By: JON SPENCER (MansfieldNewsJournal.com) — COLUMBUS — Five years after entering college, Ohio State defensive end Doug Worthington is still being recruited.

The Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity wants him. Worthington appreciates being wanted — probably more than the Alphas will ever know — but he’s not interested.

“My uncle is a regional president of the Alphas and he’s gotten on me about joining,” Worthington said this summer while representing Ohio State at the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. “But I have a great fraternity, a great brotherhood with this team and I don’t want anything to get in the way of it.”

Worthington, named defensive player of the week for his performance in Saturday’s 30-0 win over Illinois, found out just how much his OSU family meant to him and how much he meant to his extended family last summer when he was arrested by campus police for drunken driving just outside of Ohio Stadium.

The case was continued to January, with the judge fining Worthington $350 and ordering him to attend an alcohol intervention class.

To say that slip-up is now a speck in his rearview mirror would be an understatement.

The 6-foot-6, 276-pound Worthington, one of seven fifth-year seniors on defense, was voted a co-captain by his teammates in August, joining safety Kurt Coleman and linebacker Austin Spitler. He’s in his third year as a starter on the line, where he has seen action at both end and tackle.

While the DUI is behind him, it’s not forgotten.

“I made a mistake, not a little mistake but a huge mistake, and to still have coach (Jim) Tressel and the community embrace me, it’s just unreal,” Worthington said.

Tressel could have made an example of Worthington, but he didn’t suspend him for any games in 2008. Nor did he use his veto power to overrule the players when they voted Worthington a captain.

Tressel obviously felt Worthington’s indiscretion was out of character, or he wouldn’t have buying online drugs chosen him to represent the program, along with Coleman and tight end Jake Ballard, at Big Ten Media Days.

“Before that (DUI), I was never late to a meeting, never missed a meeting,” Worthington said. “I had been Tressel-ized. I felt I was late if I was five minutes early to a meeting. When (the incident) happened, with the reputation I had, it put a whole damper on me. But my teammates were more welcoming.

“It’s almost like I grew and got closer to everybody because when you’re down and you see that people care about you, it means that much more to you. It was more than just football. It was life.”

Worthington, a Parade All-American for his high school in suburban Buffalo, has turned a rare negative in his career into a positive, even outside the lines.

“It’s not that I’m happy it happened, but it humbled me,” he said. “I’ve been doing a lot of outreach, talking to kids about the importance of school and about how you shouldn’t be around alcohol. It’s a door God wanted me to open.”

Coleman, suspended by the Big Ten for Saturday’s game at Indiana because of his helmet-to-helmet hit of Illinois quarterback Eddie McGee, doesn’t have the same stigma attached to his mistake as the one Worthington made. Still, some of Coleman’s preseason comments about Worthington’s situation now hit closer to home.

“Sometimes you can learn a lot more from a mistake than something that’s been given to you,” Coleman said. “He learned a great deal and I think it humbled him as a man and player.”

Given the notoriety that came with his arrest in 2008, Worthington is more than happy to blend in with the other eight players seeing time in OSU’s defensive line rotation. There doesn’t appear to be a standout in the bunch, but the Buckeyes’ depth, especially up front, has worn on the opposition.

Heading into Saturday night’s game in Bloomington, the Buckeyes have pitched two straight shutouts — a first since 1996 — and have allowed only one legitimate touchdown over the last 12 quarters. Worthington was singled out this week for making six tackles and registering one of OSU’s five sacks in limiting Illinois quarterback Juice Williams, the Big Ten’s 2008 total offense leader, to 77 yards passing and 18 rushing.

“You see all the hard work you did, all the preparation, was for a reason,” Worthington said. “It makes you more eager to watch film and continue practicing as hard as we have the last few weeks. It’s something you want to see steamroll.”

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