INDIANAPOLIS — When Jim Tressel was the football coach at Ohio State, he'd often turn to the blue-collar city of Youngstown, Ohio, for a specific type of player.
The erstwhile steel town nestled 65 miles southwest of Cleveland and 61 miles northeast of Pittsburgh has a well-earned reputation for producing hard-working prospects who won't back down from confrontation.
John Simon was one of the final players Tressel plucked out of Youngstown for the Buckeyes and one of the most successful. He was a consensus pick as the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year and a third-team All-American as a senior in 2012.