The Buckeye defense, now a full spring camp in Jim Knowles’ tenure at Ohio State, may actually be ahead of schedule as it continues to work toward a dramatic year-long reversal this offseason.
Both Knowles and Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said what the defense showed in Saturday’s spring game is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what the former Oklahoma State defense coordinator has in store for the 2022 season . After the exhibition, Knowles went as far as to say that the Buckeyes “didn’t really do anything” in the spring game — at least schematically. But even leading up to the intrasquad scrimmage, Knowles was already adamant that Ohio State was on track to meet its lofty goals this fall.
Knowles said the Buckeyes could be even further than he expected given they’re just over three months into his new post as “head defense coach” at Columbus.
“Going into the game, I felt great about how far we’d come, what we’d accomplished, how much we had installed and how the players were taking it,” Knowles said during his appearance at the post-spring press conference. “It was as good or better than I could have wished for.”
In his last meeting with media officials before the spring game, Knowles said on March 29 that the Buckeye line of defense was the area of defense that had impressed him most beyond his guesses when he took over the reins for Kerry Coombs and his company.
On Saturday, Knowles also had plenty of praise for the back end, although the Buckeyes’ pass coverage isn’t yet on midseason form after some changes to Ohio State’s fundamental approach to defensive back positions.
“I was very pleased. We continue to work on playing close to people, throwing shots and being aggressive with our coverage,” Knowles said of Ohio State’s cornerback game in the spring game. “And that’s maybe one small change for them and they are adapting to that. We are up against the best receiving corps in the country so I think it will continue to be a reason for them to get better because they see every day in training. And we will continue to practice aggressive reporting.”
The Buckeye secondaries finished Saturday’s scrimmage with 10 pass breakups, keeping CJ Stroud well below his 71.9 percent completion rate for 2021, while Devin Brown completed just 46 percent of his own attempts. Denzel Burke, Kye Stokes and Jordan Hancock all impressed with two PBUs each, and the latter two’s strong play was a particularly promising sign of the depth of the defensive backfield.
At Linebacker, Tommy Eichenberg showed why his name has been on the tip of the tongue for many of his coaches and teammates over the past few weeks, finishing with a playing 10 tackle to follow up on his stellar 17 tackle display in January’s Rose Bowl.
There may still be work to do before the rotation at center Ohio State’s defense is completely ironed out, as Steele Chambers, Cody Simon, Teradja Mitchell and Chip Trayanum will all be pushing for maximum playing time on the two inside linebacker positions in Knowles’ own room .
Up front, the Buckeye defense may have shone most in the spring game, as hinted at by Knowles a few weeks ago when the defense ended with six sacks — and likely a few others that should have been called — and 10 tackles for the loss .
Buckeye quarterback CJ Stroud went so far as to call Ohio State’s post-game defensive line “amazing,” and Knowles also had plenty of praise for the group in his post-game interview.
Rotation on the Ohio State defensive line isn’t well defined either, with pass rushers Jack Sawyer and sophomore JT Tuimoloau challenging veteran defensive ends Zach Harrison and Javontae Jean-Baptiste on the outside while the sophomore defensive against Tyleik Williams and Mike Hall Compete inside with veterans Jerron Cage, Taron Vincent and Ty Hamilton.
But Knowles isn’t too concerned about who sits at the front of the Week 1 depth chart.
“I don’t really care who starts, to be honest,” Knowles said. “Because we’re going to be playing a lot of guys up front and I want them to be fresh and I want them to be hungry and the more the merrier. And that whole group you mentioned, they could easily be beginners. I think they are that good.”
The biggest remaining concern for Knowles is safety, where despite his repeated compliments of new free safety Ronnie Hickman and the constant presence of Oklahoma State transfer Tanner McCalister at Nickel, depth has been a little light as a number of performers were injured.
Kourt Williams, who played Knowles’ security role as Bandit this spring, didn’t play in the spring game at all, while Josh Proctor – who appears to be making the switch from free security to Bandit – didn’t participate in the tackling portion of the show as he continues to be in the Rehab after breaking his leg at the end of last year’s season.
The talent has always been there for the Buckeyes, even if they haven’t lived up to expectations defensively for the past few seasons. But even more impressive for Knowles, and what he described as Spring’s key takeaway, is how quickly his new players were able to digest the large amount of information he threw at them during the rapid transition.
Knowles might not have fully dived into his bag of tricks on Saturday, but he sounded confident that his players have been able to learn all the complexities of his defense so far, and that’s a process that won’t continue until Columbus’ offseason progresses.
“The biggest revelation of spring was that these players that we have, regardless of their talent, want to learn. They soaked up everything I did,” Knowles said. “They just love it; in football, in us, in culture change and the way we hold meetings. You picked it up. I mean they took it at high speed.”