Mike Hull ready to go to the mat vs. Ohio State

[TomM]

Mike Hull ready to go to the mat vs. Ohio State
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/penn_state/20141023_Mike_Hull_ready_to_go_to_the_mat_vs__Ohio_State.html


Sometimes there are stories that are teed up for sportswriting - for all the cliches of the craft about overcoming adversity or pain or both, for a quick and easy metaphor about how an athlete's triumph represents his team's best chance for an improbable victory. Mike Hull's story is one of those.

Hull is Penn State's best linebacker, a 6-foot, 225-pound senior captain who ranks second in the Big Ten in total tackles (64). Who is the son of a former Penn State player and, as such, never seriously considered playing football for, or even attending, another university. Who helped his high school win the 2010 Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League Class AAA wrestling championship by competing with a separated left shoulder.

Hull was a senior at Canon-McMillan High School, near Pittsburgh, when he did that. Wrestling in the heavyweight division, weighing 215 pounds at the time, he beat an opponent who was 57 pounds heavier. "I basically just wrestled with one arm out there the entire match," he said Tuesday, "and I knew I needed just one takedown to win it and kind of just sucked it up. . . . It's just one of those things you don't think about. You just go out and do it for the team."

Now comes the convenient transition from Hull's toughness to the task that Penn State (4-2, 1-2 Big Ten) faces Saturday night against Ohio State. The Buckeyes are 5-1, ranked 13th in the Associated Press poll and 12th in the coaches poll, and this game at first glance has an irresistible-force-vs.-immovable-object feel to it.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/penn_state/20141023_Mike_Hull_ready_to_go_to_the_mat_vs__Ohio_State.html#DByJvFuelAPJJVIZ.99