Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green gets some 'D' from O'Drobinak
April 20, 2007 | Football
April 20, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Heading into his senior year, Sean O'Drobinak didn't want to feel like a freshman.
When Bowling Green State University football coaches approached him in the offseason about moving from offense to defense, tight end to defensive tackle, O'Drobinak was slightly perturbed. In the past two seasons at tight end, he had started 10 games and caught five touchdown passes.
"The thing I was really skeptical about was going over there and not knowing a thing," O'Drobinak said.
As spring practice concludes tomorrow with the Falcons' annual spring game, O'Drobinak has been perhaps the biggest surprise. Halfway through the spring, the 6-foot-4, 270-pounder earned the top spot on the depth chart at defensive tackle.
"It's out of his comfort zone," BGSU coach Gregg Brandon said. "But he's a veteran guy, he's been around. He's done a nice job in there. That's exciting."
The spring game is 1 p.m. tomorrow at Bowling Green High School because of some work taking place on Doyt Perry Field at the university. The squads will be evenly divided into an orange team and a white team.
O'Drobinak's position switch was needed because the Falcons are thin this spring on the defensive line, with Brad Williams graduating and Nick Davis and Joe Schaefer out with injuries. O'Drobinak had played defensive end in high school, but never inside.
As soon as he was assigned his new spot, O'Drobinak started working with defensive coordinator Mike Ward, who had recruited him out of high school and coached the defensive line for seven previous seasons.
"I knew he'd get me through it and get me over the hump," O'Drobinak said.
Offensive tackle Drew Nystrom spotted O'Drobinak's natural ability at the position during spring drills.
"Once he gets more of a feel for it, can react instead of thinking through things, he'll be really good," Nystrom said. "His hands are really quick. He plays with a pretty good pad level and his hands are really sound for coming in right away."
In some ways, O'Drobinak does feel like a freshman, not knowing if his plays are right or wrong until he completes them.
"I'm feeling my way through it," O'Drobinak said. "I'm just going right now. They tell me to get in that gap and I do. Whether it's a plus or minus I won't know until the next day in films."
But he doesn't have the discomfort he expected, because he's found the Falcons' defensive schemes much easier to learn than their offense. "It took me a year to learn the offense, it's taken me two, three weeks to learn the defense," he said.
This fall O'Drobinak will still have a chance to play on offense in the red zone. His experience at tight end was one reason Brandon thought it wouldn't be a gamble to try him out on the defensive line.
"To me, spring is a time to change things with your roster," Brandon said. "He can always move back to tight end, step right back into the fall and wouldn't miss a beat. But he's going to help us on the defense."
