Honors & Awards
-
Honorable-Mention All-Big 12 (AP, Coaches, 2007)
-
Nebraska Defensive Most Valuable Player (2007)
-
Big 12 Commissioner's Spring Academic Honor Roll (2005)
2007 (Senior)
Linebacker Steve Octavien capped his career with an impressive senior season, leading the Huskers in tackles in 2007. The solid senior season came after Octavien battled injuries that kept him on the sidelines for the majority of the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
A two-year letterman for the Huskers in 2006 and 2007, Octavien appeared in 22 games with 10 starts during his NU career. He totaled 128 tackles, including 80 solos, including 21 tackles for loss with three sacks. He also had 11 quarterback hurries and five pass breakups while causing one fumble in his Husker career.
The 6-0, 240-pound Octavien started eight of 12 games at WILL linebacker and racked up a team-high 92 tackles in 2007, including 56 solo stops in 2007. He paced NU defenders with 15 tackles for loss, totaling 52 yards and his nine quarterback hurries were also a team high. For his efforts, Octavien was named the Huskers’ 2007 Defensive MVP and also earned honorable-mention All-Big 12 honors.
Octavien had eight or more tackles in seven games during the 2007 season, including four double-figure tackle games. He also contributed two or more tackles for loss six times on the year. Octavien opened the year with a sack and a pair of tackles for loss against Nevada, and added two TFLs against both Wake Forest and USC.
He posted his first double-figure tackle game with 11 stops in a win over Iowa State. Against Texas A&M, Octavien had a career-high 13 stops, starting a five-game stretch to finish the year in which he totaled 53 tackles. He had 11 tackles against Kansas, and made nine tackles, including a career-high three tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks against Kansas State. He finished his career with 12 tackles and a pair of tackles for loss at Colorado.
A sociology major, Octavien was one of 20 Huskers to graduate in December of 2007.
2006 (Junior)
Octavien played in nine games and finished with 32 tackles, including four tackles for loss and a sack. He also broke up two passes, added a quarterback hurry and a fumble caused in helping Nebraska rank in the top 25 nationally in scoring defense. After appearing in each of NU’s first three games, Octavien missed the next four contests while rehabbing his injured leg. He rebounded to play in six of the final seven games, and made only his second career start in the Big 12 Championship Game against Oklahoma, when the Huskers opened in their goal-line defense.
Octavien recorded at least five tackles three times, including a season-high 10 stops, with two for loss, against Texas. His strong effort against the Longhorns also featured a forced fumble and pass breakup. He registered two tackles against Texas A&M, five against Colorado and three against the Sooners. He closed the year with three solo tackles and his first career sack in the Cotton Bowl against Auburn.
2005 (Injured-Redshirt)
Before being injured against Maine, Octavien made four tackles, including two tackles for loss, including a four-yard stop behind the line on the game’s first play.
Before Nebraska (Lely HS/William Rainey Harper College)
A native of Naples, Fla., Octavien played in only four games for William Rainey Harper College in 2004 because of injury. Despite the limited action, Octavien was ranked as the No. 4 junior college linebacker prospect by College Football News. In 2003, Octavien finished with 124 tackles, including 15 tackles for loss, helping Coach John Eliasik’s team to a 10-1 record. Octavien also had eight sacks, three interceptions, two blocked field goals and a blocked punt, and helped his team to a 19-3 record over two years. In addition to his football talents, Octavien was a track standout for Harper College. He ran the second leg on the school’s 2004 national champion 400-meter relay team and won the Division III junior college discus title with a throw of 164-7.
Octavien signed with Illinois out of Naples Lely High School, where he started for three seasons. He started at linebacker as a sophomore, then was a two-way standout each of his final two seasons. He won the state title in the discus in his junior year in 2002 and finished second as a senior. Octavien's personal-best throw of 193-7 was the 10th-best prep mark in the nation in 2003. He also visited Iowa, North Carolina and Central Florida, before enrolling at Nebraska.
Personal
Octavien was born on Nov. 25, 1984, and is the son of Philmene and Stephen Octavien, who were both born in Haiti. A sociology major, Octavien earned his bachelor's degree from Nebraska in December of 2007. He also claimed a spot on the 2005 Big 12 Commissioner’s Spring Academic Honor Roll. Octavien's sister, Dayana, was a three-time track All-American in the discus and hammer throw at South Florida and competed in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials.
Octavien's Career Statistics
.
.
Tackles
.
.
Fum.
.
.
.
QB
Year
G/S
UT
AT
TT
TFL
Sacks
C-R
BK
PBU
PI
Hry.
2005* 1/1 3 1 4 2-5 0 0-0 0 0 0 12006
9/1
21
11
32
4-7
1-1
1-0
0
2
0
1
2007
12/8
56
36
92
15-52
2-9
0-0
0
3
0
9
Totals
22/10
80
48
128
21-64
3-10
1-0
0
5
0
11
*Medical redshirt in 2005
Octavien’s Single-Game Highs
Tackles?13 vs. Texas A&M, 2007
Solo Tackles?7, four times
Tackles for Loss-3-20 vs. Kansas State, 2007
Sacks-1.5-5 vs. Kansas State, 2007