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. I guess making plays just comes with doing my job.”– Darron Lee
“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.”
Lee has made plenty of them for the Buckeyes, too, as he’s now in his second year as the starting outside linebacker.
In his first game as a starter — last year’s 34-17 season-opening win over Navy — Lee picked up a fumble and returned in 61 yards for a score. And in Ohio State’s latest victory — a 38-0 blanking of Hawai’i on Saturday — Lee had a pair of sacks, a forced fumble and a pass break-up to go along with four tackles.
“I think he’s a very twitchy young man,” Ohio State’s defensive line coach Larry Johnson said Monday of Lee. “I think he’s got some really athletic skills. The thing that he did voluntarily was learn how to pass rush. He came down and spent time with Vince, our grad assistant, and myself to work on his pass rush skills. Those are things that are starting to show up. He can play much faster with his hands, and that’s a gift to be able to do that.”
From the moment Lee first stepped on the field for Ohio State, he’s been making plays for the Buckeyes’ defense. And that competition on that side of the ball is what drives him to be one of Ohio State’s best playmakers.
“Doing your job first and then making a play just kind of goes hand in hand, I guess,” Lee said. “If you’re doing your job, the coaches are putting you in a position to make a play.”
