The Buckeyes' star defensive player Ryan Shazier joined ESPN's Rece Davis and Chris Spielman to talk the 2013 season and what's in store for both the Buckeyes and the linebacker himself.
"Well, I feel last year like we had a chip on our shoulders. We were just trying to help the seniors go out with a bang because we knew it was really tough on them that they would not be able to have a bowl game their senior year," Shazier said. "But this year, I think that we still have a chip on our shoulders, because we feel we had a really good year last year and everybody wants to show the world what we really can do and how far we really can go."
Davis goes on to ask Shazier about the likely soon to be banned from the locker room words "national championship" to which Shazier replied, "Some of the players talk about it but we try to keep it under control because there's still some things we really have to work on. So I don't feel that we're there yet, but I feel that we're closer than we were last year."
Having, let's say, a bit of a working knowledge himself of how to play the linebacker position, Chris Spielman proceeded to ask the junior to be what he needed to do to get better. Shazier stated, "Well I know for a fact I really need to improve on my tackling and my fundamentals because I don't wrap up on some of my tackles and I take a lot of wrong steps. But I really need to focus on my tacklings and my fundamentals."
If Shazier was making the kind of plays he was the past two seasons with less than stellar fundamentals, it's scary to think what he might look like when he finally puts it all together.