By Mike Perry, SportsTime Ohio

About a year ago Kent freshman defensive lineman Roosevelt Nix was playing out the string on his two-win Reynoldsburg High School season. Though his team was foundering, Nix was getting plenty of attention as one of the top defensive linemen in Ohio, scoring invites to the two main high school senior showcase all-star games…the North-South game and the Ohio-Pennsylvania Big 33 game in Hershey, Pa.

After his senior season he was named second-team All-Ohio for the second consecutive season and earned Ohio Capital Conference Player of the Year honors.

Nix, at 5-foot-10, 237 pounds is not the prototypical size for a big-time college defensive lineman. You will not find many sub-six footers on defensive lines in the Big Ten or SEC. Though a very strong student with plenty of talent, Rivals.com reported Nix received some form of athletic scholarship offer from four schools; Air Force, Eastern Michigan, Ball State and Kent. In November of his senior year in high school, Nix decided to continue his playing career with the Golden Flashes.

And, trust me, Kent head coach Doug Martin is thrilled he did.

“Early on he was one of the players we identified that we wanted,” Martin said. “We loved his passion and ability. I think some schools might have backed off because of his height. But we wanted him. I think we were the first ones to give him an offer and he took it. We’re happy he’s here.”

“I had mostly MAC offers and I committed to Kent fairly early,” Nix said. “The coaches did a really good job of getting me to want to come to Kent. They showed me how close the players are and it’s exactly like they said. It’s a family-like atmosphere.”

As a true freshman Nix is anchoring the defensive line on the top-ranked rushing defense in the nation. He leads the Mid-American Conference in three individual defensive categories – sacks (8.5), tackles for a loss (14.5) and forced fumbles (4) – and also is in the top ten in the nation in these categories, including being one of six in the country that lead the nation with four forced fumbles.

Kent State was supposed to have a strong defense this season, as most of the local and national media pointed to the defensive side of the ball as the reason the Golden Flashes could make some noise in the MAC East race. But no one expected a true freshman like Nix to be as dominant as he has been this season. In fact, his early success has even surprised Nix himself.

“It’s a little surprising that things have happened this quickly, but I’m just going with it,” he said. “Even though I didn’t expect all this to happen, it has. And now I have to keep working hard to get better.”

Kent head coach Doug Martin has also been pleasantly surprised with what Nix has been able to bring to the table this season.

“We thought he would be able to help us early in his career, but did not expect him to come in and make the impact he has made,” Martin said.

Martin and his coaching staff did have some advance billing on what kind of a player Nix was. After the Big 33 All-Star Game, coaches from both teams called Martin to rave about his new defensive lineman.

“They called and told me he was one of the best players on the field, that they were really impressed with him,” Martin remembers. “They told me they thought he was a special football player.”

After graduating from high school Nix headed to the Kent State campus early. He was able to participate in the entire summer program at Kent, as well as get to know his teammates and, most importantly, learn from his teammates what was expected of him.

“There were a lot of good role models for him when he got here, and he got here early,” Martin said. “He was able to spend the summer getting acclimated to how we do things, our expectations and work ethic.”

Martin expected his defense to be strong, and with good reason. He was bringing back plenty of talented players with loads of experience, players like Brian Lainhart, Cobrani Mixon and Quinton Rainey who all were standouts last season. However, this season there is something different about his defensive squad. Again, Kent leads the nation in rushing defense, giving up just 65.8 rushing yards per game. Kent sits eighth in the country in total defense, giving up 278 total yards per contest.

“We have a special group of players on defense, and our coaches have done a great job of working with the players and developing talent,” Martin said. “We’ve had a fairly consistent defense for a few years, but this year the defense has worked hard and really prides itself on being one of the best defenses in the conference.”

This, according to Nix, is the result of the older players setting strong examples and lifting the younger players up with them both on and off the field.

“Our defense is like a big family,” Nix explained. “We all understand each other’s assignments and we all work together to help each other on the field. We all play for each other…really lay it on the line for each other…and the older guys have taught me a lot, both on and off the field. They’ve shown me what is expected of us as players and how to avoid bad situations. They’ve really helped to guide me and the other young players.”

As for Nix’ future, Martin is looking forward to seeing how much his young player can develop.

“He’s only scratched the surface. Right now he’s doing things on raw physical talent and emotion,” Martin said. “He still has things to learn about offensive schemes and recognition. But, again, he has only scratched the surface as to how good he can be.”

Nix, Martin and the Golden Flashes host Temple at Dix Stadium this weekend with the chance to pull even with the Owls in the standings. Temple sits at 4-1 in MAC play, tied with Miami and Ohio atop the MAC East. Kent is a game behind with a 3-2 MAC record.