tyreke smith

The pieces from the 2019 defense have mostly departed, but Tyreke Smith is still around [Patrick Barron]

Previously: Ohio State offense 

Now that I've let the OSU offense piece simmer for a couple days, and everyone has digested the horror of it (and their Thanksgiving meals), we can move into the slightly more optimistic phase of the opposition, the Buckeye defense. Ohio State's defense began the season reeling, surrendering 500 yards and 35 points to Oregon, as well as an additional 500 yards to Tulsa the week after. At that point the Buckeyes made some key schematic changes to their defense and also promoted Matt Barnes (neither the Red Sox pitcher nor the basketball player) to take over playcalling duties for the much maligned Kerry Coombs. The result was substantial improvement, allowing 7, 13, 17, and 7 points over the following four weeks, though quality of competition is an important qualifier- they faced Akron, Rutgers, Maryland, and Indiana in that stretch. 

The last four weeks have included some good and some bad. OSU allowed nearly 400 yards to a struggling Penn State offense with a half-injured Sean Clifford at QB, as well as 481 yards and 31 points to Purdue. On the flip side, they annihilated Michigan State last week, holding the Spartans to 224 yards and just 7 points. With those results in mind, let's take a look at the Buckeye defense in detail and see how vulnerable they really are, and where Michigan may be able to find exposed weakspots. 

The Film: We're going with the same combo as the offense, drawing upon both the PSU game and the MSU game, to give us a range of outcomes from the dominant to the more competitive. Just like last article, I only graded the PSU game for our pressure metric, but will use tape from both games. 

Personnel: Seth's chart, click to enlarge.

[If you are an Ohio State fan reading this, you can click HERE for a censored version of the chart]

On the defensive line, you have some stars like you expect from an Ohio State team, but not quite the same level as in past years. Considering we were used to always facing an elite, top five NFL Draft pick pass rusher every time The Game rolled around for about a six year period, the quirk of this year's meeting is that Michigan now has the two best pass rushers in this contest. That's not to say that Tyreke Smith and Zach Harrison aren't very good players. They are, and the star labels denote that. But neither are Chase Young or Bosa caliber players (or say, Aidan Hutchinson caliber). We left both solid on this chart, but there is a healthy degree of rotation at the end position, as there is across the whole defense. Backups include a pair of blue chip true freshmen in Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau, who were both top five players in the 2021 recruiting class. Sawyer has seemed fine, but Tuimoloau was disappointing in your author's viewings, though both are still true freshman of course. The last name to know is the most frequent player to rotate in, Javontae Jean-Baptiste, who's been fine as a reserve. There's a pretty healthy gap between Smith/Harrison and the backups. 

The defensive tackle spot sees even more rotation, and it's rather curious how often they lift Haskell Garrett off the field, given how good he is. He's the only star at this position, one that sees a full six players get regular snaps. The other players at DT were solid, if unremarkable in the games I saw. Antwuan Jackson is the nominal other starter, but his snap count on the season is almost identical to that of Taron Vincent. Their PFF grades are both similar to that of Ty Hamilton and Jerron Cage, all of whom are mostly just guys (more on that later). Tyleik Williams is the last name to know at the DT spot, and his snap count is rather low, pretty far down the depth chart but still seeing the field each week. 

Linebacker, as it has been in the last few seasons at Ohio State, is an area of consternation. The team normally plays with just two traditional LBs on the field at one time, and there's plenty of rotation here too. Cody Simon is the listed starter at the MLB spot, but he is banged up and his status for The Game is unknown at this time. If he is absent, his presence probably will not be missed on the defense, as he's the lone cyan'd starter. It is your author's opinion that Tommy Eichenberg is the better MLB. The other spot sees Steele Chamber get the starting nod, but again you see heavy rotation with Teradja Mitchell, who was very rough in the PSU game that will be dissected for this piece. All four LBs mentioned have played more than 300 snaps and less than 400, with no one really solidifying themselves as the answer, and the position remains a weakness for the defense. 

The secondary finally sees a few consistent starters. One such example is Ronnie Hickman, who plays the new Hybrid Space Player position on the defense, named the "Bullet". Bryson Shaw is also a regular starter at the free safety position, while the "cover safety" is started by Marcus Williamson, but rotation with blitzing safety Lathan Ransom is normal. Kourt Williams II backs up Hickman at the Bullet spot, while Cameron Martinez backs up shaw at FS. The cornerback spot is anchored first by freshman Denzel Burke, with Sevyn Banks (who, yes, wears #7) and Cameron Brown rotating in opposite Burke. Ryan Watts and Lejond Cavazos get in occasionally at DB, and it's worth noting that safety Josh Proctor has been injured since early in the season. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Trying to find the Death Star's exhaust port]

your 2020 starters? [Bryan Fuller]

Previously: QuarterbackRunning BackWide Receiver & Tight End, Offensive Line

I'm bringing back this preview feature from before my time off; the exercise is to rank Michigan's opponents, as well as the Wolverines themselves, in each position group. This is particularly useful to do in a year when roster turnover and late-offseason changes (laaaaaaaaaaaaaate-offseason changes) are so prevalent; I'll do my best in these posts to highlight significant opt-outs, opt-ins, and the like.

Maybe we'll start the defensive line with something fun and different ah fu--

Tier I: Not Something Fun and Different

Jonathon Cooper is still here, somehow [Barron]

1. Ohio State. So the good news is the Buckeyes lost a lot, including #2 overall pick Chase Young and pretty much all their DT production, from last year's stellar defensive line:

Returning production

  1. Linebacker: 75 percent of tackles; 63 percent of TFLs; 68 percent of sacks
  2. Defensive end: 54 percent of tackles; 43 percent of TFLs; 40 percent of sacks
  3. Defensive tackle: 39 percent of tackles; 28 percent of TFLs; 0 percent of sacks

The bad news, which you saw coming a mile away, is that the replacements are talented even by OSU standards:

Average rank as recruits, according to the 247Sports Composite

  1. Defensive tackle (0.9389)
  2. Defensive end (0.9326)
  3. Linebacker (0.9298)
  4. Cornerback (0.9282)
  5. Safety (0.9194)

DE Zach Harrison, the #12 overall recruit in the 2019 class, is the next edge terror in the Young/Bosa/Bosa lineage; he posted 3.5 sacks in limited, impressive time last year. Taron Vincent was the #1 DT in the 2018 class and should be healthy after a shoulder injury forced a sophomore-year redshirt. Both could break out in a huge way this year.

DE Jonathon Cooper was a serviceable starter and team captain before injuries derailed his 2019 season; he's back for a fifth year. DE Tyreke Smith was the #34 overall prospect in 2018. Two seniors and a junior fill out the two-deep at tackle. The only potential concern is if a couple DTs go down—and there's still plenty of young talent around to fill gaps. Blergh.

2. Penn State. While PSU finished 25th nationally in sack rate instead of first like the Buckeyes (sigh), they posted essentially the same line yards allowed, with both teams finishing in the top ten.

Like OSU, the Nittany Lions lose a top-flight pass-rusher: Yetur Gross-Matos, a second-round pick after recording a combined 35 TFLs and 17.5 sacks over the last two seasons. They also have a replacement who may be up to replacing much of that production right away: Jayson Oweh, the #76 prospect in 2018 who was billed as a higher-ranked version of Josh Uche. At the other end, Shaka Toney returns after nearly leaving for the NFL himself; he's a solid pass-rusher who plays better against the run than you'd expect of a lineman listed at 236 pounds.

There's also fifth-year DE Shane Simmons, a top-50 recruit who's yet to live up to expectations but has been behind some very good players. There's a lot of experience on the interior, with Robert Windsor—mostly a pass-rush specialist—the only significant loss from last year's group, which was fantastic against the run. While there may be some pass-rush dropoff, this will at least be a difficult line to move off the ball, and Oweh provides them with a potential edge-rushing nightmare.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the rankings.]

Elite 11 Finals: Shough Makes, Milton Misses Cut

Ah, it's that time of year when I try to remember how the Elite 11 works. Bear with me. The Elite 11 Finals, which went down over the weekend, featured 24 participants competing for 12 spots in the final finals, which will occur at The Opening finals.

Michigan commit Joe Milton had a solid first day but didn't show the consistency in 7-on-7 drills to make the final cut. SBNation's Bud Elliott sums up what he needs to work on, which falls in line with his commitment profile:

Michigan QB Joe Milton has the strongest arm at the event. It's one of the biggest I've seen in covering this event since 2012. The next step for him is shortening his delivery, and dialing up the appropriate amount of touch and speed on each throw. Not every pitch is a fastball. Not dropping the ball so low will allow him to become more consistent.

While he wasn't selected for the Opening, Milton told 247 he was relatively happy with his performance:

Milton, as usual, flashed major upside all weekend and has the strongest pure arm of any quarterback in the class. He felt good about his performance for the most part, but knows some work on the mechanics is still a necessity.

"I should have been keeping my shoulder up a little bit more," he said. "I came into the weekend knowing I needed to work on my footwork and learn more about when I'm standing tall in the pocket. I scored high though and I was mostly satisfied with how I played."

Top target Tyler Shough, meanwhile, continues to rise in the eyes of scouts; he was selected for the finals after displaying an advanced ability to read defenses:

Shough told Scout's Blair Angulo that he's hoping to make a decision in June or July; the sooner he pulls the trigger, the better it looks for Michigan.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]