Of 130 FBS teams, 71 allowed fewer yards-per-play than Ohio State did last fall.
After decades of regularly featuring a defense in the top 20 nationally, last year's Buckeye unit struggled to slow down the opposition. In 7 of 14 contests, offenses averaged over 6 yards a snap against the 2018 Silver Bullets, and although the team was crowned Big Ten champions, it was denied a spot in the College Football Playoff for the second consecutive year thanks in large part to the unit's perceived failures.
Now, with coordinator Greg Schiano replaced by the brain trust of Greg Mattison and Jeff Hafley, many fans will watch Saturday's season-opening clash with high hopes and even higher standards. Although the OSU offense must replace eight starters, those same supporters have faith that Ryan Day and his staff on that side of the ball will continue their record-setting ways, leaving the pressure on the defense to live up to the same level of excellence.
But after 8 long months of waiting, the squad may not look entirely different to both casual observers and experts alike. At least, not at first.
First Downs
After relying heavily on man-coverage with a single, deep safety in the middle of the field for the past three seasons, many welcomed the change to a variety of pattern-match coverages. On first downs, however, the Buckeyes will likely line up with a nearly identical look to the one Schiano called upon regularly.
Despite a great deal of excitement for the hybrid Bullet defender, replacing the SAM linebacker and lining up in the alley over a slot receiver, it's unlikely that anyone will line up in that spot in typical 1st-&-10 situations. When expecting a run, we'll likely see the Buckeyes in a 4-3 alignment with Shaun Wade at Cover Safety, which is essentially a Nickelback in this look, lining up over the slot and employing man coverage with the rest of the secondary.
According to starting cornerback Jeffrey Okudah, “Shaun's a really interesting player because he's so versatile as far as he's shown that he's going to make plays at cornerback, shown that he can make plays at nickel and he's shown that he can play safety.”
For those questioning why Mattison and Hafley would replicate the mistakes of the past, their version of the same scheme would allow the three linebackers to keep their eyes strictly in the backfield instead of chasing motion and finding themselves out of position. Instead, the defense will keep seven defenders in the box and rely on the athleticism of their four starting defensive backs to take away the pass with blanketing coverage.
“You'll see us press,” Hafley said. “I just don't think it will be on every single play, you won't press.”
Medium Passing Downs
Assuming they hold their opponents to a short gain on first down, then Mattison and Hafley will likely begin mixing things up. The first move on 2nd or 3rd-&-long will likely be to bring the Bullet onto the field, leaving just two traditional linebackers in a 4-2-5 alignment.
“Remember now, in our scheme there's a lot of different packages,” Mattison said earlier this month. “There's a nickel package, regular package, bullet package, penny package, there's all kinds of things.”
With this additional speed on the field, Hafley can employ a variety of coverages, but he'll often begin by lining up both safeties 12 yards off the ball. From there, the physical Bullet can fill a gap if the offense still decides to run with plenty of coverage downfield.
But as both coordinators have proclaimed publicly on more than one occasion, the Buckeyes will show a number of looks to keep opponents off-balance. Thanks to the versatility of players like Wade and Bullets Brendon White and Jahsen Wint, the unit can substitute with ease and employ a variety of looks.
“It lets us be more creative,” Hafley said of their versatility. “It lets us do more things, especially situationally. Maybe third down, you can get a little bit more creative."
Long Passing Downs
One such look is the use of a 3-1-7 Dollar package.
In such a package, a plethora of defensive backs would be on the field, with the Bullet, a Dimeback (similar to the Bullet), and a Dollarback (which is more like a true cornerback) allowing the unit to call both man and match coverages while sending pressure from anywhere to complement the three down linemen. Though Florida Atlantic should provide a challenge to the Buckeyes in their first contest under Mattison and Hafley, the Owls' diverse spread attack should give the Silver Bullets plenty of opportunities to show off these new looks.
But while this recipe may be the initial plan, the formula will likely change throughout the course of the season.
“I think it all depends on the type of offense we’re going to go up against,” White said. “So if it’s more of a passing offense, we’ll see me out there. If it’s more of a running offense, we’ll see [SAM linebacker] Pete [Werner] out there. And if it’s multiple tight ends, me and Pete will both be out there at the same time. So it really all depends on what the offense throws at us.”
With so many options at their fingertips, it's clear that Mattison and Hafley plan on showing a multitude of looks this season. Despite having built a different identity under the previous coaching regime, it seems that the players have bought into this philosophy.
“I wasn't used to playing so much zone, so it was kind of difficult at first to, 'OK, we're going to play more zone than we have in the past,'" Okudah said. "But once we've seen the results that come from that, it's kind of hard to go back to 'Let's play press man nine out of 10 snaps.'"
