Freeport’s Otterman has sights set on another school sack standard
BUFFALO TWP — There are a lot of wannabe T.J. Watts.
A side-eye and a “Sure, kid” might follow when Freeport senior outside linebacker Colton Otterman says he models his game after his hometown team’s standout pass rusher.
Yellowjackets coach John Gaillot gives credence to such a statement, though.
“He reminds me of T.J. Watt for the Steelers,” he said. “He gets so low that those big linemen can’t get down as far. He literally rips and his arm is on the ground. It’s just amazing what he does.
“He just has a knack for the ball. He baits people, throwing-wise.”
Otterman enters his final season with Freeport having already cemented himself as the Jackets’ all-time sackmaster, yanking down the quarterback 28 times in three seasons.
“That’s my bread and butter,” Otterman said about screaming off the edge. “Once you start sacking, it brings their mentality down. They don’t know what to do. They’ll start keying on me, then we have other kids coming from somewhere else.”
According to statistics on MaxPreps, there have only been five instances over the past decade in which a Freeport defender has notched double-digit sacks in a campaign. Logan Thimons piled up 15 1/2 as a senior in 2015. Bobby Jendrejewski had 10 1/2 that same year. Andrew Sullivan finished with 11 in 2021.
Otterman, who recorded 10 as a sophomore and 12 last year as a junior, is the only one to have accomplished the feat more than once. He has his eye on bettering Thimons’ mark — a single-season school high.
“I want to break the school sack record, that’s for sure,” Otterman said. “I think I need 16 sacks this year. That would definitely be my goal.”
A surgery on a broken wrist put Otterman out for four months this off-season. He said he wouldn’t be available to suit up for the team’s scrimmage against Slippery Rock, and his status for the ‘Jackets’ opener on the road against Indiana is in doubt, too.
That would make Otterman’s quest for predominance a bit more complicated, but Gaillot believes he has the tools to leave such a mark.
“Colton’s right there,” said Gaillot, who once held the record himself. “He has a legit shot.”
Along with Jacksen Reiser, a since-graduated senior who fought through a torn ACL last fall, Otterman stayed on the field even while nursing his wrist — which he initially hurt in last year’s opener.
“The worst thing with coaching is injuries,” Gaillot said. “I hate injuries. I trust (team athletic trainer) Bill Siegel with my life and any of our kids’. We had to put a rubber cast or whatever on and tape it up. He goes, ‘He’ll be fine with it.’”
And the defense was better for it, conceding an average of under two touchdowns per outing.
“I just played with it, because I knew what kind of team we had,” Otterman said. “As soon as you run through the banner, I feel like you just forget about everything and it’s just all adrenaline. And after the game, I’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh, why did I do that?’
“After West Mifflin, it got to the point where I couldn’t even move it. I had to say something and I played with a cast against Belle Vernon (in the WPIAL Class 3A semifinal).”
Gaillot admired his grit.
“It’s just the mentality that we instilled 16 years ago, honestly,” he said. “We treat our players the way we were treated in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s there. It’s just that toughness. You have to will yourself to be better.
“He’s just that person, physically and mentally tough.”
Thimons, who continued playing at West Virginia University, left Freeport with 23 sacks. Otterman has already surpassed him in that regard, and though Gaillot believes he can overshadow him in the other, he’s not putting such pressure on him.
“I just expect him to play as hard as he can and things will happen,” Gaillot said. “Nobody’s going to give you anything, so you’ve got to work. You can’t come in and say, ‘Hey, I have all of this.’ Everything that you did — your last step — doesn’t even count.“Every step you take should be your best.”
