Imagine a Big Ten offensive coordinator walking into his team’s meeting room last fall to begin preparing the players for the personnel on Ohio State’s defense.
Surely, he’d have talked about a secondary that featured three first-round cornerbacks and a multi-year starting safety who hadn’t allowed any big players the entire season. He would have mentioned an interior defensive line led by DaVon Hamilton that included multiple rotational tackles. A veteran, versatile linebacker corps led by Pete Werner and Malik Harrison would have been top of mind, too. But one player’s name – Chase Young – would have come out of the offensive coordinator’s mouth an innumerable amount of times.
Chase Young, Chase Young, Chase Young, Chase Young, Chase Young.
“Obviously Chase was an amazing player, and replacing him isn't going to be easy,” Jonathon Cooper said on Friday.
No, no it won’t.
Young put together arguably the best defensive season in Ohio State history despite sitting out two games while suspended. He racked up 16.5 sacks, the most by a Buckeye in one season ever, while accumulating enough hype to get voted as a Heisman Trophy finalist. The 6-foot-5, 264-pound physical marvel forced seven fumbles, batted down three passes and secured 21.5 tackles for loss.
Last year, Young was the talk of college football and opposing offensive coordinators. Now, he’s in the NFL, where he already has 2.5 sacks across two games, and Ohio State has to move on.
There’s an understandable reason, though, why Cooper has a feeling of optimism in the Buckeyes’ edge rushers.
“I'm very confident in our guys and the way that they stepped up,” Cooper said. “We've got Tyreke (Smith), Zach (Harrison), Javontae (Jean-Baptiste), Tyler Friday. That's just the defensive ends on the outside who have really stepped up their game, at least that I've seen, and are ready to take on a bigger role.”
In Cooper and the four defensive ends he named, Ohio State has an abundance of potential. Just go back and look at their recruiting rankings, which of course aren’t always perfect but offer an idea of what to expect at the collegiate level.
- Harrison: No. 12 overall, No. 4 defensive end in 2019
- Cooper: No. 33 overall, No. 7 defensive end in 2016
- Smith: No. 34 overall, No. 6 defensive end in 2018
- Friday: No. 93 overall, No. 6 defensive tackle in 2018
- Jean-Baptiste: No. 219 overall, No. 16 outside linebacker in 2018
Harrison was a 6-foot-6 gazelle of a defensive end even in high school. Cooper and Smith teetered on five-star status. Friday came to Columbus after a tough-fought recruiting battle against Michigan. Jean-Baptiste needed to put on weight in order to turn into a Big Ten defensive end, but his athleticism and frame were Harrison-esque.
Yet, in 11 years as Buckeyes so far, they have recorded a combined 17.5 sacks and 27.5 tackles for loss. They barely have as many sacks in their careers as Young had in a shortened 2019 season.
Plenty of potential. Not enough production. At least, that’s been the story of that defensive end quintet thus far.
In order for the Buckeyes to again put forth one of the nation’s top defenses, defensive line coach Larry Johnson will need a collective step forward from his edge rushers. A big one.
Ohio State lost both its star pass-rushing defensive end and three of its four starting defensive backs in the offseason. Considering the way the program has recruited for the past few years, nobody’s losing their minds about how the 2020 team will stop passing attacks. Too many one-time four-star and five-star prospects litter the roster and enough pieces return from a defense that allowed a nation-low 259.7 yards per game last season to go overboard with concern.
But none of the offseason losses can go overlooked, either, when projecting how the defense will perform in 2020. It’s reasonable to expect somewhat of a step back, especially against the pass, from a side of the ball that lost eight starters to the NFL. How much of a step back? A negligible one or a noticeable one? That, we don’t know yet. And that, of course, will be determined by how many strides those in the secondary and, importantly, at defensive end have taken.
There’s no 2020 version of Chase Young on this roster. In other words, don’t expect any Ohio State defensive end to be a Heisman finalist this year.
But as Cooper says, Ohio State’s not trying that method anyway. The defensive ends understandably have a broader view.
“You know, we're not just one player,” Cooper said. “We're the Rushmen. So we rush together. I feel like us all coming back who are better, who have seen time in the game and had playing time is really going to step up for this year.”
The Rushmen’s most important piece might be Harrison, a rising sophomore who could find himself in line for a breakout season after 3.5 sacks as a freshman. He entered Ohio State with a boatload of expectations and, as evidenced by his start in the Fiesta Bowl, impressed Johnson in 2019.
Smith was a breakthrough candidate a year ago but dealt with injuries and secured only three sacks. Much of the hope in Columbus will be that he and Harrison can get after quarterbacks with more consistency than ever before.
Cooper’s a bit of a dark horse after redshirting due to a nagging ankle injury last fall. He’s never had more than 2.5 sacks in a single season, yet he also hasn’t played a fully healthy season in multiple years.
Friday offers some versatility as someone who can rush from both the inside and outside, and Jean-Baptiste could finally be physically ready for a bigger role.
Without Young in Columbus anymore, it’ll be up to those five to create an edge-rushing prowess that again causes opposing offensive coordinators not to sleep at night.
