Haskell Garrett challenged Zach Harrison to a friendly competition at the Buckeyes’ final padded practice before last weekend’s Akron game.
The parameters were simple, and hardly out of the norm for two veteran starters on the Ohio State defensive line.
“I told Zach, I was like, ‘I bet you I can get to the quarterback before you,’” the fifth-year senior defensive tackle said Tuesday.
Garrett said he won the battle, which might be indicative of a growing trend for the Buckeye defensive front. For better or worse, Larry Johnson’s interior linemen are ruling the roost when it comes to pass-rush production this season. Garrett and the defensive tackles have 10 combined sacks through four games, while Harrison and the Ohio State defensive ends have just two to their credit.
“We gotta thank the D-ends, to be honest," fifth-year senior defensive tackle Jerron Cage said Wednesday. "They’re top of the top notch. Even though they’re not producing, we’re producing for them because they get all the attention. For years, the defensive ends at Ohio State have been glorious, glorified and everything. And they produce in the league, too.”
Producing high-profile edge rushers has been a calling card for Johnson at Ohio State, with Chase Young and the Bosa brothers having all been drafted within a four-year window. However, the heightened sack production coming from the inside of the line is not as new a revelation as you might think.
It’s been four years since the top two sacks leaders at Ohio State at the end of a season were both edge rushers. Ever since 2017, a defensive tackle has been among the top two leaders in sacks each year for the Buckeyes, with only two defensive ends appearing in the top six in 2019.
Former Buckeye tackle Dre’Mont Jones trailed only Chase Young with 8.5 sacks in 2018, and without Young’s record-setting 16.5-sack season the following year, DaVon Hamilton would have been the Buckeyes’ sacks leader in 2019 with six. Defensive end Jonathan Cooper led the Buckeyes with 3.5 sacks during the shortened 2020 season, but defensive tackle Tommy Togiai and Garrett were not far behind, tallying three and two, respectively.
“It’s always been the defensive ends had the spotlight,” Garrett said. “We have a competition on the D-line. We’re all racing to get to the quarterback, so now that we have more production coming from the inside, it’s just competing. Every day is just competing.”
The Buckeye DTs are winning that competition by a landslide so far during the 2021 season. After Johnson applied pressure on his unit to step up its struggling pass-rush efforts, the Ohio State defensive line responded against Akron, sacking Zip quarterbacks a total of nine times to more than double the team’s previous season sack total.
Garrett led the way with three, true freshman Tyleik Williams finished with a pair, and by the end of the night, defensive tackles had accounted for eight of the nine sacks. The lone defensive end to record a sack was freshman Jack Sawyer, although Harrison did have one wiped away by a defensive holding call on Sevyn Banks in the first half.
As things stand through the first third of the regular season, Ohio State’s top three sacks leaders are all defensive tackles. Garrett and Williams are tied for first place with three apiece, and sixth-year senior Antwuan Jackson is the only other player on the team with two.
When they needed him most, Tyleik Williams delivered
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 18, 2021
The @OhioStateFB true freshman forces Tulsa into a 17-yard loss pic.twitter.com/ciwuBS5Axr
Besides those three, Ty Hamilton and Cage are two of five defensive tackles to have recorded sacks this year – both against Akron – while Harrison and Sawyer are the lone defensive ends to do so. And make no mistake, Garrett is keeping a running tally as far as sacks go.
“I want to say there’s two from the ends, and most of the nine came from the inside guys on Saturday,” Garrett said. “It never used to always be like that, but it’s like I said, competing. We push each other and raise the bar each and every day and each and every week.”
It’s something Garrett said is talked about a lot, but while it might be a positive sign for the tackles, it also points to deficiencies on the edge.
Harrison, a five-star prospect in 2019, still has fewer sacks in the past two seasons than he had as a true freshman for Ohio State (3.5). Tyreke Smith, a senior starter for the Buckeyes, is credited with just one sack since the start of 2020, and so is redshirt junior Javontae Jean-Baptiste. Neither of the latter two have a sack so far this season, although they both missed the Akron game with injuries.
Williams’ early flashes of brilliance have earned him more time on the field at tackle, and Sawyer and fellow five-star freshman J.T. Tuimoloau may do the same if they can produce.
Until the entire group can impact upcoming Big Ten games in similar fashion to the dominance it showed against Akron, last weekend’s performance could still be questioned as a potential outlier by either position up front. Still, the last time out was a promising sign for Garrett and the Buckeye defensive tackles nonetheless.
“It’s just gratifying to see what we can do,” Garrett said. “It’s competing. The ends really drive us, and now it’s just going back and forth and competing.”
