By: Sean Cartell
Born in Liberia, Owen Pewee never imagined he would play American football, but his journey has taken him from West Africa to being one of the highest-rated players ever to sign with the UTSA Football program.
Moving to Texas at age 6, Pewee gravitated to the sport of basketball. For fun, he would play football with his friends in the parks of Cypress on Houston’s northwest side without ever expecting a future on the gridiron. His peers encouraged him otherwise.
“Everybody was telling me that I was good,” Pewee said. “Hearing that, I second-guessed myself because I never saw myself playing football. Seventh grade was my first time playing football and I did well. I was messing up everybody on the field. I got invited to play FBU [Football University] and it just took off from there.”
Watching their son play American football for the first time, Pewee’s parents – his mother is a nurse and his father is employed by FedEx – who were unfamiliar with the sport were shocked by the physicality of the game.
“When they first came to the games, they were like, ‘You’re too violent; you’re going to hurt somebody,’” Pewee said. “But I told them about the game and, after a couple of games watching it, they got used to it.”
Pewee went on to star as a linebacker at Cypress Park High School, where he was a consensus three-star prospect. At the time of his signing in December 2021, he was the highest-rated player ever to ink with the Roadrunners, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.
There were other offers, but Pewee was drawn to the culture within the UTSA program and the relationships he had built with the coaching staff.
“It’s a family environment here,” he said. “UTSA shows a lot of love. They kept in touch with me throughout my high school career. It was close to my home and I wanted to stay close so my family could come see the games. I felt like it was a good opportunity to come here.”
As a freshman in 2022, Pewee saw action in four games and used his redshirt year. Since then, he has played in every game for the Roadrunners at money backer. Last season, he was voted into UTSA’s vaunted single digits and, this year, he will wear No. 2 as part of the team’s elite 2-1-0 jerseys, an allusion to San Antonio’s 210 area code.
“It means a lot, knowing that we vote for that, and the guys voted me in,” Pewee said. “Especially at a young age last year. I put in a lot of work for that.”
Leadership is an opportunity that Pewee embraces, inspired largely by the program’s leaders who came before him. He headlines UTSA’s defense and joins another Owen, quarterback Owen McCown, in being the public faces of the Roadrunners this season.
“Seeing the other leaders that have come through this program and watching how they operate, I feel like I can do that,” Pewee. “I’ve been locked in and working on everything I can. I take a lot of pride in this program.”
With many of the well-known faces from UTSA’s past defenses having moved on following last season, Pewee knows that the public perception is that the talent on his side of the ball is unproven. But he believes that the combination of talent and chemistry that he has witnessed leading up to the season will spell success for the Roadrunners’ defense.
“I know everybody says it’s a new defense, but we’ve still got guys who have played on the defense and gotten snaps, they just never started,” he said. “I feel like we’ve got the same defense, just with a couple new players. We trust in each other, everybody is communicating and we’re doing the little things right. We’re just getting tighter and tighter, and I feel like it’s going to take us a long way.”
Pewee is one of 50 players on this year’s team who are first-generation college students. Starting this year, first-generation student-athletes at UTSA will don special first-generation patches on their uniforms, recognizing the importance of their achievement.
“My family and I moved here to have a better lifestyle, to do better for ourselves and for me to have the opportunity that I have right now,” Pewee said. “It is important to me because I want to set the standard for generations to come. My mom has always been pushing me to be great, so I knew I had to do it.”
The expectations this year are high for Pewee, who posted 42 total tackles a year ago with 25 solo stops, 6.5 tackles for loss, two sacks and a pair of interceptions. He welcomes the expectations and is focused on making an impact.
“I want to show everybody how physical I can be and show my talent,” he said. “I feel like this is going to be my year and I’m ready for everything that comes my way.”
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