Chris Worley started his first game as a Buckeye the last time Ohio State took on a service academy.
The Buckeyes defeated Navy, 34-17, in their 2014 season opener, a game that featured 370 rushing yards by the Midshipmen and just two pass completions for 20 yards.
Worley, who started ahead of Josh Perry and made five tackles in the win over Navy three years ago, said he expects Ohio State's upcoming game against Army to have a similar feel when it comes to the flow of the game.
"It is a different kind of rugged," Worley said Tuesday. "It is not like a (Michigan) game where they are running power football, where the guard is pulling downhill. It's not that kind of feel, but it is still a rugged game. Cut blocks, and all the eye candy they do, all of that stuff, it is rugged in its own sense."
Worley, who collected a career-high 11 tackles in Saturday's 31-16 loss to Oklahoma, isn't the only one on Ohio State's sideline that has seen the triple option offense up close.
"It is not like a (Michigan) game where they are running power football, where the guard is pulling downhill. It's not that kind of feel, but it is still a rugged game."– Chris Worley on defending the triple option.
Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano coached against the service academies multiple times during his time at Rutgers. In fact, Schiano's Scarlet Knights faced either Army or Navy in each of his 11 seasons with Rutgers, compiling a record of 13-2 against the two schools combined.
Even though Army has completed just one pass for positive yards this season, Schiano said the Buckeyes cannot be lulled to sleep by the Black Knights' constant rush attack.
"You're going to get cut, you have to get off cut blocks. In a regular football game there might be a couple cuts. In this game, there could be 40," Schiano said. "What (Army) counts on is two or three big plays in the pass game. They get the run game going, get you off your assignment, then hit a pass."
Schiano added that despite not playing the Black Knights until Week 3, the Buckeyes have prepared for this game since the offseason.
"We trained for this triple option in the summer and in (fall) camp," Schiano said. "It is not (like) we just started this week. If you did (that) you have no chance to defend it."
Schiano also echoed head coach Urban Meyer's comments from Monday and said the Buckeyes are focusing all of their energy on Army's triple option despite the struggles in Ohio State's pass defense.
He added that the Buckeyes will dive back into fixing their issues in the secondary as soon as the contest against Army is over. Despite losing to FCS opponent Howard in Week 1, Ohio State's Week 4 opponent UNLV has the 12th-ranked offense in the country in terms of total yardage.
"We will deal more with regular football on Sunday when we get done with the Army game," Schiano said. "(Playing Army) is a totally different thing. It is not like anything else we see all year. When we make the corrections in full form, it will be Sunday."
