Six games, zero sacks for J.T. Tuimoloau. Despite having played the most snaps of any Ohio State defensive end and the second-most of any Buckeye defensive lineman so far, seven players on the roster have more sacks than the five-star sophomore halfway through the regular season.
Tuimoloau’s defensive grade on Pro Football Focus (65.6) ranks below three other Ohio State defensive ends (Javontae Jean-Baptiste, Zach Harrison and Jack Sawyer), and of the 976 FBS players with at least a half-sack this season, Tuimoloau isn’t one of them.
But perhaps those stats don’t quite illustrate the whole picture. At least, not as far as Jim Knowles is concerned.
He's one of those guys that kind of makes things happen initially at the play, doesn't always get the credit. But he's making the ball redirect or the quarterback do something different right at the snap.”– Jim Knowles on J.T. Tuimoloau
The first-year Ohio State defensive coordinator spoke glowingly about the impact of the second-year pass rusher in Tuesday’s press conference at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, and said Tuimoloau’s statistical production has been slowed by some missed penalty calls and the nature of Knowles’ scheme.
While Tuimoloau has won plenty of matchups up front, Knowles said he’s also been held on a number of occasions and often occupies blocks that help free up other Buckeyes to make plays on opposing quarterbacks.
“J.T. is that combination of get-off quickness and strength kind of like Mike (Hall) has on the inside. I think J.T. has that on the outside. So he's being accounted for and uses up a lot of blocks, makes initial penetration a lot in the past rush,” Knowles said. “I'm sure you guys see it a lot of times that (he) draws holding calls or coulda-woulda-shoulda-been a holding call. He's one of those guys that kind of makes things happen initially at the play, doesn't always get the credit. But he's making the ball redirect or the quarterback do something different right at the snap.”
Hall has both created and taken advantage of more opportunities to touch the quarterback than any other Buckeye so far this season. The second-year defensive tackle paces Ohio State with 4.5 sacks through six games, and that total ranks 29th in the nation. Hall’s 39 sack yards are 14th-best in the country, and his 7.5 tackles for loss also lead the Buckeyes. And all of that has come with Hall playing in only five games this season and playing just seven defensive snaps in Ohio State’s latest game against Michigan State.
Only two Ohio State defensive ends, Sawyer and Jean-Baptiste, have recorded an official sack (two each). Beyond the interior linemen, Knowles’ scheme has freed up Buckeye linebackers Tommy Eichenberg and Steele Chambers to blitz the quarterback to great effect thus far. That pair has 3.5 sacks through six games, which is already more than the entire position group mustered a year ago.
Tuimoloau said Wednesday that dealing with holds from opposing offensive lines, whether they’re flagged or not, is “frustrating” but also “part of the game.” Tuimoloau said he’s learning to work around it in the course of the game, but didn’t deny his irritation.
But even beyond the holding calls, Tuimoloau knows there are elements of his game he needs to work on to start finishing plays like many expected he would this season.
“There's always things I got to improve on and just fix to keep climbing that ladder. I feel like I got better (since last season),” Tuimoloau said. “I feel like I got better on a lot of techniques. I think I just got to continue that.”
There’s no question Knowles’ defense, and the defensive line in particular, is impacting opposing pass attacks this year. Entering the seventh game of the year, Ohio State ranks seventh in the country in pass defense, allowing just 160.3 yards per game, even while cornerback play has been largely inconsistent for the Buckeyes.
But sacks have come less frequently for Knowles at Ohio State than they did for his 2021 Oklahoma State squad, which finished the year with the second-most in the country (56). The Buckeyes’ 14 sacks through six games are tied for 59th in the nation, although many teams have played an additional game while Ohio State was off this past weekend.
Still, the sack production Ohio State's garnered has skewed more toward Hall and the interior linemen than it has Buckeye edge rushers like Tuimoloau. According to Knowles, that hasn’t created any bitterness in the position room amid the Buckeyes’ 6-0 start.
“Coach (Larry) Johnson does a great job with those guys being one unit, one group, and it's the same way we're building the defense. It's just, all of us together are stronger than any of us apart, and it doesn't matter who gets the credit,” Knowles said. “That's tough in today's day and age because of social media and everything, but I think that when you look at football, it's the greatest team game there ever was and it's our job as coaches to uphold that.”
Tuimoloau echoed those sentiments from his first-year defensive coordinator on Wednesday.
“There's four guys on the D-line and we're all trying to cause havoc and if one of us gets a tackle, that's a win for all of us,” Tuimoloau said. “We did what we were supposed to do.”
Tuimoloau still has plenty of time – and perhaps the right opponents – to beef up his numbers before the end of the regular season. Iowa has allowed an average of three sacks a game to opposing defenses this year, and the Hawkeyes’ No. 110 national rank in that category is worse than any team Ohio State has faced so far. Upcoming opponents Indiana (tied for 110th) and Maryland (63rd) also rank in the bottom 68 teams in the FBS in average sacks allowed.
Either way, neither Tuimoloau nor Knowles seems too concerned about the former’s individual stats by season’s end, so long as the defensive line continues to excel.
“What you do as a group can carry impact for ages, where alone, your stats may be great, but what kind of lasting impact are they going to have on the culture? So Coach (Johnson) does a great job with those guys up front, so they're all in,” Knowles said. “They don't care who gets the glory.”
