started for Auburn as a true freshman in 2019 and was named a FWAA midseason freshman All-American. He finished his freshman season with 49 total tackles (24 solo stops), two sacks, one forced fumble and two passes defended.

In his three-year career, only two of which Pappoe was healthy for the whole season, he’s amassed 165 total tackles (94 solo stops), four passes defended, six sacks, one forced fumble and one interception.