BOLINGBROOK – The name works.

Tuf.

Of course, tough is one of many adjectives that help describe why Bolingbrook senior Tuf Borland is one of the highest rated linebacker recruits in the Midwest.

High football IQ. Relentless. Fast. Strong. Aggressive. One-man wrecking crew. Put it all together, and you have the Defensive Player of the Year on the Herald-News All-Area Football Team.

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Borland, a four-year varsity starter, next will be seen wearing the scarlet and gray of Ohio State on Saturdays. The Buckeyes won the battle for his services when he committed to the program April 18.

In fact, he is graduating from Bolingbrook this month and will begin taking classes – he plans to study kineseology – in January at Ohio State. That will afford him the opportunity to participate in spring football practice.

The choice of Ohio State came as a bit of a surprise. Borland’s dad, Kyle, was a linebacker at Wisconsin from 1979 through 1982, and the assumption was Tuf would follow in his footsteps. The Badgers indeed were a finalist, but he went with what he felt was best for him.

“My dad has ties to Wisconsin, of course, so it was a tough decision,” Borland said. “But I felt Ohio State was the best for me.”

Borland said he always felt he would play in the Big Ten.

“I’ve always been a Big Ten guy,” he said. “I visited Missouri once to get a feel for what else is out there. I pretty much visited all the Big Ten schools except Minnesota and Nebraska and the East Coast schools.”

Borland’s role this season at Bolingbrook expanded. The Raiders, who featured several seniors in 2014 who would play on the Division I level, had only three returning starters for 2015. Borland played alongside many of his classmates for the first time, and he was called on to be more of a leader.

“Last season, we had the Huffs and Micah [Dew-Treadway] and guys like that,” he said. “This year, I helped guide these guys as much as possible. I played with a lot of those guys who are older than me for a long time, but I never played with these guys before. They’re good players. We never lost confidence during the season.”

Although Borland’s numbers were out of sight – 153 total tackles, including 103 solo with 11 for loss – the season was an up-and-down ride for the Raiders (5-5). But they finished strong. They shocked highly ranked Homewood-Flossmoor in Week 9 to qualify for the playoffs and gave another Class 8A heavyweight, Naperville Central, all it wanted in the opening round.

“I’ve had a good time at Bolingbrook, had good coaches and played with good players,” Borland said. “I can’t thank the coaches and everyone enough for helping me with my development.

“I feel my speed has progressed a lot, and my leadership. Obviously, we would have liked to go further in the playoffs, but that didn’t happen.”

Borland was an eighth-grader in 2011 when the Raiders won the 8A state championship.

“My sister was in school here, and I came to a few practices that year to watch,” he said. “I knew some of the guys on that team.”

From the time Borland enrolled at Bolingbrook, he and the Raiders’ coaches knew he was ready for varsity football. He also was a very good basketball and baseball player for two years before deciding it was important to concentrate on football full-time.

“Basketball helped me with agility and conditioning and baseball helped me more mentally,” Borland said. “A good baseball player might be successful three times out of 10. To be able to move on mentally from failing that often is huge.”

Borland was an outside linebacker his first two years and an inside linebacker the last two seasons.

“It was not that big of a transition to go from outside to inside,” Borland said. “The weak side and inside here are pretty much interchangeable.

“Scheme-wise at Ohio State, I’ll play the Mike or Will. I basically played the same spots here, but there will be different terminology and things of that sort.”

Regardless of where the Buckeyes employ his services, Borland will be up to the challenge mentally. Bolingbrook coach John Ivlow, who played at Colorado State and spent some time in the NFL, has said Borland’s football IQ is as high as any player he has been around. He said Borland has a sixth sense where to be on the field.

“There are not many like Tuf that ever come along,” Ivlow said.

Borland is the type of player you might expect to see in one of the high school All-America games that are played in early January, but that was not his thing.

“I didn’t attend any of the All-America camps where they usually draw the players from for the All-America games,” he said. “I wanted to focus on myself, focus on improving myself with my training.”

At 225 pounds, Borland said the Ohio State coaches have told him he is coming in at the perfect weight. He also is prepared for the classroom grind.

“I have 4.0 average in four years here,” he said. “My parents are big on that. They’re always pushing me to do better.”

He’s always pushing himself as well, in the classroom and on the field. That’s why Ohio State and so many other big-time programs wanted him.