Move from D3 not to big for Ojata
Jireh Ojata doesn’t play the “what if” game. The Purdue rush end is just enjoying the journey of his football life that has seen him traverse from Division 3 to the Big Ten.
“I’m definitely very content, very happy with my path so far,” said Ojata. “And I feel like what makes me who I am is the path I had to go through. So, I do think about it sometimes, but I don’t really wish I went a different route.”
Ojata is making the most of his final season of college football after transferring from Franklin College to Purdue in the offseason. After beginning the season as a reserve, he’s now moved into the starting lineup for Purdue (1-7 overall; 0-5 Big Ten) for this Saturday’s game at Ohio State (7-1; 4-1) at noon ET on FOX. It has been a stunning ascent.
“It has been a steady transition,” said Ojata. “It’s not really like a one day kind of switch. Was just coming to work on it, and then just doing what my coaches have been telling me to do.”
Last week vs. Northwestern, Ojata played a season-high 44 snaps. He has played in all eight games and has made eight tackles with a TFL and sack.
“It felt good,” said Ojata of making his first sack at Illinois. “I felt like I was on top of the world. But then you got to play the next play.”
The biggest difference from D3 and the Big Ten?
“Speed of the game,” he said. “Guys are a lot faster, bigger, a lot stronger, so just kind of being able to see the game at a faster pace.”
Ojata was a relative late-comer to football, not picking up the sport until his freshman year at Carmel. He didn’t even start as a senior.
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“Jireh’s mental toughness has always been one of his greatest strengths,” said Carmel coach John Hebert. “Not surprised at all that he is starting to breakthrough for Purdue!”
Purdue coach Ryan Walters knew Ojata needed time.
“When you get a guy from the level that he was at and his background is not playing football for a while or later in his career I should say, we didn’t take him expecting him to have to contribute right away,” said Walters. “We took him — obviously there was a lot of potential there, and it was just a matter of how quickly could he reach that potential to be able to help us on game days.”
Because of being a late-comer, Ojata matriculated to Franklin College, located about 30 minutes south of Indianapolis. At Franklin, he won his conference’s defensive player of the year honor in 2023 after finishing with a career-high 53 tackles (32 solo) and 17 tackles-for-loss.
“Going to college, I definitely thought I was gonna play at Franklin and hopefully play well enough to open doors to play at higher levels,” said the 6-4, 267-pound Ojata whose brother Uchenyo has committed to Troy as a defensive end.
Now, here he is, primed to play a key role down the stretch for the Boilermakers as one of five products out of Carmel High in suburban Indianapolis (see chart below).
“We’re kind of seeing where his potential is starting to be realized, and I think he’ll continue to get more run throughout these last four games because of the way he’s worked and the amount of growth that he’s had just from an understanding perspective and knowing how to play football and the physicality with which it’s required to have success at this level,” said Walters.
Purdue’s Carmel High School “mafia”
| ILB Winston Berglund |
| NT Cole Brevard |
| RE Will Heldt |
| RE Jireh Ojata |
| C Ethan Trent |
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