COMPETITION DRIVES DARRON LEE TO BE ONE OF OHIO STATE'S BIGGEST DEFENSIVE PLAYMAKERS
For Darron Lee and the rest of Ohio State’s defense, everything is about competition. Everybody wants to be the first guy to make the big play that is going to change the game.
“Out there with that group of guys, it’s really just a lot of fun, like I said before,” Lee said Monday as he and the Buckeyes began to prepare for their Week 3 matchup with Northern Illinois. “I’m really thinking of, ‘All right, who’s going to do something first?’ That kind of goes for all of us. ‘Who’s going to lay somebody out? Who’s going to get that sack? Who’s going to get that pick?’”
That’s probably not uncommon for defenses across college football, but on a unit like Ohio State’s — which is littered with NFL-caliber talent at nearly every position — that competition is amped up just a little bit more.
And Lee is one of the Buckeyes’ top playmakers on defense, constantly around the ball and making big play after big play. Whether it’s a sack, a forced fumble or a big hit, No. 43 seems to always be around the football.
But even though Lee admits he wants to be the first guy on defense to make a game-changing play, the 6-foot-2, 235-pound redshirt sophomore linebacker also says he can’t go out on the field trying to over extend himself to make that happen. The big plays must come within the flow of the game.
“What comes to my mind is just doing my job first,” he said. “I guess making plays just comes with doing my job. I don’t go out there like, ‘Oh, yeah, I gotta do this, I gotta do that.’ Just do my job and play within our system.
“If you make a play, you make a play.”
Entire article:
http://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-...e-of-ohio-states-biggest-defensive-playmakers