Simon: Buckeyes’ workout warrior

Dayton Daily News

COLUMBUS

Zach Boren and his other workout partners always pushed themselves to exhaustion at the end of their weightlifting sessions in the offseason, grabbing 50-pound barbells in each hand and doing multiple sets of curls.

But if the Ohio State fullback and his mates wanted to feel good about themselves, they probably shouldn’t have been pumping iron with John Simon in the room.

“We’ll be curling 50 pounds — and it’s hard because your arms are dead,” Boren said. “And John will give out a big yell and call us names and pull out the 80’s and start doing bicep curls, rubbing it in our face.”

Simon’s intensity on the football field is renowned, and the senior defensive end approaches weightlifting with that same frenzied attitude.

His father, also named John, was a longtime body-builder, and the Buckeyes’ third-team All-American was doing squats and bench-presses by the time he was in fourth grade.

“My father gave me a little routine. I think I bugged him enough that he finally caved in and started letting me do some things here and there,” Simon said.

“By eighth grade, they were pretty full-fledged routines. I think I was going five days a week. I enjoyed it. I didn’t have to be motivated too much. I would always tag along with my dad and work out.”

The Cardinal Mooney product is now one of the strongest players in college football — and maybe at any level of the sport. He recently did 38 reps with 225 pounds in the bench press.

“Just seeing body changes and strength changes is very motivating, and seeing you can improve yourself through dedication kept me coming back for more,” he said.

Simon’s passion for working out has endeared him to coach Urban Meyer and also helped him become OSU’s first two-time captain since James Laurinaitis in 2007 and ’08.

“Incredible character,” Meyer said. ‘He has a job with me anytime he wants. When he goes and plays football for 20 years [in the NFL] and comes back and says, ‘Coach, I want a job,’ he has one.”

Meyer also called the 6-foot-2, 260-pound Simon “as good a player as there is in college football.”

While weightlifting is often a solo pursuit, Simon enjoys how players depend on each other during games.

“There’s no other sport where if one guy screws up the whole play is ruined,” he said. “I think that’s what makes football the best sport. One guy just can’t take over a game. He needs 10 other guys helping him and all 11 guys on the other side of the ball helping him.”

Simon may not be able to take over an entire game, but he’s shown in the past he can dominate them for long stretches.

“He’s a great asset to have in the [meeting] room because you don’t have to say, ‘This is how you do it.’ You just point to John, and everybody is watching,” defensive line coach Mike Vrabel said. “It’s full go all the time.”