With eight starters gone — seven of whom currently sit on NFL rosters and three were first-round draft picks — and a new co-coordinator, it’s hard to imagine Ohio State’s defense being as good as it was a year ago. There’s just too much talent that needs to be replaced.
Don’t tell that to redshirt junior linebacker Chris Worley, though.
“Coach Meyer doesn’t change the expectation and the other coaches don’t as well,” Worley said Tuesday morning following the Buckeyes’ third practice of fall camp. “That’s the bar. Either you reach it or you have to get out.”
The bar Worley referred to is currently set quite high for Ohio State as all of that departed talent made for quite a defensive unit in 2015. The Buckeyes ranked ninth nationally in total defense (311.3 yards per game) and were second in scoring defense (15.1 points per game) last season.
But even with the likes of Joey Bosa, Eli Apple, Darron Lee, Vonn Bell, Adolphus Washington and more gone, Ohio State insists the expectation level for the defense has not shifted for this upcoming 2016 season.
“We set an expectation so there’s no wondering or a ‘that might be big shoes to fill,’ Buckeyes linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell said. “There’s a standard set. That’s what we expect you to live up to. That’s hard, that’s tough, but that’s kind of the way we work around here.”
The players Ohio State plans to use to replace its departed superstars are not short on talent. Worley and Dante Booker are pegged to fill in for Lee and Joshua Perry at linebacker; Malik Hooker and Damon Webb figure to replace Bell and Tyvis Powell at safety; Sam Hubbard is in line to replace Bosa at defensive end. The list goes on.
The majority of those players were all highly recruited coming out of high school. They have the talent, but they just haven't had an opportunity yet as they've sat behind "a monster," as Urban Meyer called it, for the last two seasons.
The Buckeyes also have a new co-defensive coordinator working alongside Fickell. Greg Schiano replaced Chris Ash following the end of last season when Ash went took the head coaching job at Rutgers.
When asked if there would be anything different about Ohio State's defense this year with Schiano, Worley cracked a smile.
“Yeah," he said. "But I can’t really talk about it."
"There are some changes," he continued. "Since I’ve been here, we’ve tried to change the defense every year. You don’t want to get stuck doing the same stuff. You’ve got to change some things.”
Some minor tweaks to the defense might be the way Ohio State gets its defense back to the level it played at for the majority of last season. It surely won't be a finished product by the season opener Sept. 3, but it will be expected to be playing at that high level by mid-season.
"I think we just have to get used to playing each other," Booker said. "A lot of young guys out there, but it's fun so far. We're fast out there, got a lot of electricity but it's only Day 3. As it gets a little harder we might have to slow up a little bit but we gotta keep pushing."
