The defensive rotations employed by the Ohio State coaching staff in last year’s season opener raised some eyebrows.
More specifically, it was the rapid nature with which the Buckeyes switched out a significant portion of their on-field personnel on a play-to-play basis that caused concern. By the end of Ohio State’s 45-31 road win over Minnesota, 18 defensive players logged at least 15 snaps, and that was during a game in which the Buckeyes could hardly clear the bench given the relatively close score throughout. Even more players would have likely seen regular action had veterans like Cam Brown, Sevyn Banks and Jerron Cage been available.
Given the preference of new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and the experience possessed by many of Ohio State’s top defensive players, you can expect that to change in 2022 – at least on the back end of the Buckeye defense.
“I think now we have a better feel for who guys are, where they are in their careers, and they have experience. Going into last year because the whole COVID thing, certainly all the linebackers were green and same thing with a couple of the safeties,” Ryan Day said at a press conference Monday. “And up front, it wasn't really an experienced group. This year, a little bit different. So I think we have a better feel for where everybody's at and guys will start to build some roles.
“I do think you still have to ask yourself, is this person game ready for this first game? Are we going to trust him to put him in the game? If the answer is yes, then we'll still have multiple guys play the position. But I think it won't nearly be as much as last year.”
A projected lack of frequent defensive substitutions stands in contrast to the recent comments made by Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson, who said last week the Buckeyes might play as many as 12 defensive linemen in a single game this season. But Knowles said that group may be something of an outlier on the defense when it comes to its depth of talent, which lessens his concerns about a deeper rotation on the front line.
“I feel we are so deep and so talented up front that you could really name any of them. And I'm not trying to be political there, but we really have a lot of depth, a lot of talent, a lot of guys that are willing to go hard and play hard,” Knowles said Monday. “So you're gonna see a lot of guys play and you're gonna see a lot of guys make plays.”
Knowles also believes there’s a difference between rotating up front and rotating along the back seven of the defense. While he has no issue allowing Johnson to keep his unit fresh, especially considering the loaded nature of his position room, Knowles doesn’t share the same philosophy when it comes to the Buckeye linebackers and defensive backs.
“The system is set up that those units can operate independently. And certainly your front line troops, so to speak, they are taking the brunt of the attack all the time. So it's good when you have a lot of depth there,” Knowles said. “We want our front to be fresh, we want to play a lot of guys. In the back end, I think you need to get into more of a flow with the game and the adjustments and how they're running their routes and their motion and chips and all those things. So I feel like it's more important that those guys are in there and they see everything. But we rotate freely up front, that's great.”
Secondary depth was a concern for Knowles just a couple weeks ago, as Brown, Jordan Hancock, Ryan Turner and Jantzen Dunn were all either limited or held out of practice entirely when the media was permitted to watch practice on Aug. 11. But Knowles said Monday that most of Ohio State’s cornerbacks have returned to action, and Day expects the Buckeyes to be at full strength in the secondary before the season opener on Sept. 3.
Depth at safety was a question for the Buckeyes in the spring, as Josh Proctor, Lathan Ransom and Kourt Williams all dealt with injuries of varying degrees during camp. But all are now full-go during the preseason as the unit appears to be a strength for Ohio State ahead of the season.
Knowles kept his rotations tight during his years at Oklahoma State, but given the talent on hand in Columbus, he may allow for a little more wiggle room in that regard during his first year at the helm of the Ohio State defense.
“I think we have a little more depth here,” Knowles said. “I think it's still going to swing more to the top group, but we do have more depth here than I've had in the past, so there'll be more guys that play.”
Day said the multiple personnel groupings utilized in Knowles’ complex scheme could allow some players to “grab onto some roles more than we've had in the past.” That figures to materialize in the form of several hybrid positions Knowles likes to use, depending on the play call and circumstance of the game.
The Jack position has been well-publicized since news broke about Knowles’ hiring, but the 35-year coaching veteran also appears to have big plans for some of his safeties in roles that will see them in different spots on the field.
“I think we have guys who can be combo guys, true combo guys. You have a combo guy who's a D-line/linebacker combo guy, but the tougher one to find is the combo guy who's a DB/linebacker,” Knowles said. “You look at Kourt and he's got a real shot in that role. So you can have him in the game and he could be a linebacker or at the same time he could be a safety. So it doesn't give away your hand as much.”
No matter how Knowles splits up his rotations on the back end, he plans to do so in the best interest of the Buckeyes’ success while maximizing the talent he has at his disposal on defense this season.
“You have to feel confident with them playing at any time, right? Because if you're a backup, you're one play away. So you got to be confident with them playing at any time,” Knowles said. “But then you have the other part of control. This is a tough game to control from a defensive standpoint, right? I mean, we're playing defense, and by that nature, you're not in control. You try to take back control. I think we do that well with some of our aggressiveness. The TFLs, the sacks, that's our way of taking back control.
“But we do have control over substitution and how you can get a guy in a certain situation so that he'll succeed.”
