Much has been said about the Leo position since Jim Knowles transferred from Stillwater to Columbus, but very little of it came from members of the Ohio State program as of Tuesday.
When asked about the hybrid linebacker/defensive finishing position—a calling card of Knowles’ previous defense at Oklahoma State and Duke—buckeye players were deliberately silent this spring.
“The lion? Yeah, I don’t know what the lion is, I honestly don’t know what you guys are talking about,” sophomore Jack Sawyer jokingly told The Defender last week. “I haven’t heard from Leo yet. Have you heard of Leo? I did not. To be honest we haven’t done much with it yet. So I honestly can’t really give you (much about it).
At least in the first week of spring training, Knowles made it clear that the Buckeyes wouldn’t be concerned about implementing the position early, as the team still had work to do to drill the fundamentals out of its four-down base look. But three weeks later, Ohio State has started wrapping up the package, and its name — Jack, for now, not Leo — happens to reflect the player who seems to be the top contender for the role at the moment.
“We actually threw in a bunch of these today,” Knowles said. “So my plan was to withdraw, withdraw, so I download a lot of information and then withdraw to call the same defense for a while and then download a lot of information. We want to be able to get everything on film so we can coach from it. But we installed it today.
“I told them we’re not going to call it the lion, we’re going to call it Jack for now because the lion is the king of the jungle. So if you go Leo, that’s a big deal because you can do what a D-end does and you do what a linebacker does. So right now it’s more of what we call a jack position.
“A bunch of guys tried today. Jack (Sawyer) tried. I like him, I like him a lot. He is serious.”
In addition to Sawyer, another player Knowles currently likes on the Jack spot is Mitchell Melton, a redshirt sophomore who suffered last year. At 6ft 3 and 245 pounds, Melton’s physique is shorter than Sawyer’s but taller than most linebackers on the Buckeye list.
“The guy who quickly impressed me after moving was Mitchell (Melton). Mitchell did a great job for Coach Johnson and then we put him in that Jack position and I thought he showed himself very well,” Knowles said. “So he was kind of a guy who jumped at me.”
Melton was also the youngest recipient of Knowles’ new Silver Bullet of the Day award, given to an individual Buckeye defender after each day of padded practice, as voted by the staff.
The summit drives us, but the ascent itself counts
Konrad Anker
@m17m__ #RushMen #Strengh and honor pic.twitter.com/AkcmOHjLlP— Jim Knowles (@CoachJimKnowles) March 29, 2022
But Sawyer and Melton aren’t the only two Buckeyes to have seen reps at the jack position, as it seems Knowles isn’t afraid to try a ton of different body types in the hybrid site depending on the alignment or the matchup or the circumstances. Along with the aforementioned pair, Knowles said, Javontae Jean-Baptiste, Caden Curry and Palaie Gaoteote all tried their hand at the jack on Tuesday.
“JJB, he played a bit today, he’s kinda recovering from an injury so he did some walkthrough replays. Caden (Curry) is a contender, I’ve liked some of the things he’s done in terms of his speed on the ball, so he’s a guy we’re looking at. And then from the linebacker position, EA, let’s try to find a role for him,” Knowles said. “So we had EA involved in that jack position, then also in a sam position, which we sometimes use against teams when they’re playing two tight ends, which our offense does a little bit. So we brought EA in there.”
Knowles said JT Tuimoloau could play the jack position “eventually” but “it’s all about who’s the best and who’s also the best up front”.
At the origin of the hybrid position that Knowles popularized, the 35-year college coaching veteran said it was designed primarily to influence the running game of an opposing offense but has evolved into a role that one Diversity creates effects on the opposition.
“It definitely started out as a run scheme disruptor,” Knowles said. “You talk to offensive coaches and they have to make different plans for three-down than four-down and what are you and can you do both with the same staff? So it starts as a run game interrupter and then moves on to how to attack guards. Now all of a sudden once you got the guy to move you put him in different places now you see how the offense adjusts to that and their plans and you can come back with other things and counter in the passing game.
“This player is prolific in terms of pass rushing because I think he’s developing a wild card mentality, a play-making guy. I think it’s a great recruiting tool. But yeah, it started in the running game.”
Having slowly begun to implement new concepts, Knowles knows he needs to get the Buckeyes up and running relatively quickly because he expects to be able to turn around on defense right away. But he also knows it can be overwhelming to overwhelm his players and he had to walk a fine line to even out that dynamic.
Still, Knowles said he only expects Buckeye defenders to know “two-thirds” of his defensive scheme by the end of spring.
“You just have to look them in the eye because someday we’re going to go in and download nine defenses in our jet pack, which is what we’re calling for the Jack,” Knowles said. “And then you do it against cans, you run around and just do it against bins, and then you do it against the offense. And then I run around like crazy and say, ‘Go here, go there.’ And then they’re fine, and then you kind of see their eyes glaze over, and then you know, OK, it’s time to just call base. ‘Give me a period of just base 4 down’ and then you kind of back off.
Ohio State is far from finished installing its new defenses, and with some concepts – including the Jack position – it’s really just getting started. But Knowles is accelerating the learning curve for his students as spring continues, and hopes to have the Buckeyes familiar with some of his system by the end of the spring game.
“I want to contribute everything because of the urgency but also so I can teach,” Knowles said. “I don’t want to continue showing Oklahoma State films. So I want to get it on tape, good or not so good, and then we can learn from it all summer. We can put everything together and learn from it.”