Kent State junior defensive linemen Oliver Billotte is back for his junior season, and ready to take a step up in both leadership and production in year three. Billotte, who saw time as a true freshman, is coming off a year in which he recorded 30 tackles, including two for a loss to go along with six quarterback hurries and a pass break up.
The Clearfield, Pennsylvania native was at MAC Football Media Day and spoke with KSU’s radio voice Rob Polinsky about his journey.
“When I first came into this, kind of being an under recruited kid I didn’t really know what I was getting into. I just went back to my roots, everything I’ve learned from coaches and family members in the past and put my head down and put my trust in God and everything has worked out.”
Billotte, at 6-5, 254 pounds, points out his football IQ, knowledge of the game and playing with heart as his main strengths.
“As a defensive line standpoint I always look at it as an attack first defensive style. I want to get off the ball, and then it’s an attack, then react mindset for me. So get off the ball and then react for whatever’s going on from there.”
Kent State received a massive loss to their defensive line room in the spring when returning stalwart CJ West hopped in the transfer portal and landed at Indiana. Billotte is back to help ease that loss with the help of a mix of returning veterans and talented youth.
“Me and CJ were super close. He made a decision to better his career and I’m always going to support him but we got some strong leaders in the room. You talk about guys like Stephen Daley, Matt Harmon, Stretch Carroll, there’s some strong characters in that room and a lot of young, talented kids as well that can really help us out. So I’m excited to see what the D-line brings to the table this year.”
The fact that Kent State Head Coach Kenni Burns asked Billotte to represent the program at Media Day, speaks to the buy-in that Billotte has given the Kent GRIT movement. He spoke on last year’s struggles and looking ahead to a fresh start in 2024.
“I just feel like last year there was a lot of things taken for granted and this year we’ve really realized that, our main objective is all in this year, so putting everything out there we possibly can, nothing left behind, every fine tuned detail so we’re really pushing the pace in everything we can do so that way we have the best season we can have.”
The Kent State defense, under the direction of first year coordinator Kody Morgan and his four NCAA Championships won at North Dakota State, looks to lean on Billotte and his teammates up front early on.
Billotte spoke on what he expects from the KSU defense this year. “For me, I really feel like it’s going to be our connection. We’ve put in a lot of hard work hours together this year, a lot of tough grindy days, so bonding that blood, sweat and tears together, I feel like our communication, our attack together, our swarm together, everything like that is going to be relentless this year.”