He is the best player on the team.
He grades in the 90s week in and week out after reviewing game film.
He has been sued by his own teammate.
He is soft spoken.
He plays nasty.
When he does his job he brushes close to perfection while postgame attention center’s on a quarterback’s distance from it.
He just snaps the ball.
He is LeCharles Bentley, center, The Ohio State University.
OSU coach Jim Tressel has praised his play time and again this season, believing he may be the finest center the country.
OSU’s offensive performance in a 13-6 UCLA at Pasadena was the worst of the season as they did not score a point while passing for 45 yards.
Don’t point fingers at Mr. Bentley.
“LeCharles Bentley played as fine an offensive center game that I’ve ever seen,” Tressel said.
Bentley dominated on the backyard football field while growing up in the greater Cleveland area. But that kid never envisioned playing in the ‘Shoe on Saturdays in the fall.
Thoughts of becoming a big-time player crept into mind when Bentley went to play for St. Ignatius, one of the most prestigious high school programs in the state of Ohio.
“Football is something I’ve enjoyed. It came natural to me,” Bentley said. “My dad wanted me to just get a job, he didn’t like me playing football.”
But Mom was cool with it.
Chances are if you are a good football player at St. Ignatius you are going to play in college at the D-I level. LeCharles had no intention to play offensive line.
“At St. Ignatius I wanted to play linebacker,” he said. “I wasn’t too good. I played like two days.”
It turned out to be a good career move as Bentley ended up as a three-year starter for the Buckeyes. Besides, there are not too many 6-foot-2-inch 300-pound middle linebackers.
It was his freshman year at Ohio State, the only year Bentley did not start, that fills him with the most memories.
The highs and the lows.
“First freshman game against Toledo. It was amazing. It was like an awaking of new experience and new beginning,” Bentley said. “(Then) losing to Michigan State in 1998. We would have been national champions,” he said.
This past year was not the best year in Buckeye history. Besides the losses to Michigan and South Carolina there were other incidents, one that included Bentley and fellow lineman Tyson Walter. Walter filed an assault and battery suit against Bentley after a physical conflict.
Though Bentley says former OSU coach John Cooper didn’t lose control of the players as much as it was time for a change.
Bentley and Walter now have a working relationship as Bentley said, “Go out and do a job.”
Bentley said it would be fair to describe his play on the field as nasty. Nasty is usually not a descriptive word one would want associated with him, but when blocking 300-pound men it works nicely.
“I’m confident. (Play) all out, to the echo of the whistle,” Bentley said. “Play hard, it is a man’s game.”
Bentley said he does not try emulate any pro. However, it doesn’t hurt to study all-pros such as Dermontti Dawson, formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Larry Allen of the Dallas Cowboys.
“(If I) could accomplish half the things they accomplish that would be fabulous,” Bentley said. “I always want to be the best at what I do.”
Bentley will get a chance this April to do that. That is the time of the NFL draft where he expects to be a first day pick. The games, workouts and interviews will determine how early Bentley is drafted.
That is looking way ahead as Bentley wouldn’t mind a Big Ten title before he hits the road for the big show.
“Every week we have to go out and (play hard),” Bentley said. “It’s becoming close and (we have)a good shot.”
Bentley has football in perspective as he admires Malcolm X, Ghandi and said, “If I could have dinner with Jesus that would be pretty good.”
