COLUMBUS, Ohio — In the moments following Ohio State’s 42-35 Sugar Bowl win over Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals, Urban Meyer found himself flanked by the game’s pair of MVPs on the postgame podium.
To Meyer’s right was running back Ezekiel Elliott, who had just rushed for 230 yards and two touchdowns against the vaunted Crimson Tide defense. A former 4-star prospect, this was the type of effort that the Buckeyes’ staff expected from Elliott when it fought tooth and nail to pry him from his home state of Missouri two years ago.
That also happened to be the same year that Meyer “recruited” the Sugar Bowl’s defensive MVP on his other side, a high school quarterback from nearby New Albany. And while Lee’s path to Ohio State couldn’t have been any dissimilar from Elliott’s, he’s proven to be equally important to a fourth-seeded Buckeyes team that will take on No. 2 Oregon in next Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
“I still believe that this is all about the checkers,” Meyer said. “Checkers are valuable things, man. And I got two very talented checkers right next to me.”
Only Lee wasn’t supposed to be this valuable of a piece for Meyer to play with—at least not yet. And yet here he was, the Sugar Bowl defensive MVP, having racked up seven tackles, three tackles for a loss and two sacks against the nation’s top-ranked team.
That’s hardly the type of production that the Buckeyes expected from Lee in the summer of…
Continue Reading: Ohio State Linebacker Darron Lee Is College Football’s Best-Kept Secret
