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OSU defensive end Vernon Gholston didn't start playing football until 10th grade. He always had the look . Now he has the game .

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter

Columbus

-- Vernon Gholston was a 14-year-old freshman walk ing the halls of Cass Technical High School in Detroit when he was approached by football coach Thomas Wilcher.
"Are you a parent here?" Wilcher asked.
"No, I'm a student," said Gholston.
"You've got be kidding me," Wilcher said, grabbing Gholston by the arm. "We're going to have you play for us."
Gholston wasn't immediately swayed, but six months later, Wilcher came calling again. So that's how the Ohio State starting defensive end played football for the first time as a 10th-grader. Five years later, he's second on the Buckeyes with 2? sacks and 3? tackles for loss entering today's Big Ten opener with Penn State.
While he's always looked like a football player, now he's playing like one, which even defensive coordinator Jim Heacock wasn't expecting this season.
"The light came on in the spring," Heacock said. "He's about as improved as any player I've ever coached from where he was last year and what my expectations were.
"Maybe it was confidence, maybe it was maturity.
"He hadn't played a whole bunch of high school football. He always had talent, but it's never shown like this."
To gaze upon the 6-4, 240-pound sophomore is to think nothing but football. Chiseled, his veins popping through his arms like angry worms, you see what his high school coach saw in that hallway. Even Gholston gives the results of his workouts some mirror adoration.
"A little bit," he said laughing. "Just before the game, I make sure I look good."
First-year director of football performance Eric Lichter has never caught Gholston gazing.
"I don't catch Vern checking his body out, I catch everyone else checking Vern out," Lichter said. "I don't think you could carve a statue better than Vern is built. He's just gifted physically from the good Lord. He's got no body fat. He doesn't have half an inch to pinch anywhere."
Gholston played linebacker in high school, but was switched to defensive end as a freshman in 2004 and played sparingly while backing up Mike Kudla. Last year, he broke his right middle finger when he forgot to wear gloves during a drill and wound up redshirting.
"It was a crushing experience," Gholston said. "I didn't want to sit back and watch."
He could practice, though, and he needed it. And he hit the workroom harder, now able to bench-press 400 pounds multiple times.
"Not many guys can do that," Lichter said.
Even now, much of what Gholston does is based on natural talent.
"When he got here, he was a little bit raw," Heacock said. "He's still, fundamentally, got a long ways to go. But he goes hard, and he's got good arm strength, and he's got long arms and good acceleration to the ball. He's got all the tools."
Gholston will have an edge on the most of the competition today. Penn State senior left tackle Levi Brown is one of the best in the country, but the rest of the Nittany Lions line is made up of first-year starters, including senior right guard Robert Price from Shaker Heights.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ With Gholston starting next to senior tackles David Patterson and Quinn Pitcock and senior end Jay Richardson, the Buckeyes haven't had to blitz as much as a year ago.
They're getting more than enough pressure from their front four. Just wait until Gholston really knows what he's doing.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
dlesmerises@plaind.com, 216-999-4479