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DT Johnathan "Big Hank" Hankins (Dallas Cowboys)

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Ohio State defensive spotlight: DT Johnathan Hankins
By Tim May
The Columbus Dispatch Friday October 21, 2011

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Mike Munden | For The Dispatch

Last season about this time, the Ohio State defensive coaches felt lucky if they could get a solid 60 seconds from then-freshman defensive lineman Johnathan ?Big Hank? Hankins before having to send in relief. Talk about a change, the trimmed down Hankins is routinely staying on the field for 60 plays or more this season.

He?s not just out there, either. Last week in the win at Illinois, Hankins led the team in tackles with nine. As has become his mission, he played anywhere on the front, from the noseguard to end, sometimes dropping off into coverage in zone-blitz calls. The 6-foot-3, 330-pound Hankins has proven to be much more than just a big-bodied double-team block-attracting hole plugger.

He?s enjoying his new versatility as the breakout performer on the 2011 defense.

?As I?ve played it and gotten used to it I?ve seen the benefits, all the good things I can get from playing end and playing nose,? Hankins said. ?Right now I am feeling pretty comfortable at it. Where ever the coach needs to play me, I am going to play.?

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http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2011/10/21/gameday/spotlight-defense.html
 
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Johnathan Hankins knows his adjective. To the Buckeyes, he is "Big Hank." Could he ever be "Fast Hank"?

"Fast Hank would be a beauty," Hankins said Thursday. "But I think Big Hank is natural."

Playing an SEC team in a bowl for the fourth time in six years, with the Buckeyes facing Florida in the Gator Bowl on Monday, means another round of SEC speed questions for Ohio State. Where that examination truly matters as much as anywhere is on the defensive side of the ball -- and among the big guys, not the little ones. When new Ohio State coach Urban Meyer spoke on "The Dan Patrick Show" on the radio recently, he said that, to him, the SEC style means fast defenses. And when he remembered Florida's win against Ohio State in the 2006 national title game, he thought of the Gators' speed on the defensive line and at linebacker.

So watch Big Hank against the Gators, and see if he isn't, at the very least, "Pretty Quick for His Size Hank." As a sophomore and first-year starter, Hankins is third on the Buckeyes in tackles (behind safety C.J. Barnett and linebacker Andrew Sweat) and third among all Big Ten defensive linemen in the same statistic. That's due to his ability to slide down the line of scrimmage and chase down ballcarriers, not just because of his skill at the point of attack.

"I've always loved running down the line," Hankins said after the Buckeyes' second practice in Florida on Thursday morning. "The running back has a choice to cut back, and he'll run into me, and if not, I did my job of running him out of bounds. I live for plays like that.

"I like those tackles right there, because they don't really see you coming, and when they do see you coming, they're surprised."
Hankins' athleticism at his size has led him to be called an SEC-type defensive lineman, at times, the kind of player the Gators see often, but not exactly the skill set the Buckeyes' have on the line every season.
"Quite simply, they're hard to block and hard to keep blocked," Florida offensive coordinator Brian White said of linemen such as Hankins. "It sounds very simple, but really athletic guys that are big, it's hard to contain them over the length of a game."
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http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2012/03/11/gold-diggers.html
Meyer’s incentive-based system encourages growth from OSU players

Soon after Urban Meyer was named Ohio State’s coach 31/2 months ago, he already was impressed with the likes of John Simon and Zach Boren, a couple of seniors-to-be who exuded doing things the right way. But Meyer made no secret that most of the players he inherited were going to have to grow on him, that they would have to earn his trust.

Which leads, Meyer said, to Johnathan Hankins. During an impromptu team gathering in mid-February, Hankins, a defensive tackle who will be a junior in the fall, became the first Buckeyes player to graduate. That is, he became the first to move from blue to red in Meyer’s three-tier caste system for players in which gold is the goal.

A few, such as Simon and Boren, were immediate members of the gold when Meyer and his staff took over training drills in January, and a few were designated for the red. But most were lumped into the blue.

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GREAT stuff
 
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Is it safe to say our D-Line is going to be INSANE espiacally with Marroti being the new guy in charge I can't wait to see what he does to guys like Big Hank, Noah Spence, and John Simon its gonna be nuts. An the best thing about it is having a great D-Line it makes everyone else like the DB's and LB's look so good for we really have a lot of youth and inexeperience so its going to help a lot!

Damn it feels good to be a buckeye!

:oh:
 
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MuckFighigan;2125087; said:
Is it safe to say our D-Line is going to be INSANE espiacally with Marroti being the new guy in charge I can't wait to see what he does to guys like Big Hank, Noah Spence, and John Simon its gonna be nuts. An the best thing about it is having a great D-Line it makes everyone else like the DB's and LB's look so good for we really have a lot of youth and inexeperience so its going to help a lot!

Damn it feels good to be a buckeye!

:oh:
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:io:
 
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