OHIO STATE FOOTBALL
Hartline didn?t aim to be hit man
Friday, October 27, 2006
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Brian Hartline isn't big, but he can dish out a lick.
Lean and lanky Brian Hartline would like you to believe he developed his penchant for high-speed collisions on Ohio State special teams purely out of necessity. He wants to play. He knows that Jim Tressel stresses that the quickest way to the hearts of the coaching staff is showing a zeal for special teams. "I?ve definitely changed as a player," Hartline said. "I think it is more recognizing what you need to do to develop player. I know when I started at as a about 8 or 9 years old, I was the quarterback, I was the ?do not touch? kind of guy. Then when I went to receiver, I got a little more contact.
"But when I came to college, at no point did I ever think I?d be running down on special teams, trying to smack somebody. That is definitely a different mind-set. But I adapted pretty quick."
That?s not the way Tressel remembers the evolution of Hartline into a contactseeking blur on the kickoff team, who against Indiana finally gained one of his goals, the Jack Tatum hit of the week award, for his jarring knock of kick returner Marcus Thigpen.
If there was any coaching genius involved, Tressel indicated, it was simply directing Hartline, otherwise a freshman receiver, to the special teams this fall.
"When we had him in youth camp (when he was Canton GlenOak High School), we were amazed at how competitive he was," Tressel said. "He was unbelieveable.
"Then when he breaks a leg (early in his senior season) and comes back and wins the state track meet in two hurdle events that spring, it was just another recognition of just how tough a guy he is."
From a full-leg splint to a full-speed sprint, Hartline made the transition in less than seven months.
"When the doctors told him, ?Brian, I think your track season is over. Hopefully, you can start running again in June,? well, they just didn?t understand Brian," said his mother, Laurie. "He was back up and hurdling again by February. He?s always been competitive like that."
Maybe he was born with some of that desire. But his mother let him and his younger brother Mike ? a freshman reserve quarterback at Kentucky ? know as youngsters what her expectations were once they stepped onto a playing field.
"Even the coaches of their midget teams would make fun of me," she said. "That?s because they?d hear me tell my boys, ?Guys, if it is not severely dislocated or you?re not bleeding profusely, then get yourself back on the field and get after it.? "
That appears to be Brian Hartline?s motto this season. Besides the hit on Thigpen, it can be seen in the way he dominoed two Iowa defenders who were chasing receiver Anthony Gonzalez on a cross-field touchdown play and in the block he threw on Ted Ginn Jr.?s 60-yard punt return for a touchdown at Michigan State.
"My philosophy is speed, and just go after it hard the whole game," Hartline said.
Having to sit out last year during his redshirt season stoked that desire, he said, but he also used it as an opportunity to add about 10 pounds to his 6-foot-3, 180-pound frame. He knows there?s something different about his game.
"Maybe it?s the hunger to play. Maybe it?s the hunger to help," Hartline said. "Maybe it?s waking up. Maybe it?s just the fact I grew up, I put some more weight on and I?m a little more confident. I don?t know, maybe it?s maturity."
Whatever, it sends him careening full speed, looking for a collision. Yet up in the stands, his mother said she is not holding her breath.
"I love to watch him run down that field, I always have," Laurie said. "I am sitting there on the edge of my seat, but it?s because I want to see him hit somebody and make a tackle. He just loves to play the game so much. You can tell."
[email protected]
