Cam Heyward is seeing his NFL stock rise.

The moniker just doesn’t seem to fit. There is nothing “baby” about Ohio State junior defensive lineman Cameron Heyward.

OK, so his late father was Craig “Ironhead” Heyward who was an NFL running back. So, you can’t blame Cameron Heyward’s teammates for coming up with a play on his father’s nickname.

However, I still think they could have done better.

“The guys call me ‘Baby Ironhead’ but I think that’s just because I’ve got a big head,” Heyward said with a smile. “But most people just call me Cam.”

The Big Ten calls him the Defensive Player of the Week for his 11-tackle, two-sack, three-tackles-for-loss performance in OSU’s 24-7 win at Penn State.

At his Tuesday press conference, Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel was asked what has enabled Heyward to break out as one of the top defensive linemen in the country. Many believe he will leave early for the NFL after this season and will be taken in the top-half of the first round.

“Cam loves to prepare,” Tressel said. “And you hear us say that about many of the guys, but you ask questions about some pretty good guys. Cam is always over there in the building all the time. It seems like you can’t walk by the locker room or one of the film rooms and Cam’s sitting there with a bad of groceries and watching film, or he’s in the weight room a little bit extra. He loves to prepare.

“He’s very talented and the more than he has learned about the game, obviously the more-effective he is. He’s a very, very good player. He’s a special one.”

Heyward had a good season as a true freshman in 2007, but his production fell of last year and he said he didn’t work as hard as he should have. But this year, Heyward’s work ethic has been off-the-charts good as Tressel pointed out.

“Well, I think it all started during the summer,” Heyward said. “I wanted to prepare hard, especially in the weight room. And it took off in the film room as well. I’m just learning everything I can about the game and about our opponents and it’s helped out.”

Heyward was dominant throughout the Penn State game and he was asked if he thinks he can maintain that level for the rest of the season.

“Hopefully I can,” he said. “I think I just took the challenge on of playing hard and I think our whole defense did. I might not have made all the plays, but I wanted to contribute.”

Especially for a star player, Heyward is about as humble as they come. He is not comfortable talking about himself and the personal awards that come his way. All he wants to do is beat Iowa this Saturday and clinch the Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl berth.

“Well, my girlfriend has been talking to me about being Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week,” Heyward said. “But I’m just trying to focus on Iowa and I think everybody on our defense is trying to focus on Iowa too because it’s a big game.”