By Roscoe Nance
 
Savannah State defensive end Stefen Banks is like a heat-seeking missile. The 6-1, 230 pound First-Team Preseason All-MEAC pick and Preseason BOXTOROW All-American doesn’t stop until he finds his target – the opposing quarterback.
 
“I’m a pass rusher,” he said. “I feel like getting sacks is what I’m supposed do.”
 
Last season, Banks did what he was supposed to do more often than anyone else in the MEAC, leading the conference with 10 sacks.
 
Baker relies on intensity, relentlessness and speed to get to the quarterback and bring him down.
 
“It’s a competition to get there,” he said, describing his approach to getting after the quarterback. “The faster you get there, the better your chance to get the sack. I feel like I have to get faster and faster and faster and faster. I like to use my hands to fight off the blocker, extend, grab, do whatever to get to the quarterback.”
 
Banks discovered the advantages of using his hands while studying video of the top pass rushers in the game.
 
“I’ve seen that some of the best pass rushers have hands,” he says. “That’s something that I wanted to add to my game.”
 
Banks models his game after DeMarcus Ware, the Dallas Cowboys’ career sack leader who played in the NFL for 15 seasons and won a Super Bowl championship with the Denver Broncos.
 
“He was a sack master,” Banks said. “I really wanted to be that person to create sacks, to have game-changing plays. It really feels good to get a sack. But I don’t want to just get a sack. When I get one, I want to get more and more and more. I feel I need to keep going and get more.”
 
Banks has a high level of disdain for offensive players. His dislike for the other side of the ball isn’t in the same category as Deacon Jones, the late Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end who began his college career at South Carolina State. Jones had a deep and abiding hatred for quarterbacks during games. Banks’ dislike for signal callers is a notch below that.
 
“I try to kill ‘em, rip their heads off when I touch them,” he said.
 
But it’s nothing personal. The same can’t be said about his feelings toward offensive linemen.
 
“I don’t like offensive linemen,” he said. “They’re just in the way. They’re not responsible for anything but being in the way.”
 
And he is dedicated to the proposition of moving them out of his way and getting up close and personal with the quarterback.
 
Banks struggles for words to describe the feeling he derives from putting the quarterback on the ground. He settles for comparing it to celebrating a birthday, and he has quite a few birthday celebrations during the past two seasons. His 17.5 sacks are the most in the MEAC during that period.
 
“He has had two fantastic seasons,” said Savannah State coach Erik Raeburn, adding that Banks’ ability to get to the quarterback is invaluable. “A sack is basically a drive killer. If you get a sack, usually the other team is going to end up having to punt.”
 
What Raeburn appreciates about Banks most is that he doesn’t have an on/off switch that he flips on game day.
 
“The No. 1 reason he’s a good player is because of the way he practices,” Raeburn said. “He’s one of those guys who practices 100 miles an hour every snap. He doesn’t look any different on Saturday than he does every day I see him in practice.  The old adage, ‘You play like you practice,’ he’s proof of that. His intensity and focus in practice are totally on point, and it translates on Saturdays in the game.”
 
Banks, who grew up in Columbus, Ohio, in the shadow of Ohio State, chose Savannah State sight unseen. His high school coach played for former Savannah State coach Earnest Wilson.  He encouraged Banks to sign with the Tigers even though he had never set foot on campus and had no first-hand knowledge of the school or its football program.
 
A high school teammate had visited Savannah State and gave the school and the program high marks, and that was good enough for Banks.
 
“I came because I knew it was a good opportunity to better myself and my family,” Banks said. My teammate had a lot of good things to say about the school. He said it was a beautiful city and a beautiful campus, and that it was a cohesive team. I haven’t been disappointed.”
 
Baker acknowledges that the transition from high school to college was rocky at times.
 
“It was an adjustment,” he says. “The biggest adjustment was time management.  I had to adjust to the lifestyle of being a college athlete. You can’t do the stuff that you did in high school. You have to work harder and do more to get better. It didn’t take long too adjust. My mindset was I wanted to play. I didn’t come here to watch other people play.”
 
Baker didn’t start as a freshman, but he got starter’s reps.
 
“My mindset was to take advantage of every opportunity that I got,” he said, “and to make sure I played hard every play because you never know when the last play is going to be.”
 
Whenever that last play does come, it’s safe guess that Banks wants it to be with him tossing an offensive linemen out of his way and slamming the quarterback to the ground.