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Football
More Instinctive, ‘Bino Having His Best Spring
By Brandon CastelCOLUMBUS — Just play the game.
It sounds so simple, and yet for Etienne Sabino it was a constant struggle over his first two seasons at Ohio State.
"He's a cerebral guy that wants to know everything and in this sport you can't know everything," OSU linebackers coach Luke Fickell said.
"You've got to fly and attack and react on the run."
In other words, don't be so robotic, something Fickell stresses to his players at an early age.
"Coach Fickell always tells us, ‘Don't be a robot'. If I tell you an ‘A' gap player, don't stand in your ‘A' gap and say ‘I've got ‘A' gap covered,'" linebacker Brian Rolle said.
"If he sees something, he's going to get it. And that's something that takes a very special player on this defense to do that, to play instinctive and go after things when you see it."
A U.S. Army All-American out of Miami (Fla.), Sabino was one of the most coveted linebackers in the country in 2008. There was big, strong and fast and then there was Etienne Sabino. Listed at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds coming out of high school, Sabino already looked like a two-year starter for the Buckeyes when he first arrived on campus despite the fact he was only 17 years old at the time.
"He's such a young kid," Fickell said.
"I know he's going to be a junior but he's still only 19 years old."
As a freshman Sabino saw limited time on special teams and even scored a defensive touchdown on a blocked punt. He made six tackles that year in 13 games and many were hoping to see him step up to compete with Austin Spitler for one the open linebacker spots vacated by James Laurinaitis and Marcus Freeman a year ago.
Instead, Sabino moved around and fell behind Spitler, Brian Rolle and Tyler Moeller during the spring. He remained in the two-deep but saw very little time on defense last fall even after Moeller was lost for the season with a vicious head injury suffered over the summer.
Despite his size (6-3, 240), Sabino is one most athletic players on the roster, and certainly one of the fastest amongst linebackers, rivaling even the speedy Brian Rolle for that title.
"Everybody says me and ‘Bino (are the fastest), but I tell guys the only thing we have to do is line up," Rolle said with a big grin.
Just the fact Sabino is being mentioned in the same sentence as Rolle, whom he has four inches and 20-30 pounds on speaks volumes about the kind of athlete he is. It's one of the primary attributes that attracted Fickell and the Buckeyes to Sabino out of high school, but that speed rarely showed up on the field because it was being paralyzed by his mind.
"He wants to be perfect," said Rolle, a fellow Florida native.
"I tell him that if you try to be perfect, then that's when you mess up. I tell him what you watch on film is going to be the same thing on the field. Just play within yourself and don't worry about anybody else. Don't compare yourself to anybody else, because that's when you're at your best when you're playing within yourself."
It's that part of Sabino's game that has comes leaps and bounds this spring as he works with the first-team defense at the Sam linebacker spot. The physical said of the game has always been there, but now he is beginning to match it with the mental side of the game, and the Buckeyes hope to watch him blossom into a well-rounded starter for them this fall.
"He's coming along and I think this has been his best spring so far," said Fickell, who is hoping to see Sabino replace Spitler at the Sam backer spot.
"We're only five days in, but you've just seen him a little bit more confident. A little bit more of a reactive guy, attacking and doing some things like that. Sometimes the guys who want more info take the extra years sometimes to process it, but when they're ready to go, they're ready to go."
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