Jaylon Stoker always gravitated toward defense.

With a smaller body, Stoker was bullied as a child, using football as an outlet for pent-up physicality and aggression, finding the chance to hit somebody on the other side of the ball, whether it was from the defensive line or from the linebacker spot.

In his first season of high school football at Lakota East, he couldn’t find a home, being plugged in at defensive back without a path to consistent playing time.

When he moved to Princeton High School in Cincinnati as a sophomore, Stoker found a home at linebacker. And he was kind of a natural.