Brian Rolle: Could this be his breakout year?
Linebacker doesn't want to spend his years at OSU 'being average'
Thursday, July 23, 2009
By Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Chris Russell | Dispatch
"I am looking to be one of the best players to come through here, whether some people think I can be or not." ? Ohio State linebacker Brian Rolle
Brian Rolle offered some big-brother advice to freshman teammate Kenny Guiton Jr. the other day. Guiton, who has been on campus since late June, was debating whether he should go home to Texas the week before Ohio State opens preseason camp Aug. 9.
"I told him 'You gotta go home during the break, because you're going to miss home, man, as the year goes on,' " Rolle said. "Then he asked me if I was going home, and I told him no, that I had to stay here and work out."
Such is life for two players at different career junctures. Guiton, the late-recruited quarterback from just outside Houston, has no chance of starting this year because Terrelle Pryor and Joe Bauserman are ahead of him.
For Rolle, the 5-foot-11 junior tackling torpedo from Immokalee, Fla., this could be a bellwether season. The departure of James Laurinaitis and Marcus Freeman left two starting jobs available at linebacker, and though Rolle pressed his case in the spring, he said now is not the time for a visit home.
"I am looking to be one of the best players to come through here, whether some people think I can be or not," Rolle said. "I just told Kenny I've got to work hard through this summer because I know that there's a 95 percent chance I'm going to be starting this year, that I can be a major contributor on defense.
"I just look at this summer being the time for me to prepare like a champion, like somebody who's going to be starting."
Not that, in his zeal, he has written off his family. The personable Rolle said thoughts of them are what drive him.
"I don't want to sound like I don't love Florida, but I don't miss home as much as I miss the people at home," Rolle said. "The one person I miss the most is my little sister, Demetria, 19. She is my heart. And I miss joking around with my three brothers.
"I sit back at times and think, 'Wonder what they're doing right now?' That's something I think about more than I do football. I just let them be my motivation, to remind me why I'm here."