Apr. 1—COLUMBUS — Tegra Tshabola is living by two words this spring.
“Nobody cares,” he said Monday morning.
This was no April Fools’ joke.
He was not being facetious or taking a dim view of his support.
The sophomore from Lakota West simply is locked onto the task of getting better while competing for playing time on the Ohio State offensive line.
“Nobody cares how you feel,” he explained. “Nobody cares about where you think you should be. Nobody cares what you’re going through. Just take the field and go as hard as you can because too many people are invested in you to not go hard. Too many people invested in everybody on this field.
“Many steps have to take place us to get here, so to not go hard is almost a disrespect to those guys.”
Hearing that Tshabola was taking that approach seemed to please Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye.
“You gotta come out, step out and do your job,” Frye said. “(The game of football) doesn’t care about anything off the field.”
He acknowledged that can “sound negative and harsh,” but Frye also pointed out the upside.
“If you just spin your tone, like isn’t it beautiful that the game doesn’t care?” Frye said. “It doesn’t care about your skin color, about your socio economic background, where you’ve come from. If you just want to do it the right way in the 53 and a third (yards of the field), the game will love you back.”
Football is a violent game for all 22 players on the field, but it is especially so for those who play in the trenches.
And while defensive linemen can aspire to the fame and glory that comes with putting up stats — tackles for loss, sacks — there is not so much tangible success offensive linemen can achieve.
That means they have to embrace the grind more so than most because there is not much more reward, and that is something Frye sees several of his younger…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nobody-cares-osu-lineman-lakota-010900758.html
Author : Dayton Daily News, Ohio
Publish date : 2024-04-02 01:09:00
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