'My thing is to do what people say I can’t do': Southern's Aaron Tiller motivated to prove the doubters wrong

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- It doesn’t really matter that he led the Southwestern Athletic Conference in sacks last season; doubt still fuels Southern defensive end Aaron Tiller.

That’s because the source of that doubt — his height — isn’t going to change any time soon. Tiller is listed on the official Southern roster at 6-foot-1, but he might have been measured in cleats that day.

He does not fit the prototype on the defensive line. He heard that during his recruitment, and he made sure he never forgot it.

“I’ve got a motivational push: I’m considered undersized for my position, so I’ve got to fill in where my height is not,” Tiller said. “I’ve got to use my strength to my advantage, my quickness to my advantage. I’ve got the strength of someone that is ‘supersized.' ... I’ve got the quickness to move with anybody. If I combine the two, I can be a complete defensive end. That’s what I’ve been relying on to push and get better.”

That extra push has worked well for Tiller in two seasons with the Jaguars. He had 4.5 sacks as a true freshman, then dropped the quarterback seven times last season.

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