Ed Oliver has surely already played his last college game

Ed Oliver has declared his intent to enter the 2019 NFL Draft and he’s not healthy, so he has probably already played his last college game.

In recent years, it has become a trend for top NFL prospects to skip essentially meaningless bowl games to protect themselves from serious injury. Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette did it a couple years ago, and this year Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa declared he would focus on rehabbing an injury in preparation for the 2019 draft instead of playing for the Buckeyes again. As a similarly highly touted draft prospect, University of Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver is nearing decision time about his own future.

Oliver, the 2017 Outland Trophy winner, declared his plans to declare for the 2019 NFL Draft last spring. While not an official announcement at that time, Oliver made it clear this would be his final college season.

The Cougars beat Tulane 48-17 on Thursday night, to move to 8-3 on the season. Quarterback D’Eriq King suffered a knee injury and did not finish the game, but that’s not what made news.

Oliver missed his fourth straight game with a knee injury Thursday night, so he’s surely a bit frustrated anyway. But a weird rule about who can wear coats on the sideline led to a heated exchange with head coach Major Applewhite.

Apparently, there’s a team rule at Houston about only active players being allowed to wear a black jacket like the one Oliver had on. That suggests there’s a limited supply, which is a ludicrous idea even for a football program outside the Power 5 conferences. Oliver’s status as one of the best players on the team should not be a part of the issue, but it’s possible he did not know all of the specifics of the coat rule since he’s usually in uniform.

It’s pretty clear both guys could have handled the situation better. But Applewhite, as the proverbial adult in the room in a leadership position, could have done what he did in the privacy of the locker room.

Oliver did not come back out to the field with the team out of halftime, which left Applewhite to address the matter after the game.

"There’s a rule for our team,” Applewhite said. “Everybody follows the rule. I asked him to follow the rule. He was upset about it, and I get it. We deal with these types of situations all the time. This is something we’re going to learn from and grow from."

Houston will take on Memphis in their regular season finale next Friday, before going to some sort of mid-tier bowl game with eight or nine wins. Oliver doesn’t seem especially close to playing, and while it’s a trivial issue (and rule) the fact he didn’t come back to the sideline for the second half after the coat thing says it all.

Oliver is in line to be a top-10 pick in next spring’s draft, if not top-five, so he should prioritize making sure he’s ready to go for the pre-draft process. Houston can get to 10 wins this season by winning out, but that’s not something Oliver needs to care about if his knee isn’t 100 percent healthy. So we’ve probably already seen the last of Oliver on a college football field, and Thursday night’s sideline spat over a coat may have made his decision to sit out a little easier.