zach harrison

Previously: Ohio State Offense 

After getting mauled by the Michigan offense last season to the tune of 487 total yards and 297 rushing yards, the Ohio State defense has a lot to prove tomorrow. Ryan Day went out in the offseason and hired Jim Knowles from Oklahoma State to be the new defensive coordinator, amid a litany of staff shakeups to engineer a turnaround. So far the results have been good, as the Buckeyes have stitched together a stellar season thus far on defense, ranking 10th in SP+ defensive's metrics. However, none of that will matter until the Buckeyes do enough on defense in the Shoe to get a win over Michigan, and that's why this defensive unit merits a closer look. 

The Film: The caliber of offensive play in the B1G this season can best be described as "wretched"... by my estimation there are around five offenses that I would term above average for college football writ large: Michigan/Ohio State, Purdue, PSU, and Maryland. OSU can't play themselves and obviously haven't played Michigan. They also avoided Purdue in the crossover games, leaving us to choose between Penn State and Maryland. Neither are great comps. for Michigan stylistically but I think Penn State is a bit closer, so I went with them, although I also drew from the highlights of the Maryland game. In addition, I lifted some tape from the Northwestern game as well, as the Wildcats had rather surprising rushing success against OSU and it could be useful. 

Personnel: Click for big or here for PDF. 

Ohio State runs a base 4-2-5 and rolls with it consistently down-to-down. That means generally two defensive tackles and two EDGE guys. The DTs are a revolving door of players, with Taron Vincent being given the "solid" designation on our diagram in the context of this defense (note: rotation is pretty common at many positions on the defense). He has played 410 snaps while the next four DTs have all played between 165 and 244 snaps. Those players are, in order of snap count, Ty Hamilton, Michael Hall Jr., Tyleik Williams, and Jerron Cage. The reason for such heavy rotation is they're mostly just guys. Despite being the most used, Vincent has the lowest PFF grade... he treaded water in my grading against PSU. Cage was my highest graded in that game yet is the least used. Williams had a good showing as well in limited snaps, while I was pretty down on Hall. I don't think there's a major difference between any of these players from what I've seen. 

At EDGE Ohio State still has the blue chippers, and the seeds are starting to sprout. One-time Michigan recruiting white whale Zach Harrison has finally put together a star-level season. I don't think he's a superstar, but he came out well in my grading in both run defense and pass rush and I think his caliber of play is perhaps analogous to someone like Mike Morris on Michigan. Opposite him is most commonly former 5* JT Tuimoloau, who gets the unique "half-star" designation, starred in pas rush but at that level of play in run defense. His big game against PSU (which I charted) made him the Dangerman for this week, though I'm not convinced he's this defense's best player. Rather, I just have the flashiest tape of him. Knowles likes to rotate EDGE guys too, meaning the second stringers merit conversation. Javontae Jean-Baptiste is back and is a solid player, while another former 5* Jack Sawyer is the other player to mention. Sawyer and Tuimoloau are both are tasked with dropping into coverage from time to time when OSU drops eight. 

Fixing Ohio State's linebackers was objective #1 for Knowles and he's done a decent job of it. Tommy Eichenberg has turned into a stellar player this season and receives a star. I don't think he's Butkus Award candidate, but his run fits were pretty stout and when he's told to run really fast and hit, he excels. Steele Chambers, on the other hand, is someone I'm less impressed by. He did not grade out terribly well in my PSU numbers and the tape I saw from other contests, combined with the PFF grades, was enough to put the lone starter cyan on him. I think Chambers is much better than he was last season, but he had a long way to go... not at "good" level yet. Eichenberg and Chambers are two of only three Buckeyes who seldom leave the field, but if either do exit, look for Cody Simon to come on. 

The five DBs feature a pair of outside corners in Denzel Burke and Cameron Brown. Burke is a returning starter who suited up as a true freshman last season for OSU. I'm not sure he's made huge strides as a sophomore but injuries may have gotten in the way. Burke has missed a couple games this season but returned to log 55 snaps against Maryland, so he should be all set to go. Brown had more extended injury troubles, exiting against Michigan State and not returning until Indiana and not playing a starter's workload until last weekend. I think both Burke and Brown are fine, but they are definitely not a vintage OSU CB tandem (think Okudah/Arnette or Conley/Lattimore). JK Johnson played quite a bit in the absence of Brown and it did not go well, with Johnson being OSU's worst defensive player in my estimation against Penn State. True freshman Jyaire Brown has gotten some spot duty as well and his PFF grades are decent. Jordan Hancock has played here and there and has not been good either. In other words, OSU really prefers to have Burke/Brown on the field because the other options are either bad, inexperienced, or both. 

OSU rolls with three "safeties", all given fancy names by Jim Knowles. At "nickel safety" is Tanner McCalister, a transfer who Knowles brought with him from the other OSU. He's been alright, as he was in the Big 12. Not cyan level but not quite "good" either. The other two safeties are pretty good. Those would be "adjuster" (free safety) Ronnie Hickman and "bandit" (strong safety) Lathan Ransom. Hickman is OSU's leader in snaps on the season, an every-down horse who has been very good in coverage and pretty solid in run defense as well. Ransom also plays an awful lot and has received stellar PFF grades in addition to a solid outing in my PSU charting. I didn't quite think he was star level but both Hickman and Ransom can play. The starters on the back-end are definitely stronger than the cover corners for the Buckeyes. Though Hickman and Ransom don't leave the field much, if they do, Cameron Martinez or veteran Josh Proctor will probably come on. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Is the OSU defense fixed?]

Previously: Quarterback, Running Backs, Receivers, Offensive Line

Now we move to the defensive side of the football, where things will begin to change a bit. Maryland will see a mighty fall at many positional groups, while Iowa will likely rise and plenty more shakeups will occur. Much like the OL, I will be blending PFF grades with my own charting when we move into opponents on the schedule from last fall. One more note: for this piece, I'm considering defensive lines to be interior DL and EDGE players, so both traditional DEs and standup pass rushers who some teams call "OLBs". 

12. Hawaii 

The turnover from Todd Graham to Timmy Chang has been felt most severely on the defensive side of the ball for Hawaii, where they return just one starter on the defensive line and have a single player on this depth chart who played more than 100 snaps a year ago... yikes! Blessman Ta'ala might win the best name of the enemy series, and he is also a quality defensive tackle who takes on double teams well. That's about it in terms of projectable talent though; the rest will likely be rough. John Tuitupou is the other projected defensive tackle, an upperclassman but one without a ton of experience. He played only 95 snaps a year ago (though he was solid in those snaps). Andrew Faoliu transfers in from Oregon, having had a small role in 2019-20 before not playing last season. Mataio Soli arrives at the other end spot from Arkansas, playing just 65 snaps a year ago but the former 4* pedigree helps a little I guess. ​​​​​​Farther down the depth chart you find another transfer name in Jojo Falo, coming in from Air Force, as well as Andrew Choi, who was on the scout team last season.

This is a pretty grim situation and the Rainbow Warriors were a pretty easy decision to slot in 12th. They have little returning production, little program continuity, and little experience overall. Most teams should be able to go around Ta'ala by targeting the rest of the line and finding great success doing it. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: guess which Rutgers DE is now with a non-con opponent]

Label Notes: Reminder that I’m combining all scores (except QB) in the charting. p=pass pro, y=YAC, c=catch, b=block for RBs, and route=route. It might be more than one or an odd number, in which case the higher one goes first, so if you see something like “Wilson(+3croute) that means Wilson got a +2 for a difficult catch and +1 for running a good route. Capital letters in the formations refer to skill positions: R=RB or tailback, S=superback (2nd RB), Y=inline TE, F=off-line TE, X=split end (WR on weak side), Z=flanker (WR on strong side), H=Slot.

Formation Notes: Michigan spent much of its day in Gun Wk Z Tight, which is just Twins but a WR tight to the line instead of a tight end, then mostly ran to the backside of this. As you can see in the same clip, Ohio State broke out a Bear front that I called Hurricane in the charting. The number after is how many safeties they left high, e.g. Hurricane 1:

Substitution Notes: Trueblueintexas had the snap counts. Six McCarthy snaps. Line was Hayes-Keegan-Vastardis-Zinter-Stueber the whole way (no Filiaga). All got the most important snaps but was still a little lame and Schoonmaker closed it out with Honigford and two Selzer snaps.

[After THE JUMP: Anyone who tries to make you feel bad about reveling in this is a sad person who never has to be listened to ever again.]