Newcomer Profile: Why Oklahoma OL Isaiah Autry is So Motivated by Family

While the Sooners' 3-star freshman gets to know his new teammates, they're learning that he embraces the hard work and "no matter what happens, I’m not gonna quit."

Isaiah Autry / OU Athletics / John Baker

NORMAN — Isaiah Autry grew up in Mississippi, but even 10 hours away, as a freshman at Oklahoma, he’s never really too far from home.

“One thing that motivates me is just how, like, when I see my parents and everything,” Autry said last month. “They put so much into me to get up here. So one thing I just know that, no matter what happens, I’m not gonna quit.”

Autry is OU’s consensus 3-star offensive tackle from Fulton, MS, a high school All-American at Itawamba Agricultural High School, a 6-foot-7, 300-pound mauler with a desire to get better and a passion for family.

Make that, Pashen.

That’s his famous mom, Pashen Dent-Autry, who played basketball for Pat Summitt at Tennessee and won two national championships with the Vols. His stepfather, Marcus Dent, has been a motivating force as well. It also doesn't hurt that his cousin is Sooner legend Marcus Dupree.

“I want to show them like, ‘Hey, I can get up here, far away from home, and do everything on my own and I can just be the best student-athlete that I can be, and I can handle these types of situations,’ ” Autry said. “Because college overall is gonna be hard, but once you know how to like, handle it, it’ll be good.”

Autry enrolled early and started classes at OU in January. He’s one of more than 20 incoming freshmen who are competing in spring drills as Bill Bedenbaugh rebuilds the Sooners’ offensive line. When OU concludes its annual spring game on Saturday, Autry can look back on the last four months — college course work, grueling winter workouts, five weeks of football practice — and be proud of what he accomplished.

It’s been hard — and that’s what makes it worth it.

“They hold us to a high standard,” he said. “It’s all a part of growing up. Because even after football, you’re gonna have times where you’re gonna have setbacks in life, and it’s all about how you respond.” 

Autry was OU's first offensive lineman to commit in the class of 2024, choosing the Sooners over Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Ole Miss and others. Autry said when he first got to Norman, he was “a little nervous for the transition, being that far from home.” But getting to bond with his new teammates — he’s one of four true freshmen on the offensive line, one of eight newcomers — has helped him settle in.

“Just hanging out, just with each other when it comes to football and everything, going out to eat and just chilling,” Autry said. “Just learning about each other: where we came from, what we like, and just how we are overall.”

And what has he learned?

“I learned that a lot of us, a lot of them, we all come from different areas,” he said. “Like Josh Aisosa, he’s from here in Oklahoma. Some are from far away, like Eugene Brooks, he’s from all the way in Cal. (And Daniel Akinkunmi is from London, England.) Some of them are more like city-type. They ask me questions because I grew up in a country-type area. I like to hunt and fish and everything, whereas them, they’re more like in a city-type area, so we just ask each other questions to know more about each other.”

The competition has been fierce, of course, but it goes well beyond just spring practice. Autry’s eyes were opened way back in January, when winter fitness training began. That’s when the team belongs to strength coach Jerry Schmidt and his staff.

“In the mornings, coach Schmidt, he’s fired up, he’s jumping around, he’s screaming, he’s getting us active,” Autry said. “He wants us to have some juice in the morning, hype each other up, get competitive, push each other and just grow as a team.

“It’s intense and it’s fast, but it’s all worth it. Like, I love lifting. One thing, you go in there, you got that mindset, you get your mind locked in and you go in and get ready to roll.”

From winter lifting, the team transitioned to conditioning drills, called coaching stations. That’s where the intensity ramps up even more. It can be a shock to a freshman.

“When I first started coaching stations, it was a little hit to me,” Autry said. “But one thing I did before I got up here, I always like, trained myself and made sure I was in good shape. I already knew it was gonna be tough for me. But once you do it, you get used to it. 

“You just gotta love it. Because you’re gonna have days where you don’t want to get up in the morning, you don’t feel like doing a lot of things, but you just gotta have that mindset. Because in the end, it’s all gonna be worth it. Because nobody knows when it’s gonna be their last day of playing football. So in the end, you’ve just got to know that ‘Hey, I got to get through this, I got a job to do,’ and just push through it.”

Autry said he hasn’t had that “homesick moment” yet, but any time he gets to see his parents, whether it’s in Norman or back home in Mississippi, he’ll embrace it.

In fact, he wants them to get to know his new family, like the transfers who have taken him under their wing.

“Oh, they’re great guys,” Autry said. “Like Febechi (Nwaiwu), Michael Tarquin, Spencer (Brown), they’re all really great guys, and Geirean (Hatchett), too, from Washington. They’re all great guys. They know how to push each other to be competitive. Michael Tarquin, he’s basically like a big brother to me. He looks over me and makes sure that I know what I’m doing. We just push each other to get work done.

“I love it here.”

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