It takes confidence to know confidence.
Linebacker Brian Rolle has brought some southern swagger with him to Ohio State.
“It’s just playing confident. I look back at the early University of Miami teams,” Rolle said. “They get on the field and those guys are jumping around, playing around, having fun. Then you get teams that just line up and play football. That’s maybe more traditional, but playing with swagger means you’re confident, your team’s confident.”
Rolle isn’t the prototypical OSU linebacker. The senior from Immokalee, Fla., stands out from a line of elite ‘backers of Buckeye past who excelled with a hard-nosed, physical style.
“The only person I kind of had an idea about was Chris Spielman,” Rolle said. “I had never heard of James Laurinaitis or any of those guys because I wasn’t an Ohio State fan when I got recruited. But then looking at it after I committed here, I learned about the long line of great Buckeyes.”
Unlike Spielman, Laurinaitis, Andy Katzenmoyer or A.J. Hawk — all big, physical specimens — the diminutive Rolle — at 5-feet-11-inches — plays off his speed and instincts.
“I tell everyone I’m 6-foot-4, 230 (pounds),” Rolle said. “Why not? I play like it. I do see myself as a little different, maybe a little faster than past linebackers we’ve had, maybe a little more instinctive.”
But perhaps the most identifiable characteristic Rolle brought to OSU is his expertise on playing confidently.
“Some of the coaches don’t agree with me jumping up and down, being jacked before games,” he said. “But some coaches do agree with it. I feel like we fall in the line of playing with swagger.”
Growing up in Florida, Rolle developed a passion for Miami Hurricane football. He said it was the only school he considered attending — until it didn’t offer him a scholarship.
“I just feel like people know who they want and what they want,” Rolle said. “But as we saw in the second week of the season, they missed out on a great player and a great season.”
Rolle got the last laugh when the Buckeyes knocked off Miami, 36-24, on Sept. 12.
“We expected those guys to come out here and jump up and down and they did,” Rolle said. “But we have a little swagger ourselves and I feel like our defense, if I may say, we ‘out-swagged’ theirs and came up with the win.”
For a player so focused on confidence, it comes as no surprise that Rolle listed a play in which he quieted an opponent’s swagger as the most memorable moment of his career.
“I would say the (2009) Illinois game, the interception, playing in the rain, something I love doing,” Rolle said. “I wish it rained every game, and then to get the interception, that was a lot of fun. Those guys were talking a lot during the game, so it was nice to seal it with the interception and let those guys know the trash-talking is not needed.”
Rolle would be the one to know.
