The last time Ohio State opened spring practice, there were a boatload of questions when it came to the defensive side of the ball.
Would 2014 finally be Curtis Grant's time? Or would he get bypassed by the crown jewel of Urban Meyer's most recent recruiting class, five-star Raekwon McMillan? Would the back end thrive in the perceived "overhaul" of the entire unit? Would Joshua Perry take more of a leadership role to quarterback the defense? And, who in the world is this freak athlete known as Darron Lee?
All those questions and more were answered by season's end, as the Buckeyes performed better on that side of the ball than they ever had in Meyer's tenure. The group's development is an essential reason as any that Ohio State won the national title.
Grant is one of four starters gone from that unit, leaving the majority of it to return for another year in the fast, in-your-face press coverage style implemented by Chris Ash and company.
While the cornerbacks and safeties are likely to become increasingly more comfortable with another year in the scheme under their belt, its the Buckeye linebackers that believe and are expected to be better than they were last year. Even without 2014 defensive leader and team captain Grant barking out instructions.
"When you turn on the film, we did a good job as a defense but there were a lot of things that you look at when you're like, 'Man if we eliminate that, we'll take it to the next level,'" Perry said Thursday. "The good thing is we're not just installing our defense for the first time this spring. We're going over it, we're making adjustments with it, we're able to make some of the calls that we couldn't make last year.
"We're able to add a few change-ups which is what's going to help us a lot too. It's going to have offenses wondering where we're going to be and we're going to be able to move around a little bit more. All that definitely helps being in the second year in the system."
Much like anything, spending time doing something allows you to fine-tune your skills and get better. But at Ohio State, a place that just won its eighth national championship, the battle against complacency is going to be a recurring theme in 2015.
"Too often, sometimes, you get in a position where you think you’re the guy and you don’t continue to grow," linebackers coach Luke Fickell said. "We mean grow in every way, not just grow on the football field but grow in your leadership styles and the things you do. We’ve just gotta keep pushing."
Fickell's biggest project this spring is rounding McMillan into shape in order to avoid a drop off from a leadership standpoint in the middle of the defense. The talent in the entire unit is there, but the production in the new scheme must be better from the get-go in Year Two than it was in Year One.
"Last year was different as a defense because we were establishing a culture as a defense," Lee said. "Now it’s just perfecting the craft and perfecting technique."
As Ohio State sits atop the college football world, fighting the dreaded feeling of complacency has already brought a slew of new inquiries this spring.
Do the Buckeyes have the wherewithal to put what they did last year behind them? Can McMillan step in and be a leader? Will Ohio State be able to create depth defensively, especially at linebacker?
"You’ve got new guys like Nick Conner, you’ve got guys like Craig Fada, all these guys. We’ve gotta build a unit of seven, eight deep that we can legitimately put out there," Fickell said. "You can’t do that with just the same guys being there the whole time and not putting pressure on the guys below them to make sure they can move up.”
Added Perry: "Now, we're a few practices in and we're installing some other stuff. We got change-up calls now and we're working on just the little things. So you could say we're a little bit, kind of I guess, a spring ahead."
Fickell said keeping his guys, especially McMillan, uncomfortable is going to be crucial for this spring because it'll exhibit the need to improve. It's getting them to buy in, though, that's key.
"The guys in the front rows do understand that. The Joshua Perrys of the world, they saw the struggles of Curtis Grant, they saw the struggles that we went through for a couple years," Fickell said. "Some of those guys like Raekwon and some of the others haven't seen those struggles. We talk to them about it. History — if you don't learn from it you're bound to repeat it. It's near and dear, but the bigger thing is we gotta make sure we don't focus on it but we use it as something to grow from."
