UGA Football: Frierson Chats With Owen Condon

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Owen Condon was always the big kid in class. He was already 6-feet tall after sixth grade, big enough, he said, that when he played basketball in middle school the opposing teams would sometimes question whether he was the proper age.

Condon, a redshirt sophomore offensive lineman on the Georgia football team, now stands 6-7 and is listed at 310 pounds. Where he once stood out because of his size, Condon, from Oklahoma City, Okla., now fits right in with the Bulldogs’ big linemen and tight ends.

During a Quick Chat after practice Monday, Condon talked about keeping busy during the past six months, playing other sports when he was young, his first scholarship offer, and much more. Here’s some of what he had to say:

Frierson: What have the last five or six months been like for you? How did you fill the time before returning to Athens?

Condon: I went back home to Oklahoma City, and I just spent my time hanging out with my family and working out as much as I can. Things kind of opened up a little bit earlier in Oklahoma, so the gym that I go to, I was able to start working out up there with a mask, with some other guys that were home. That was good, getting to train with some other college athletes.

Frierson: Did you pick up any new hobbies? Are you now a better cook than you’ve ever been?

Condon: I tried to start learning how to cook with my mom, a little bit. She still cooks a lot better than me, though, so I kind of let her handle most of the meals when I was home.

Frierson: What is your favorite thing that she cooks?

Condon: I’d probably go with her lasagna, she makes a really good lasagna.

Frierson: What other sports did you play growing up?

Condon: Up until high school, I played football, basketball and baseball. Once I started high school I dropped baseball and just played football and basketball. I played varsity basketball every year except my senior year because I hurt my knee playing football my senior year.

I really loved both the sports — my dad played basketball in college (at Birmingham Southern) — so that’s where my love for basketball came from. Football, I was always big and I learned to love it.

Frierson: Do you remember your first dunk?

Condon: It was probably either my sophomore or junior year — I can’t remember which one, to be honest with you. I was just in the layup lines, messing around after practice.

Frierson: When did you get big? Was there one big growth spurt or was it a pretty gradual thing?

Condon: It was always kind of gradual. I remember the first big milestone I hit, I was 6-foot in about seventh grade going into eighth, and I just kind of grew 2 or 3 inches every year until about my sophomore year.

Frierson: Was it ever awkward for you?

Condon: Back in middle school, when we played basketball games, other teams would ask my coach for my birth certificate or things like that because they didn’t believe that was the right age. I had to deal with that a lot.

Frierson: Who was the first athlete that you really looked up to?

Condon: I loved watching the Patriots and Gronk (Rob Gronkowski), I’m not going to lie. I’ll go with Tom Brady over Gronk. Even though he didn’t play my position, I loved the way he approaches the game.

Frierson: When did you know that you had a future in football beyond high school?

Condon: After my sophomore season, it was early January and we were in basketball season at that point. I got a call on the intercom in one of my classes, saying, “Can we see Owen Condon and Coach Jones in the football office?” I was like, that’s weird, did I do something wrong?

I showed up down there and my coach was telling me that a coach from Ohio University was there and had stopped by and they were going to offer me a scholarship. I hadn’t talked to them before or anything like that, so it really caught me off guard. That’s when I knew that I had a chance to play in college and it took off from there.

Frierson: What does a moment like that feel like? Most of us don’t get to experience that kind of great compliment.

Condon: It was kind of surreal, to be honest with you. I really had no idea that I was going to be able to try and play football in college. Obviously, I was really happy and excited, and right after, I called my parents and they were excited for me, and then after that I just started taking football really seriously, working out, trying to become the best player I could before I got to college.

Frierson: If you could be great at anything for a day, just to experience it what it’s like, what would it be?

Condon: I’d say I’d probably be an ace pitcher for some MLB team, just go out and throw a perfect game or something like that. That would be really cool.

Frierson: Did you pitch when you played baseball?

Condon: I did pitch back when I played. It was all fastballs, for the most part, but my hands were bigger than everyone else’s and I so I was actually able to throw a slider back in middle school. No one else could really do that just because their hands weren’t big enough, so I’d mix in a slider here and there.

(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He’s also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.