From ‘self-doubt’ to top NFL prospect, how Penn State’s Olu Fashanu became a star

INDIANAPOLIS — Olu Fashanu has a legitimate chance to be the No. 1 pick in next year’s NFL Draft.

Penn State’s stalwart left tackle has the tape. He has the size at 6-foot-6, 319 pounds. At only 20 years old, his ceiling is sky high.

So it’s hard to picture Fashanu as a 16-year-old freshman on the practice squad being emphatically thrown to the turf. But Fashanu, chatting at Lucas Oil Stadium on Wednesday, vividly recalled his “welcome to college football” moment.

“I remember my first practice,” Fashanu said at Big Ten media days. “I was on the developmental squad, and it was one of those team periods where the starters go against the D-squad. I had to pull, and I was going to go block (linebacker) Brandon Smith. He absolutely cracked me. He sent me flying.”

Safe to say that doesn’t really happen anymore.

Fashanu is one of the top players in the country. He could have gone in the top 10 overall, maybe even the top five, of April’s draft if he declared. Instead, Penn State’s anchor opted for another season of Big Ten ball to improve his stock and try to push the Nittany Lions to their first College Football Playoff appearance.

If Fashanu ends up going No. 1 overall, he would join an exclusive club of Nittany Lions to do so. Only running back Ki-Jana Carter and pass rusher Courtney Brown have done it. The last Penn State offensive lineman to hear his name called in the first round was Levi Brown at No. 5 overall in 2007.

Fashanu is on that kind of trajectory. And he understands what follows.

“All the hype comes with expectations,” Fashanu said. “But to be honest, no one has higher expectations for the season than myself. So with me, it’s all about just staying consistent, not being complacent at all, making sure I get better day by day, getting 1% better each day. And if I do all those, I think everything will take place.”

It’s impressive to see how far Fashanu has come from that 16-year-old who was sent airborne. Fashanu enrolled at Penn State in August 2020 as a four-star prospect. But it didn’t click for him right away.

Fashanu spent his entire freshman year on the developmental squad. He didn’t see any game action. Instead, he was tasked with blocking All-Big Ten defensive ends and future NFL draft picks Odafe Oweh and Shaka Toney in practice.

“I was going to war with those guys,” Fashanu said. “But at the same time, we were getting each other better. There were many times after practice I would be down on myself even though Shaka and Odafe are both great pass-rushers. They would come up to me and thank me for the work I was doing. They encouraged me, telling me they were still getting better thanks to my workouts. That played a huge role.”

Fashanu served as Rasheed Walker’s backup as a sophomore before breaking out in 2022. He rapidly went from local recognition to national attention. Midway through the season, draft analyst Dane Brugler of The Athletic ranked Fashanu as his No. 5 overall prospect and top offensive lineman.

But even last fall, as it became clear early on that he was a rising star, Fashanu admits to not handling expectations the way he had hoped. The pressure got to him.

“It would affect me mentally. A lot of self-doubt would creep in,” he explained. “But this offseason, I’ve done a lot of work with myself mentally, just realizing where I’m at and how far I’ve come from at Penn State. Now going into the season, even though I have high expectations, I don’t really feel any pressure.”

“… Something that added to the stress was at times last year I was thinking of everything from the big picture. I didn’t really take time to worry about what was in front of me. Through time I’ve realized that you have to maximize every moment.”

That’s what he plans to do this fall — to Penn State’s benefit and the rest of the Big Ten’s detriment.